118: The 4-Part Hook Formula Behind Viral Reels (Part 2)
You already know that strong hooks are one of the biggest things separating content that gets ignored from content that gets watched, shared, and remembered. But today I want to take this a step deeper because most business owners think a hook is only the text at the beginning of a reel. And honestly, that's just one piece of it. There are actually four different places you can hook someone inside of one piece of content.
And once you understand this, you'll start seeing viral content completely differently.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
01:56 The reel Elizabeth posted that hit 86,000+ views and the content strategy lesson inside it
03:18 Why timely, relatable content outperforms polished educational content (and how to use this in your business)
07:06 Hook #1: The text hook — why specificity beats everything
09:22 Hook #2: The visual hook — why most people process your visuals before they read a single word
10:43 Hook #3: The audio hook — your opening words, tone, pacing, and music choice all count
13:42 Hook #4: The caption top line — the most overlooked hook placement of all four
15:06 How to use all four hooks together to create content that stops the scroll AND drives business results
16:52 Next week: how Elizabeth uses AI to reverse engineer viral hooks
Key Takeaways:
There are four places to hook your audience — not one. Text hook, visual hook, audio hook, and caption top line. Miss any of these and you're leaving attention on the table.
Most people process your visual before they read your words. Your opening shot, movement, facial expression, or unexpected visual is working on the viewer before your text even registers. Make it count.
Timely content outperforms polished content. Elizabeth's staircase reel hit 86,000+ views not because of production quality — but because it joined a conversation her audience was already having inside their own heads about AI overwhelm.
Your audio hook is more than music. If you're speaking directly to camera, your first sentence, your tone, and your pacing are all part of the audio hook. Personality-driven audio is increasingly important in 2026.
The caption top line is a hook. Most people won't read your full caption — but they will see those first few words. Use them to deepen curiosity, not repeat what's already on the screen.
Great hooks create emotional connection fast. The goal isn't to be clever — it's to make the right person feel so seen that they stop, watch, and want more.
Links Mentioned:
- Missed Part 1? Ep117: The Secret to Stronger Instagram Hooks
- Free DM Automation Guide + 1 Month of ManyChat Free:DM me the word LEADS on Instagram @elizabethmarberry
- Hot Reels (my 12-month Instagram content lab)
A Truth You Need to Hear:
"Once you understand the four-part hook formula, you'll never look at viral content the same way again."
— Elizabeth Marberry
S3 Ep118 Transcript - The 4-Part Hook Formula Behind Viral Reels (Part 2)
00:00
I'm guessing you already know that strong hooks are one of the biggest things separating content that gets ignored from content that gets watched, shared and remembered. But today I wanna take this a step deeper because most business owners think a hook is only the text at the beginning of a reel. And honestly, that's just one piece of it. There are actually four different places you can hook someone inside of one piece of content. And once you understand this, you'll start seeing viral content completely differently.
00:29
This is one of my favorite content strategy conversations because it shifts you from randomly posting to intentionally creating content that actually holds the attention of your ideal client or customer. I hope you're excited, let's go.
00:47
Welcome to Strut It, a podcast about creating bold visibility on social media with zero apologies. I'm Elizabeth Marberry, your host and Instagram marketing coach. I help small business owners get seen on Instagram and monetize their offers so they can make more money doing their sole led work. If you're tired of spinning your wheels on Instagram and you're seeking simple, proven Instagram marketing strategies that actually work, you're in the right place.
01:16
Let's dive in.
01:26
Welcome back to the show. Thank you for joining me for yet another episode of Strut It. Every week I am on a mission to really simplify Instagram so you can leverage this free tool to get seen and get paid. And I'm so grateful that you are taking this time to hang out with me today. This is part two of a little mini series we're doing on hooks and how to create Instagram content that actually gets people to stop scrolling.
01:56
Before we jump into today's teaching, I wanna share something that's happening right now in my own content, because I think there's a really important lesson in it. So I posted this completely ridiculous reel the other day of me literally sliding face first down my carpeted stairs. And the text hook on the screen says, how I feel after spending two years learning chat GPT,
02:25
And now realizing I need to get my shit together and learn Claude co-work. Okay, so this reel is popping off right now as I'm recording it's over 86,000 views and climbing. And what's interesting is that the reel itself is so simple, right? It's so silly, it's low production. My husband filmed me doing this ridiculous thing sliding down the stairs. We did it in one take.
02:51
But the reason why this reel is so effective is because it's timely and it's extremely relatable and it taps into a conversation that so many business owners are having right now inside of their own brains. And this of course is a personal struggle I was feeling and I knew by being so tapped into, you know, the industry that so many other small businesses are feeling this where they're excited about AI.
03:18
And of course they're curious about it or they are currently leveraging AI, ChatGBT or Claude in their business. And yet AI of course keeps evolving every five minutes. And I don't know if you all have heard about Claude Cowork as an agentic tool, meaning that it's a whole nother level of using the AI where we're no longer just prompting it, but essentially you can schedule tasks.
