Most of us don’t realize the attraction power of two-minute Ramen noodles.
So let me explain…
You’re hungry.
You boil some water while you desperately tear open the packet.
The water bubbles away madly as you reach to cut the tastemaker within the two-minute noodle packet.
Two minutes, maybe three minutes later, you’re burning your tongue as you wallop down the noodles.
What you’ve experienced is an instant result.
And readers too want to experience that very same instant result with your content. They don’t want to waffle through mountains of information. They want a nice, quick bite to begin with. Of course, it helps if you have the right parameters in place.
So here are the parameters of what makes two-minute Ramen noodles appealing (beyond the dirt-cheap price):
- It gets you results instantly.
- It literally gets everyone results, good and bad cooks alike.
- The meal isn’t elaborate (and this lack of fanciness is important).
So let’s look at an example. Let’s say you have a food website (yes, the food analogy continues). And you want to instantly show your customers how to choose a good beef steak. Here’s how you get their attention almost instantly.
Main topic:
- Three Quick Ways to Choose Premium Cuts of Beef
This is otherwise a big topic, so the food website has split the topic into the three quick and easy ways you can identify premium cuts of beef.
Subtopics:
- Marbling
- Color
- Firmness
Further elaboration of each sub-topic:
Marbling
- What is marbling?
- Why does marbling matter?
- The difference between a $5 steak and $15 steak
Color
- What to look for in color of a beef steak?
- Why a ‘purplish’ color isn’t a bad color for aged steaks.
- How fat is the tell-tale sign for freshness.
Firmness
- How firmness indicates lower water content.
- Why water content results in a drier, non-moist cooked steak.
- How to check for firmness in under 5 seconds.
When these points are expanded, three things happen:
- The reader gets an instant result/understanding.
- Anyone can understand how to implement these steps.
- The steps aren’t elaborate, but extremely empowering.
And this two-minute noodle concept can be easily applied to any type of content as a marketing tool. In fact, at Psychotactics we have a free headline report called ‘Why Headlines Fail’ that uses this exact technique.
The technique is simple and effective beyond your wildest imagination.
And it’s instant, but a lot more nourishing than Ramen. 🙂
About the Author: Sean D’Souza offers a free report on ‘Why Headlines Fail’ when you subscribe to his Psychotactics Newsletter. Check out his blog, too.
Reader Comments (35)
Okay, this one didn’t make any sense to me. It’s too early for me to be reading about food, I guess.
I’ve been trying this approach on many of my posts for my food website actually. I think the idea is that people get turned off by cooking because they see it as a huge mountain to go from basic raw food to awesome meal.
I try to start with the basics and break it down by topic similar to how you explain. Also photos are a great way to give instant gratification to a reader. If they can see your progress then they will be able to better identify with it.
I think this is a great post.
Nick
http://www.macheesmo.com
Linking noodles to content!, excellent again!, and ive written some content in the past that will burn the mouth too!!;).
I thought the appeal of Ramen noodles was “6 for $1.00”?
It seems to me that to duplicate the Ramen experience you need to:
1) Identify the “hunger” (that’s your topic)
2) Proffer the instant hunger fix (that’s your pithy, insightful content)
3) Sign off, perhaps after reminding the reader where to find you you the next time they’re hungry for info. (Your witty signature slug)
This is really just sixth grade composition.
And now I totally need to know how to pick a good steak.
I totally get what you’re saying. I used to eat ramen noodles all the time in college.
the beauty of simplicity.
people get caught up in their own egos trying to show how “well” they write. but they use too many words, too much fluff and no one ends up reading it.
Great approach. In our day and age people have a very short attention span. They want something quick and simple. Then if they choose to dive more into, they will. Simple approaches have great long term benefits. It grabs a reader and pays off by them fully engaging with the content.
Craig
http://www.budgetpulse.com
I definitely agree, people like things quick and easy to consume! I just consumed this post in under 30 seconds lol, I like that!
Breaking things up in bits and pieces works wonders for web content. Thanks
I also like to nibble the uncooked noodles as I wait for the water to boil and am breaking this little noodle blocks up. Is noodle nibbling like reading Twitter tweets or RSS summaries?
