Headlines to Make People Click
You can talk all you want about content, but we are all disappointed if people don’t click. Click-through of any kind is the holy grail of the modern media world.
But what is strong and compelling enough to receive the oh-so-valuable click?
An ebook by Hubspot and Outbrain says there are three areas that tend to attract more clicks:
- Headlines with bracketed descriptions. These performed 36% better than those without brackets.
- Visuals and headlines with the word “photos” increase click-through.
- Headlines with the word “who” performed better than those with “why.”
The study identified many of the words click-baiters use, which now diminish the trust quotient of using those words: Words such as “need” and “now,” or “how to” and “tip.” Other words such as “magic,” “best,” “easy” and “secret” also reduce click-throughs.
However, there is no hard and fast formula for using these words. You must A/B test headlines against each other. One word that might cut down on click-throughs may yield high engagement.
Just like with any newspaper or magazine article, many will read the headline, but few read the rest of the article. Key words lead the robots to your post, the headline leads the humans to the story.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.
After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.
He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”
Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”
One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.
Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.