Content Hooks Generator

The Content Hooks Generator is a Claude skill that takes one piece of content and hands you back 18 hook variations to A/B test. Five data-backed patterns, tuned to your audience's awareness level and the platform you're posting on. Pick three. Ship.

The Problem

You sit down to record a Short. Camera's on. Cursor's blinking on the script. You write, "In this video, I'm gonna talk about…" Delete. "Hey guys, so today…" Delete. You record three takes, all of them open weird, and you can already feel the first 3 seconds doing nothing.

So you go searching. You open TikTok and scroll viral hooks for an hour, trying to reverse-engineer what makes them work. You read a Twitter thread that says "use a contrarian opener" and another that says "lead with a number." You write one hook. You hate it. You write another. You hate it more. Eventually you post something with a forgettable opening line and watch it die at 47 views.

The hook isn't the content. It's the invitation to stay. And it's the single thing that decides whether your three hours of editing get seen at all.

This skill ends that loop. Name what your content's about, and get 18 hooks back you can actually choose from.

What this Claude skill does

Generates 18 hooks per request: spread across the 5 patterns from the OpusClip 34,635-clip study — Product/Outcome Showcase, Expert Explainer, Contrarian Open, Specific Number, Imperative Command — plus a wildcard slot.
Tunes to awareness level: Unaware, Problem-aware, Solution-aware, Product-aware, Most-aware. A curiosity gap that lands on Unaware dies on Most-aware. The skill knows the difference.
Tunes to platform: TikTok / Reels / Shorts (3–7 spoken words), YouTube long-form (a sentence or two), LinkedIn (first 1–2 lines before "see more"), X/Threads, Instagram carousels, blog headlines, email subject lines.
Calls out the top 3 to test first: spread across patterns, with a one-line reason each is the strongest A/B/C starter for your specific audience + awareness + platform combo.
Pulls language from your ICP files: if you have an ideal customer profile in ideal-customer-profiles/, the hooks use the audience's actual phrasing — their pains, desires, search terms — not generic founder-speak.
Adds visual cues for video where they earn it: [visual:] notes appear under hooks that need a specific shot or split-screen to land. Not on every line. Only where the visual is doing real work.

Why it's amazing!

Stop staring at a blinking cursor. Pick from 18 options, not zero.
Hooks built from the patterns that actually move retention — not vibes.
One topic, 18 angles. A/B test instead of guessing which line is "the one."
No more "Hey guys," "In this video," or "Okay so…" The skill bans them on principle.

Who it's for

Anyone trying to get a piece of content watched. Youtubers, founders, course creators, TikTokers, LinkedIn ghostwriters, agency owners, and anyone who's ever recorded five takes that all opened wrong. If you've ever lost a video in the first three seconds, this is the skill for you.

How it works

Ask Claude something like:

"Hooks for my YouTube short about SaaS pricing."
"I need 18 LinkedIn openers for a post on hiring your first VA."
"I'm making a TikTok about indie hacker burnout — audience is solo founders, problem-aware. Hooks please."
"Write scroll-stoppers for an Instagram carousel on cold email. Mix of awareness levels."
"I'm naming the video 'Why most landing pages don't convert' — give me hooks for solution-aware founders on YouTube long-form."
"More contrarian ones like #7."

You'll get back a clean menu — 18 hooks grouped by pattern, plus a top 3 callout. Something like:

*Generating 18 hooks for SaaS pricing mistakes | Audience: bootstrapped founders | Awareness: problem-aware | Platform: YouTube Shorts*

Product / Outcome Showcase

"We raised our price 4x and lost zero customers. Here's the exact email."

"$0 to $14K MRR in 67 days — by deleting our cheapest plan."

Expert Explainer

"I've audited 200+ SaaS pricing pages and 9 in 10 founders make this exact mistake."

Contrarian Open

"Stop running discounts. They're the reason your churn is bad."

Specific Number

"47% of SaaS founders price their product based on nothing. Here's the fix."

Imperative Command

"Don't raise your prices until you've fixed this one line in your pricing page."

Wildcard

"Hormozi said this once about pricing and most founders still get it wrong."

Top 3 to test first

"We raised our price 4x and lost zero customers." — Strongest for problem-aware: counterintuitive outcome they're afraid to attempt.

"Stop running discounts." — Direct contrarian shot at the exact behavior the audience is doing.

"47% of SaaS founders price their product based on nothing." — Odd specific number plants the audience inside the stat.

Ask for "more like #1" or "more contrarian ones" and Claude will generate another batch in that style without redoing the whole 18.

Pairs well with these other skills

A hook is the opening line — these skills decide what to hook into and write the body that follows it:

LinkedIn Post Writer Skill: Drop the winning opener in and let it write the rest of a post engineered to get reposted.
Twitter X Post Writer Skill: Turn the hook into a full tweet or thread that keeps the scroll-stop going past the first line.
Content Ideas Generator Skill: Run this first when you don't yet know what to make — it hands you topics, then come here for the hooks.
ICP Generator Skill: Build an ICP so the hooks pull from your audience's real pains and phrasing instead of generic creator-speak.

FAQ

Does it cost anything to run?

Just a Claude subscription, but other than that, no external APIs were used with this skill.

Will these hooks actually go viral?

No skill can promise virality — that's a function of the content, the audience, the algorithm, and timing. What this gives you is a menu of 18 hooks built from the patterns that empirically lift retention in the first 3 seconds. You A/B test 2–3 of them. The data tells you which one worked. That's the whole point of 18 over 1.

Does it support every platform?

Yes. TikTok, Reels, YouTube Shorts, YouTube long-form, LinkedIn, X/Twitter, Threads, Instagram carousels, blog headlines, and email subject lines. Each platform has different hook anatomy (a TikTok hook is 3–7 spoken words; a YouTube long-form hook can be two sentences). The skill calibrates to whichever you name. Or say "multi" and get platform-agnostic versions you can adapt.

Will it use my brand voice or ICP?

If you have an ideal customer profile saved using the Ideal Customer Profile Skill then yes, It pulls language from your ICP's pains, desires, and search terms so hooks sound like the audience, not like a generic creator. No ICP file? It infers from the topic and runs with smart assumptions.

Can I get more than 18?

Yes, once the menu's in front of you, ask for "more contrarian ones" or "more like #3" and you'll get another 4–6 in that style. The 18 is the starting menu, not the ceiling.

Safe To Install

Please read before installing. Any skill you copy online is someone else's code running inside your Claude, and a lot of what's out there should give you pause. Most authors who give skills away don't give a second thought to quality or security. Most are vibe-coded slop pushed out untested, and some are the occasional bad actor hiding an exploit in plain sight. (Read about OpenClaws ClawHub security nightmare). Every skill we publish is vetted by a programmer with 20+ years of professional experience and checked line by line for anything that touches your files without reason. With Stim-Pack Studios Claude Skills, you get peace of mind knowing you're installing safe, vetted code, not a stranger's guess.

Add it to your Claude workflow

If you're looking for Claude skills to add to your content workflow, this is it. It collapses the worst part of creating. That is staring at a blinking cursor trying to write the opening line. Just run this skill and pick your hook from a menu.

Get the Content Hooks Generator Claude skill and eliminate video view dropoffs.