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What is the BAB formula?

Before, After, Bridge: a credible picture of today, a picture of better, and the step between.

What it means

BAB is a short copywriting formula. The letters stand for Before, After, and Bridge. You describe how things are today, describe how they could be, and show the step that gets them from one to the other.

  • Before: a credible picture of today.
  • After: a credible picture of better.
  • Bridge: the step that connects them. The offer can be the bridge. A slogan cannot.

BAB is a sales method: a framework for how to think and write. It is not a study result, and this page does not attach a win rate or reply rate to it. This site is not affiliated with its authors or with any company that teaches it.

What it means for a sales email

Both pictures need to be believable and specific to the reader. A vague after, like transform your business, does nothing. Any proof for the after picture has to come from facts you actually have. Do not invent a result.

Close with one ask that is the first step across the bridge.

Writing practice and method guidance, not a study result.

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What is the BAB formula? Plain Definition | Sales Glossary