Bucket Brigade in Copywriting: What Is It & How To Use It

Bucket brigades can make your content irresistible.

In fact, if you know how to use it, it will not only separate you from competitors but also allow you to:

• Maximize user experience
• Minimize bounce rate
• Increase dwell time

…all of which will get you to rank high on Google.

In this post, you’ll discover everything about a bucket brigade and how we use it to achieve spectacular results – such as ranking on the #1 page of Google.

Let’s get straight to it:

What Is a Bucket Brigade?

A bucket brigade in copywriting is a magnetic writing technique for encouraging readers to remain on your website and keep reading. 

It’s called “bucket brigade” because each sentence leads readers from one point to another.

(Just like a bucket brigade, or human chain.)

We used one just earlier in this post:

We used “Let’s get straight to it” as my bucket brigade. And based on this, readers either stick around if they want to get straight to it, or if they have no interest in getting straight to it, they’ll bounce.

But let’s be realistic. As a reader of this post right now, if someone tells you something like “Let’s get straight to it,” wouldn’t you want to stick around?

It feels so direct, so personal, so immediate.

What’s the Purpose of Using the Bucket Brigade Technique?

If you want to keep readers engaged, you need to make your content irresistible.

One of the ways to do that is to use the bucket brigade technique and make each sentence connected to the next. That way, readers will have to constantly keep reading to get the information – instead of bouncing back.

Here are some of the benefits of using the bucket brigade technique.

Maximize Dwell Time

Dwell Time is the amount of time that a Google searcher spends on a page before returning to the SERPs.

In our experience, dwell time can play a crucial role in ranking high on Google.

This is how Google looks at the dwell time:

• Short dwell time. The blog post isn’t helpful or optimized well, so we’re not going to rank it high.
• Long dwell time. The blog post is helpful, optimized, and readers want to read it, so we are going to rank it high.

To achieve a long dwell time, we strongly suggest going with the bucket brigade technique.

This is because you connect each sentence to another, creating a nice flow – and a seamless experience for readers.

Just look at the example below. Would you stop reading after “But there is a way”?

Probably not.

And that’s the point of a bucket brigade – make everything flow nicely and retain readers.

Of course, if you don’t master other aspects of your blog post, such as the ones below, your dwell time will suffer:

• Bad content structure
• A lot of fluff
• No images

Quick Tip: Look at a bucket brigade as a finishing touch. If the quality of your content alone is not good enough, it won’t make that much of a difference.

Better User Experience

Google rewards websites that provide an unshakeable user experience – and help readers get the most out of their content.

That’s why UX is critical for ranking high on Google.

And what does a great website experience consist of? Check out the image below for a quick guide.

Notice something?

One of these factors is…

…the overall flow and readability of content.

Making the bucket brigade technique a vital aspect of perfecting your user experience and ranking high on Google.

How to Use Bucket Brigades: Our Proven Use Cases

Ready to maximize your rankings and make your content irresistible?

In this section, you’ll discover the best ways to use the bucket brigade technique in your content to get the desired results.

Introduce Your Article

This is our favorite way to use a bucket brigade in our posts.

It’s because it starts the post right, and keeps readers addicted to reading your post from the beginning – which is when you MUST capture attention.

You can see an example of using bucket brigades in the introduction below:

As you can see, we’re grabbing the attention from the beginning with a bucket brigade, “AI is taking over… or is it?” 

It’s not stating anything, rather, it makes readers curious.

The second example acts as a nice transition from an introduction to the actual post, and based on this, readers either dive in – or they’ll bounce. 

Looking for more inspiration? 

Here are five common bucket brigade examples for you:

• Let’s get started
• I’ll show you
• Here’s the truth
• It’s time to begin
• Now, off we go

Explain or Elaborate

Using a bucket brigade this way is super-handy – and can save readers from bouncing.

This is because your opinion doesn’t have to be the same as the readers’, and if that’s the case, you must give them a strong reason for a claim they disagree with…

…or they’ll bounce.

To make it seamless, we’re used to throwing in a bucket brigade that lets them know why you decided to stick to specific claims (and retain them).

Here is an example of that in one of our blog posts:

Can’t wait to use a bucket brigade this way? 

Here are five common bucket brigade examples for you:

• In my experience
• Think about it
• Let me explain why
• To make a point
• Based on the results

Transition to a Different Angle

Ideally, you never want to create a full stop in your posts – without any transition. Because if you do, once again you’ll have given your readers a reason to bounce.

If you’re not sure how to connect two sections in your post, a bucket brigade might help.

For instance, consider the example below.

These claims are basically opposites, yet, by using a bucket brigade as a transition, we can nicely connect these two and create a better flow.

Want to use bucket brigades this way, too? 

Here are five common bucket brigade examples for you:

• On the other hand
• But wait — there’s more
• And as if that is not enough
• Then again
• Now for the other part of the story

After Action Report – Make Your Content Irresistible and Keep Readers Addicted to It

The Bucket brigade technique will make your content bulletproof.

It helps you create a nice structure and better flow, and keep the reader wanting to continue reading and learning more.

Plus, it will also supercharge your SEO efforts:

• Better user experience
• Lower Bounce rate
• Higher dwell time

We hope you’ve found this guide useful as an overview of what our process looks like.

You may want to take comfort in the fact that there are very few copywriters out there that are really doing an incredible job with content. This means that if you’re up for a challenge, and willing to dig deep (whether that’s with help or on your own), it is possible to stand out and get noticed.

And as with anything challenging…

…the sooner you get started, the easier it’ll be to make sure your bucket doesn’t have any holes in it.