03:47
for the AI to actually work behind the scenes and do things in your business that you do every day or every week and automate those tasks such as, you know, organize your Google Drive or give you a morning briefing each day on what is on your calendar and what needs to be a priority for you. I mean, there's just so many things available to us through Clon Cowork.
04:11
And I'm not going to teach it yet because I'm still figuring it out myself. Once I figured out the right next steps for you, you know that you will be one of the first people to hear about that. But anyways, Claude and just a lot of the shift of users from ChaiGBT to Claude for different reasons, right? And so I know a lot of people were relating to that feeling of, wait, I just figured out this one AI tool and now I have to go figure out this other one. And so...
04:40
That hook and that content of me like, you know, falling face first down the stairs and just feeling so like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I have to do start all over again, essentially with the AI, which is not true, of course, but it's like that feeling of frustration. That content really connected emotionally. And it's a good reminder that not all content has to be, you know, so perfectly polished or deeply educational to perform well.
05:08
Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is create content around something that feels very timely and relevant to your audience in this current moment. So whether that is breaking news in your industry, you know, I mentioned this in previous episode, but one of my former private clients owns a vinyl record store. And on Record Store Day, he recorded a reel about why supporting independent record stores is so important and why Record Store Day is still very relevant.
05:38
And again, it was very timely in that moment and it totally popped off for him and it connected to what his ideal audience cared about in that very moment. So I wanted to bring this just from a content strategy standpoint to kick off this episode because it's important to remember that you don't always have to constantly reinvent the wheel in your content and in your business or say something that nobody has ever said before. Sometimes you just need to
06:08
really be the voice. And a lot of times you just need to join the conversation your audience is already having inside of their own heads, right? That's what I did with this piece of content and that's why it's popping off. And this ties directly into today's episode because ultimately what great hooks do is a great hook will create emotional connection fast. Like I can't tell you how many people commented on that reel and they said, oh my gosh,
06:37
I can completely relate. feel the exact same way. Like I'm equally excited and overwhelmed about all of the potential of Claude Co-work for my business and also like totally frozen as to where to begin. And this real encapsulates how I feel right now. And so today I wanna break down the four places you can hook people in your content because a lot of us think that when we think of a hook, we're only thinking of the text.
07:06
at the beginning of the reel, but there's actually four different places you can hook someone in your content. And once you understand this, your content will be so much more stronger and effective. So let's get into it. So the first type of hook that you need, whether that's the first slide of your carousel post on Instagram or the first three seconds of your Instagram reel, is that text hook on screen, right? And this is the actual wording.
07:36
that people see on the screen. This is probably the one people think about the most, right? Which is, it's super important. And we talked about last week in part one of our hooks series, when you are deciding on the messaging and the words that you're using for your hooks, you wanna avoid being too vague, right?
07:59
You want to really be super specific in your messaging and calling out, you know, clear identifiers of like who it's for. Is it for a mom? Is it for a female entrepreneur who is making six figures? Like think about like who the content is for and make sure it's really clear in the hook. Last week we did a whole deep dive on this. I'm not going to go into it too much today.
08:24
But remember strong text hooks usually create that like open loop of curiosity or they're really, really specific, right? Like the example that I used of my real that's popping off right now, I could have said something like, you know, how I feel when I think about migrating my business over to Claude, right? That could have been the hook. But instead I was much more specific. How I feel after spending two years learning Chats, UBT,
08:52
And now realizing I need to get my shit together and learn Claude co-work. Like you can hear how much more specific that is. That's what we mean when we say your hooks need to be so much more dialed in. You want to avoid any sort of generic messaging. So if that is something that you're needing support with, go back and listen to last week's episode, because I did a little bit more of a deep dive on that. Okay, so the first type of hook is that text hook on the screen. The second type of hook
09:22
is your visual hook. And I think this is one that is massively underestimated because most people process the visual of your video or your carousel before they even process the words. And so a visual hook could be movement at the beginning of the video, or it could be a quick zoom in, zoom out, or a visual hook could be your facial expression, or even an unexpected kind of visual.
09:50
Sometimes when I see like a nature video, you'll see like a beautiful composition, right? Or the energetic of the person. So maybe it's like movement in terms of they're walking toward the camera, but they're walking toward the camera with a ton of energy. And you're like, oh my God, they're about to bump into the camera lens, right? So the visual piece is such an important way to hook the viewer and
10:17
cause them to stop the scroll and pause so they can see what's happening. So again, my ridiculous stair sliding reel, I zoom in on me like laying at the top of my stairs. It's visually compelling because it's like, why is that woman laying face first on her stairs, like on her carpet? Like this is already a pattern interrupt. Like what's wrong with her?
10:43
And then I also used a simple effect feature when I edited that video to zoom in and zoom out, which also causes the viewer to kind of stop the scroll and it creates that curiosity. So we have our text took on screen. The second one is your visual hook. So how you're visually hooking people. The third type of hook is your audio hook. The audio hook.