Good stuff. Nice and practical. Thanks!
The real point is that you need to ’empower’ your customers quickly. The speed at which you empower them is directly proportional to how they perceive you.
The quick empowerment is what causes customers to want more. Most information is just thick-headed. The information that customers can take to the supermarket 15 minutes later is critical as a first step. Later you can bring out the big, fancy information.
See this as a a quickstart guide vs. a big manual and you’ll get what I mean (no matter how early it is in the day)
This article illustrates the power of outlining your article first. It gives a sense of flow and breaks the topic down into logical groups.
You can always add an ice cube to the Ramen Noodles to avoid burning your tongue. And the blog equivalent to an ice cube would probably be a nice image. You don’t want your readers burning their tongues on your hot content. 🙂
@Sean
As a NEW student of copywriting, I was actually comparing Brian’s style of writing, even his sales-copies (the one for the JV ebook and the one he wrote for Aaron Hall).
I also checked out your site Sean, what I have come to observe is that your guys seems to really simplify things a lot.
The sales copies does not even seem like one. Just like writing to a good friend(which of course is what it is supposed to be, right?)
You guys shoot straight to the point.
No hype at all!
Kind of difficult for someone who is new to the world of copywriting to find his/her voice (hype or no-hype)
That was what compelled me to drop a question under this post “Only Two Reasons Why You Can’t Succeed With Partnering” (#38)
I wonder which one really work better(hyped or un-hyped one!). I understand the concept of using emotional triggers quite well.
But I think there is a distinct line/balance between “hyping it” and not “hyping it”.
Kind of a delicate rope to tread I guess!
Great article though.
Well, it’s really a matter of writing to a friend. 🙂
But we’ve taken it one step further.
Now we get clients to write our copy for us. There’s a system we follow, and the clients write it. And we transcribe. If you thought copy writing was difficult, this method makes it super easy.
Not that I like easy. I just like the copy to resonate with the customer. And what’s better than a client writing what he/she wants.
s-
Psychotactics.com
By the way, Sarah, that steak article (and other food stuff) is in gorgeous detail at http://www.rouxbe.com
Ramen entries are useless, unless they produce delicious discussion.
@Sean,
Thanks.
Great site http://www.rouxbe.com.
Now I see what you are talking about.
Structuring of the contents!
Hmmmmm…Ramen, the College students favorite. This is where men and women gains the most weight 😀
-Mike
I love it. A great simple analogy carried out to the end. I know that when I read blogs, as much as I think I’d love a four course meal, all I have time for is a good packet of Ramen noodles. And anyone that is serving Ramen is a good friend of mine.
@Andrew – agreed 100% – as Talking Heads sang,
you’re talking a lot but you’re not saying anything.
@Sean – may I add #4 to your list: drink 2 gallons of water an hour later ’cause the stuff is made of 99% salt.
It’s amazing how many people got fascinated with the Ramen noodles instead of the concept being described in the post itself 🙂
Ramen noodles sure seem to hit some weird part of the brain.
Mmmm… Instant noodles.
Anyway, I’ve seen plenty of extremely interesting and detailed blog posts that just “don’t make it” due to the reasons you mentioned. Sometimes it’s sad that people are always in a hurry and might miss out on the good stuff because they want fast stuff.
Sean,
this is a very powerful idea!
thanks.
Ramen reminds me the character Naruto..
He is stupid but funny and his love towards it….
You should watch Naruto…
Interesting concept. Would you apply this to a blog? I’ve been thinking about the short vs. long blog post thing lately.
Good analogy.
Plus – pictures are always engaging!
Good post.It depends on what type of problem you have, if it can be solved immediately.Sometimes it takes a longer explanation to get the right solution.
Thanks for this article! I came across it in my feed reader, digested it, and I think it has really helped me write content in a more internet-friendly way.
The good ol’ 1-2-3. It’s amazing how this method works all the time…everytime.
The hard thing is to remember to put it into consistent practice.
Thanks for sharing your insight – and reminding us of what it REALLY takes to produce digestable content!
Kind Regards,
Latarsha
This article's comments are closed.