There’s both art and science in writing attention-grabbing headlines for content marketing. This Entrepeneur magazine infographic demonstrates?what works, and (what doesn’t.) ?Since I promised three photos, I’ll take snapshots of the infographic pieces — hopefully the copyright owner won’t mind too much because of all the generous hyperlinks here.
1. What works.
“Amazing”, “photo” and a bracketed clarification like (Infographic) seem to drive the click-through rates up — and amazing is, well, simply amazing with a 262 per cent increase in engagement.
2. What doesn’t.
There seem to be a whole lot more problem-words than good ones (but none so bad as amazing is good). ?Consider (and then avoid): magic, now, cure, simple, secret, or easy.
3. And you (need) to take action with a bracketed clarification.
Yes, those bracketed clarifications seem to really work to induce action — and so does the word “need” — with a reported 171 per cent increase in conversion.
However, before you go blindly following this advice, I think there is a real risk in over-use of these concepts. Somehow, I think the words that are considered dangerous “avoid” words were, in fact, the recommended ones just a little while ago. Trouble is, when everyone does something right, it becomes wrong. So maybe, even if you take the these thoughts into consideration, you will remember to focus on the substance and then ensure the headline correctly reflects and inspires interest in your story. And that, to me, would be truly amazing.
P.S. Even more amazing, please share this story, give it a like, or (even better) write a brief comment about what you think about the ideas here. You can help me count my engagement brownie points (because) they really help us both to succeed.
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