11:08
could be a lot of different things. So let's say you are doing a direct-to-camera video where you're speaking directly to the camera, your first few words is your audio hook, like the sentence you say, right? Your tone, your pacing, the audio hook could also be the music you chose, or let's say you chose a trending sound, right? The audio you choose, the audio hook,
11:34
is so important and you know you can think about how you consume Netflix, right? When you're watching a show, you're being hit from all different directions, right? You have the visuals of what's happening, you're hearing the audio, so you're not only hearing the actors and actresses, you know, whatever they're saying, the way that they're saying it, the pacing, the tone, but also of course the pacing in which they're saying it and all of that
12:02
connects to the story that's being told through the content, right? And so when I'm developing my content for my business, I'm being very intentional about the audios that I choose to ensure that they're in alignment with my brand, with our values, with our mission, and really like the goal of that piece of content, right? And honestly, I personality-driven content is becoming increasingly important in 2026.
12:28
because people are craving that human energy online, right? They don't want it to feel like this perfectly polished robotic content. want personality. They want your honesty. They want to feel like it's really relatable. And audio is such a beautiful way of doing that. And so again, going back to this video I have popping off right now, me sliding down the stairs, I chose Like a Prayer by Madonna.
12:55
And I specifically chose this part of the song. So imagine I'm falling down the stairs and this is what you're hearing.
13:12
So she says, oh God, I think I'm falling as I'm falling down the stairs. Like obviously I'm having a lot of fun with it, right? And so I picked that song intentionally because it's supposed to be an entertaining lighthearted approach to how we all feel overwhelmed, right? So the audio paints the picture. The audio is part of what is hooking the viewer to want to keep watching. So we have number one, text hook. Number two, our visual hook. Number three, our audio hook.
13:42
Fourth and final type of hook that so many creators and business owners miss is the top line of your caption. Okay, so the top line of your caption is so important and that is another hook, okay? While most people, most consumers on Instagram don't read your full caption, they can see those first few words of that top line of your caption.
14:12
you can leverage that to deepen the hook essentially. So one thing I try to avoid is any redundancy. So let's say if I said something on screen, I'm not gonna say the exact same thing in that top line of my caption. You want to change it up as a way to really expand the resonance of your content. So instead of the top line of my caption being like, happy Monday, you know.
14:39
Not sure where this finds you, that's not that compelling, right? But let's say I had a little emoji pointing down and I said, this one thing changed the way I approach my Instagram content. It's kind of long, but it's this idea of I'm peaking your curiosity. So now you want to hit those little three dots and actually expand and read my caption. So the caption is another way to hook the viewer.
15:06
and really peak their curiosity so they're gonna want to read your caption. Like I said, most people won't read the caption. The people who do are your hottest prospects, so make sure you're including a call to action in there and all of that. So I hope you enjoyed today's episode where I taught you this four-part hook formula behind viral reels. When you go onto Instagram today and you're looking at the reels that you see that pop off, you're gonna notice that they're leveraging all four parts of this hook formula.
15:35
It is so powerful when you start to really master how to design your reels, not only for viral views, but actual business strategy. And that is the connection that I bring in to my coaching program, specifically in Hot Reels, when we really focus on not only how to create content that is gonna stop the scroll, but how does it actually work in your business to attract your target audience, your ideal client or customer.
16:01
So if you are struggling with this, I would love to support you inside a Hot Reels. You can go to Elizabethmarberry.com slash hot. That's Elizabeth Marberry, M-A-R-B-E-R-R-Y.com slash hot for full program details. Make sure you're following me over on Instagram if you haven't already. So you can check out my video of me sliding down the stairs and hopefully I will make you laugh.
16:24
As you watch me slide face first down my stairs, my handle over on Instagram is Elizabeth Marberry, M-A-R-B-E-R-R-Y. And if you're curious about how I can support you inside of Hot Reels, which is my high touch group coaching program, you get two live calls with me every month. I get to really look at your business, look at your content and give you that direct feedback so you can stop spinning your wheels and start making really effective content on Instagram so you can get seen and paid.
16:52
Make sure you direct a message me over on Instagram, the keyword hot H-O-T, and I will have my robot assistant send you over more details. And remember, you guys, my DMs are open. When you send me a DM, whether it's a voice memo or a text, I love hearing from you. Let me know what resonated from today's episode. Let me know if you have any questions about how I can support you inside of Hot Reels. And next week, I'm super excited. I'm going to be sharing with you how I leverage AI.
17:21
to reverse engineer viral hooks. It's gonna be so epic. Make sure you're following the show. And I can't wait to strut it with you next week. Thank you for listening to Strut It. If you're ready to start leveraging Instagram to grow your business, then you're gonna wanna grab my free monetize your IG guide, where you'll learn seven simple and proven ways to finally make money on Instagram. You can grab your guide at ElizabethMarberry.com.
17:51
That's ElizabethMarberry.com slash freebies to get my monetize your IG guy. If you got some incredible value from today's episode, be sure to leave a review and subscribe on your favorite podcast platforms. And I cannot wait to start it with you again next week.
