How to Use the Hook Model to Make Your Content Irresistible

If you’re like me (or anyone I know), you probably spend way too much time on your phone. I do use my phone for some important things — like calling my grandmas, receiving invitations to glamorous parties, and reading intellectual highbrow essays in the London Review of Books. But, unfortunately, most of my phone use is spent compulsively scrolling through social media.

Of course, this doesn’t happen by accident. Those apps are meticulously designed to keep us coming back — and you can use the same approach to make your content irresistible.

Meet the Hook Model

The hook (or hooked) model — a term coined by author and behavioral designer Nir Eyal — explains how designers create habit-forming products. They guide users through a four-step loop: trigger, action, variable reward, and investment:

Trigger. This is what prompts a user to engage with the product. They start with an external cue, like a notification, which eventually becomes an internal nudge, like feeling bored or needing a distraction. Instagram, for example, might first send you a notification about a new tag, and eventually, you’ll start opening the app every time you’re waiting in line.
Action. What the user does in response to the trigger, like scrolling through a feed.
Variable reward. The user receives something in response to their action — think funny videos or desirable images. The reward is different each time and this novelty is addictive.
Investment. The user is prompted to do something that makes the product more valuable to the business and will encourage them to come back, like entering their preferences, subscribing, leaving a comment, or posting their own photos.

With each loop, the user’s attachment to the product grows as they create a habit.

1. Create Triggers Across Channels

Key takeaway: Increase your marketing surface area by engaging with your audience across multiple channels.

Triggers are how you prompt your audience to engage with your content. For digital apps, triggers might start as notifications, emails, or other external nudges, but over time, they evolve into internal, emotional prompts like boredom or curiosity.

Getting people to develop internal emotional triggers in response to your business marketing content is, in my opinion, a step too far. Instead, the goal is to create a steady stream of external triggers that remind people of your brand across multiple channels, ideally finding ways to latch your content onto your audience’s existing routines.

Buffer has developed multiple touchpoints for their audience across various platforms, including LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, and even Discord, with their “Creator Camp” challenge. That means their audience has multiple opportunities to get hooked into Buffer content. Similarly, Canva publishes tutorials and webinars on YouTube, along with tips and challenges on Instagram. This strategy catches people in apps where they already spend time and taps into their desire to learn new skills and improve their creative abilities.

To create effective triggers, try these steps:

Identify the existing routines or habits your audience already has and how your content can fit into them. Think of it as “habit stacking,” as James Clear describes in Atomic Habits — linking a new behavior to an existing habit. For example, sending out your newsletter or posting on LinkedIn helps catch people who are already in the habit of checking their emails and feed in the morning.
Target platforms where your audience already spends time. Social media is a natural fit for Buffer’s small business audience, who often use these platforms to promote their own brands. However, the ideal channels will vary. For example, one of our customers has found success by being active in specific subreddits that their audience regularly checks.
Increase your number of triggers strategically. Rather than posting too frequently on a single channel, expand your reach with a variety of touchpoints across different platforms. Give your audience multiple ways to engage without overwhelming them.

2. Make Taking Action Easy

Key takeaway: Make your content clickable and then deliver on the headline’s promise.

The action is what a user does in response to the trigger, like clicking on an article or hitting play on a video. To reduce resistance, that action should be as easy as possible for the user. Product designers spend time reducing friction to get users to click “Buy Now,” complete an onboarding flow, or share content with a friend.

Content marketers should aim to make the first impression of their content — whether that’s a blog post, social copy, or a video — easy to click on. A big part of this involves optimizing the overall user experience of your website, making it simple for users to discover and explore relevant content.

Notion does this well by crafting unique, clickable headlines that instantly spark interest. Titles like AI is the new plastic and How I manage diabetes with Notion are interesting enough to make me want to click. And they back up these intriguing titles with valuable content: new perspectives and practical templates. This reliability has earned my trust and lowers my resistance to opening the article — I know it’s more than just clickbait. When you have a large library of content, for instance a documentation hub, making that content easy to explore is especially difficult and especially important. Mon g oDB makes navigation intuitive by linking directly to key documentation areas in the navigation bar.

In the main resource hub, readers can quickly filter by product, capability, use case, or industry, allowing them to locate relevant content with minimal effort. Twilio also does a good job here by providing quick links that direct users to the most relevant resources, particularly for those visiting the hub for the first time.

To make it easy for your audience to engage with your content:

Write titles that immediately grab attention and clearly communicate the value of the content.
Follow up on the promise of your title. This builds trust, encouraging readers to engage with more of your content over time.
Make it easy for users to navigate your site and find relevant content. A smooth UX — including fast loading times, intuitive navigation, and accessible design — makes clicking on content easier. Take it one step further by serving personalized content recommendations based on users’ past interactions with your site.

