I hate clickbait more than anyone and I rarely click on it. The very fact that a “news” site is using a clickbait title is enough for me to know I don’t want to read whatever they have to say.
THAT SAID… this is an interesting study that we can all learn from.
“The folks at Buzzsumo decided to crunch the numbers. From a meticulous analysis of 100 million different headlines published between March 10 and May 10, 2017, they derived several fascinating insights into the elements that make up a viral headline.”
The clear winner? Using the three little words (or ‘trigram’) “will make you” in your headline. It had TWICE the engagement of the second best phrase “this is why”.
Why is “will make you” so powerful? It helps sell the BENEFIT of reading the article. This shouldn’t surprise anyone in marketing, where our mantra is always “sell the sizzle, not the steak”. People don’t care about your product or service – they care about how it will make their lives better. And this is more proof.