Setup and payoff is a storytelling tactic as old as Greek tragedies.
How it works
You set something up earlier in the story, only to pay it off later on, sometimes unexpectedly.
You’ve probably noticed this in murder mysteries.
An unassuming clue is dropped early in the story, and later on, when Poirot or Sherlock is revealing what happened, he brings back that clue we heard about. It’s a wonderful storytelling technique.
For example
Imagine a sales email for a fishing brand. It’s written in the first person, and opens with an anecdote about the founder receiving his first fishing rod for Christmas when he was seven.
The email goes on to detail the story of the fishing brand and pitch value props for the product. And the final paragraph tells readers how the toy fishing rod he received as a kid still sits in his office—as a reminder of where it all started.
It’s a small symbol, but emotional payoff like this can help you sell.
For this to work in your copywriting, take your reader on an emotional journey between your setup and your payoff.
Then, when you get to the final reveal, you’ll have hopefully done a good enough job to make a sale.
Set it up and pay it off
Setup and payoff can be satisfying, shocking, funny… or all three. Try using it in your copy the next time you need to add some juice.
If you want more copywriting insights, you’ll find hundreds of them in Stacked Marketer Pro. They’ll help you write better copy. And by better, we mean copy that sells. Find those insights here.