3. Offer a Variable Reward

Key takeaway: Offer a novel reward in each piece of content.

The reward is what the user gets in response to the action. Eyal emphasizes that it’s the variation in the reward that keeps people coming back.

We might get excited by the fancy light in our new fridge turning on when we open it, but it quickly becomes boring because we know what will happen — open the door, light comes on.

If Instagram always served me exactly the same video of Franco Colapinto overtaking someone in an F1 race, I’d have no reason to open the app. But it’s a different one every time, so I’m hooked.

For content, these rewards might include a useful tool (think: templates, checklists, and calculators), new information, or a contrarian perspective that readers won’t find elsewhere. Each piece should offer something novel, so readers come away feeling rewarded for their engagement and motivated to come back for something different in the future.

Our CEO, Ty, shared a great example from his time at Appcues: the Ted’s Terrible Joke feature in each newsletter. It added an element of surprise and gave people a little extra reason to open each week, curious to see what the next joke might be.

Personally, I look forward to Fio’s Contentfolks newsletter for a similar reason. It always provides a different titbit of practical, actionable advice that I can apply directly in my daily work. I also keep an eye out for Zendesk reports because they reliably deliver original data and insights I can’t find anywhere else. Miro sources templates from their commun it y template gallery and includes them throughout blog posts, for example, in this piece on software development lif e cycle.

Now feels like a great time to mention that we recently relaunched our Revive tool. It’s a free analysis of your site that provides you with a list of articles that we recommend you refresh. Check out Revive here.

Reward ideas to try:

Practical resources that help users accomplish a specific task or goal. Create resources that save users time and provide tangible value — like a content calendar template, a quick-start checklist, or an interactive ROI calculator.
Unique insights or proprietary data. Share data or insights that users can’t find elsewhere, such as industry benchmarks, survey results, or customer success stories.
A “surprise” element, such as a quirky fact, joke, or tip. Add a touch of personality by including a recurring feature, like a weekly insider tip related to your industry.

4. Encourage Investment

Key takeaway: Decide on a call to action. Get readers to do one thing that’ll trigger them to come back and engage with you again

Investment is the last step. It involves getting your audience to put in a little effort that will increase their commitment to return by feeding into their triggers.

When I post a run on Strava (my investment), I get prompted to open the app again whenever someone comments on my run. I’m also tempted to check back later to see how many people gave me Kudos or if someone beat my time.

For content, investment works in similar ways. When a reader takes a small action — such as subscribing, commenting, or interacting with a tool — they build a connection to your brand. This action also sets up future triggers, as they’re reminded to come back whenever they see related updates or notifications.

BuzzFeed are masters at getting this kind of investment by encouraging users to participate through interactive quizzes. I want to share my quiz results with friends to see which city matches their personality (apparently, I have Rome energy).

Stack Overflow also engages its audience through the annual developer survey, inviting readers to contribute their perspectives and then sharing the results. They link to articles and resources related to survey insights, encouraging readers to explore more topics across the site.

Superpath does something similar with The Content Marketing Salary Report. Personally, I’m much more interested in checking out survey results when I’ve been involved — it feels like I have a stake in the content.

For content, investment might look like:

Subscribing to your newsletter. When someone subscribes, they’ll see your next edition pop up in their inbox, giving them a nudge to check back in.
Participating in a discussion in the comments section. If someone has had a memorable conversation, they’re primed to be interested in your next piece of content.
Engaging with tools like calculators or surveys, which require them to input their own data. When users enter their own data, it becomes personal — they’re more likely to come back to see tailored results or insights based on their input.
Joining a branded Slack channel, LinkedIn group, or forum. Community members feel invested and are more likely to return for updates or discussions.
Encourage readers to submit user-generated content. Ask for case studies or testimonials, get them to participate in content creation challenges, or contribute to industry surveys.

Hitch a Ride on Existing Habits

In content marketing, the goal isn’t to create new habits from scratch or to build addictive experiences like in product design. Instead, strive to “hitch a ride” on the habits your audience already has — whether that’s checking email in the morning, browsing LinkedIn, or catching up on industry insights. You’re aiming to meet your audience where they already are and give them reasons to come back because the content feels relevant, valuable, and timely.

And, of course, I’m going to practice what I preach. Here’s your invitation to invest: Share a piece of your content (or an outline of your strategy) with us via this Notion form. The Animalz team will provide free ideas on how to improve it using elements of the hook model.