3 Things You’d Never Know Without Reading This
Aaaah, the power of three!
More data on how to get people to look at your content, this time focusing on the headline ( the title of your video, post or email subject line.)
Use Negative Superlatives to Drive Clicks
Apparently if your headline evokes something people can’t, shouldn’t or wouldn’t do, they get curious and tend to click through more often. Be aware though, while negative emotions drive clicks, they don’t drive shares.
If you want someone to share your content it’s best to make it positive and energizing. People like to share things that make them feel good so they can pass that feeling onto others.
People Still Like Lists
Personally if I never see a list post again it’ll be too soon, but they’re still super popular. Whether it’s the whole “bite size chunks” of information thing, people just dig having things broken out for them.
Just promise me that if you use a list you won’t write some banal nonsense just to flesh out the points. Me, I say less is more, 5 is good, 9 is pushing it and if you’re into double figures then “Woah Nelly!” are you sure you need that many?
Use Title Case in Your Headlines
Lot’s of back and forth on this with people having their own preferences but apparently the data’s pretty clear. When it comes to headlines and titles, don’t use all caps or sentence case, capitalize each word and your opening rate goes up.
Who knew!?
Further Reading
If you’re interested here’s a great article from Belle Beth Cooper that digs deeper into the science behind headlines.
Written while listening to: The Bench Dev 5 by music2work2 - good music to work to!
Image credit: Three Sages by Michael Summers on Flickr