Bucket Brigades Explained, with Examples
The internet is replete with advice on something called “the bucket brigade.” Most of it, however, is bad advice for the single reason that its most strident evangelists are misguided and ill informed. Creators of “How to Make Money from Your Own Website!” websites, hoping to keep your eyes on their pages, will tell you that using bucket brigades will lower bounce rates, increase traffic, improve conversions, cure male-pattern baldness, and more.
The good news is that, if you want to create truly great copywriting, most of what you need to know is found in the answer to the question, “Why are bucket brigades bad?”
The bad news is that the answer to that question is complicated and nuanced, and people spend careers trying to get it right.
But are you an aspiring writer? Do you have website or other copy that you feel needs to be more compelling, but you don’t know how to make it happen? Have you stumbled on my page and just want to know what I’m talking about?
For all that and more – read on!
More good news: Bucket Brigades aren’t bad (but I didn’t lie… they are bad)!
Part of the confusion surrounding bucket brigades is that there is nothing inherently wrong with dropping some into a piece. They’re best in sales copy, but certainly have a place in short form internet articles, and even longer pieces.
So then, what is the problem?
Two things. First, all of the advice I have found on the internet regarding bucket brigades was misguided. And second…
Well, we better save that for later.
Because first things first!
Misguided? Who cares, as long as it works?
Googling versions of “bucket brigades SEO writing” yields first page search results with claims that bucket brigades are used to “strike a conversational tone” or “transition between sections.”
These claims aren’t completely wrong – bucket brigades are usually conversational. And they can be transitional.
But they overlook the work that bucket brigades are actually trying to do. And if you don’t know why you’re using a tool, then you aren’t likely to use the tool well – you’ll find yourself using a screwdriver to hit a nail and a hammer to drive a screw. And that house you were trying to build – the one with the low bounce rate and high conversions – will come tumbling down in so many buckets of loose sticks.
So, if bucket brigades aren’t necessarily transitional phrases and aren’t necessarily conversational, what are they?
They are an attempt to keep people reading. That’s the goal – to move them from sentence to sentence, from section to section, and to increase the average time on page.
So how can you learn to do that?
There’s really only one teachable way. And you shouldn’t use it too often. Its use leads to what’s called a “fast read,” and establishes whether readers think your work is a “page turner” or a “slog.”
All you have to do is this: create a question (which the reader feels emotionally as tension), and then answer it (which the reader feels emotionally as a release).
And in between creating questions and answering them, sprinkle in some facts. Or some sales figures. Or whatever.
The two ways to create questions
There are two ways to create a question – by asking one directly, and by implying it.
Asking the question and providing release looks like:
Do you know how to keep readers’ eyes glued to your page? By asking a question!
Implying the question and providing release can look like:
There’s one way to keep readers’ eyes glued to your page. Asking the right questions.
When a writer says, “But wait, there’s more!” they are begging the question, “What else?” And that (aside from using the cliché) is a great question to beg.
Many online lists of “bucket brigades” include examples such as “Now:” or “Read on!” or “But wait, there’s more!” and other simple phrases.
Some of these work to create tension. Some of them don’t. And some of them only do in the right circumstances.
Whether or not using these “bucket brigades” achieves the promised results (a lower bounce rate, more time on page, etc.) depends on the writer’s ability to use them well. But it isn’t enough to just splatter these phrases on a page.
Bucket Brigade Master Class: Ask a question. Let it simmer. Then answer it.
Skilled writers don’t immediately answer every question they raise. Consider this:
Did you know there are actually at least three ways to keep a reader’s eyes glued to your page? One of them is fairly teachable. The other two are harder to master, and don’t work for every audience.
The teachable one is sometimes called a “bucket brigade” or “tension/release” or “suspense.” In literary circles, they call them “dramatic questions.”
But another good way to keep people’s eyes on your page is – and you’re probably not going to find this funny – humor. The problem with humor? Not everybody will get it.
The third way is to be lewd. Either with images or descriptions. 50 Shades of Gray is a demonstrably bad book. So why did it sell so many copies? Not because it’s good, but because it’s bad in all the right ways!
My first paragraph asks if the reader knows there are three ways – but begs the question “What are the three ways?” And then I say that one is teachable and two aren’t – possibly (hopefully) raising the tension a bit without answering the question immediately.
And this gives me space to keep readers going for… maybe 100 words… before I get to the final answer. And if I wanted to get really fancy, then before I answered all of those questions, I’d have raised more.
If you read a novel, this is the same technique that novelists use – each chapter usually has an overarching question that needs to be answered; before it gets answered though, another question is raised that drives the characters through the action of the next chapter… and the next….
Keep it thematic
This technique of tension/release is actually really hard to master. That’s why bucket brigades exist – because writing is hard to do well, and bucket brigades give inadequate or inexperienced writers a shortcut that gets them close to good writing.
But there’s one more thing that has to be done to create good tension in a piece – the dramatic questions have to be as thematic as possible.
If I was writing sales copy for a company that sold ceiling fans, and I did this:
“[Lots of compelling discussion about fans…] But wait, there’s more! Cyclones are just hurricanes that formed in the South Pacific or Indian Oceans!”
Then my attempt to keep the reader engaged would fail. It isn’t enough that I used a “bucket brigade.” My attempt at tension pulled the reader too far off course for them to feel the release.
… and now, what you’ve all been waiting for…
Reason number two that bucket brigades are problematic
Here’s the second problem with reading a piece that’s just bucket brigade after bucket brigade: it feels like watching too many episodes in a row of Gilmore Girls. Words just come at the reader so fast that they never get a chance to take a breath and understand what they’re reading…
At the same time, the right bucket brigades need to be chosen. First because, as I’ve said, they need to be kept thematic within a piece. And second because so many phrases that were formally called “bucket brigades” are now called “clichés.”
For example, many lists of bucket brigades include some form of the phrase, “But wait! There’s more!”
That phrase – in the 21st century – should only be used in a piece that is very self-aware, and is making fun either of itself or of the genre of copywriting. Because it’s been overused since Ron Popeil started making infomercials.
The upshot
Is it ever okay to use a bucket brigade? Yes. If you’re writing a piece and you feel that a part is too slow and you just don’t see a way to pick up the pace, an appropriate bucket brigade can help a piece along.
But before you resort to bucket brigades, you should always – in almost every genre of writing – try to create tension (by asking or implying questions) and provide release (by answering the question). This is the skill that every writer needs to master, that bucket brigades are trying to mimic.
