Can Clickbait Content Used for Good?
Web content like news stories, blog posts, videos, and infographics can use clickbait to drive an audience to click on it.
But, clickbait has been debated on for its tricky and misleading content, a negative connotation.
Marketers, however, claim that clickbait content, when used wisely and genuinely can boost clickthroughs and page views on your blogs and social media posts that can eventually lead to conversion and increase in revenue and profit.
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What is Clickbait?
From paid search specialist David Ambrogio, clickbait content is “any content with sensationalist headlines used to encourage clicks or drive ad revenue”
The “-bait” part of the term, as in fishing, is defined by the use of a “hook” or an enticement presented to entice an audience.
How can Clickbait be Used for Good for your Business?
Neil Patel wrote that when a clickbait is done correctly, they become one of the best ways to get people’s attention to your content.
As long as your company has a solid product that can actually help customers and make sure that they get what they expect, you can attract more traffic to your site that will lead to an increased conversion rate and more profit.
Content marketers use clickbait content to:
- Attract attention
- Encourage visitors to click a link to a particular web page
- Get people to your site by hook or by crook
What makes Clickbait Work for Your Business and How can it be Done Correctly?
Optimizing titles for high click-through rates can drive more attention from users.
You don’t have to sensationalize to encourage searchers to click and connect with your content.
You can create headlines on your search pages that stand out in the crowd.
Highly engaging and motivating headlines in a good clickbait are provocative, enticing, and likewise true to the content of the article or video linked to it.
What is the bait? A great, accurate headline that engages searchers to click supported by content with great value that delivers on the promise.
Here are ways a clickbait can be done correctly to bring benefits to your business:
- Deliver a clickbait title that addresses the behavior or need of your audience.
Steve Kurniawan of Nine Peaks Media said that properly understanding the behavior, needs, issues, and the things your audience love is the key to a successful clickbait title.
- Deliver a clickbait title that appeals to the reader’s curiosity. They work because people are naturally curious creatures.
- Two categories of clickbait titles, according to Patsy Nearkhou, marketing manager at the Talkative UK that you can use are:
Spectacular Headline
A headline that addresses the reader directly and is peppered with grandiose statements containing several superlatives.
Example: Marketers Tried These 6 Insane Influence Hacks…You Won’t Believe the Results!
Incorporate your seemingly boring topic with something that people care about.
Example: Donald Trump Secretly Told The New York Times What He Really Thinks About Immigration
Leverage emotions with a hot topic that will gain eyeballs from your audience.
Example: A Black Man Wore Different Kinds of Clothing To See If People Treated Him Differently
Mysterious Headline or the Cliffhanger
It is not shouting out, but it is intentionally mystifying.
It’s teasing your audience, leaving them to want more. It’s a pattern interruption at its finest as Neil Patel says — teasing just enough that there’s no way your audience will not click to see more.
Example: The One Word I Promised to Stop Using in 2018.
Things Nobody Tells You About Long Distance Relationships
Write a killer headline with a hook. The most powerful headlines that receive the most clicks are polarizing. These are the headlines that are at positive or negative extremes.
Follow through with an equally good article that delivers what you stated in your headline. Your audience trust is an indispensable commodity if you want your business to thrive.
Write at least 10 clear and clever headlines and pick the best one. Use headline formulas to help you narrow down to the best headline. Run them through CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer.
Use creative and effective headlines. Do not overuse because doing so will bring little to no positive results. Angelo Frisia, CEO of Sunlight Media, suggests some clever and attention-grabbing headlines that marketers can use for their own content:
25 ______ That Will Change the Way You _____
I Tried _____. And Even I Was Surprised About What Happened Next
When You Learn About _____ You’ll Never _____ Again
Here Are 11 _____That _____. And They’re Backed by Science.
Use These 20 Simple Hacks for More _____. #5 Is Awesome.
This _____ Makes _____ 10x Better.
Drop enticing adjectives in your headline to make your link better and more engaging. A straightforward label may not be good enough to get noticed.
Example: The Ultimate Guide to Copywriting instead of using A Guide to Copywriting
Update your clickbait. Current information is more attractive to searchers and will increase your click rate. Make sure your screenshots in the post and the date in the headline are up to date.
Create an enticing headline and a well-structured content that can manipulate your audience’s emotions into sharing your content. The stronger the emotional response of your audience to your clickbait, the more likely they are to share it. You can increase traffic through shared content.
Check the definitive checklist for content creators of the six primary emotions associated with social-friendly content based on the work of renowned psychologist Paul Ekman.
Furthermore, Nicola Brown from Skyword wrote how using clickbait psychology and clickbait content features like professionalism, the use of effective language, humor, and variety can make a clickbait content headline more compelling.
A Click-worthy Clickbait that Does Not Disappoint
Vital to content marketing are more pageviews, more social shares, and more brand awareness. A click-worthy clickbait content can result in all the above to help your visitors remember your content and your brand.
However, grabbing your audience’s attention and engaging them are the defining measurements of your marketing success in clickbait content.
A customer that is totally engaged in your content will not only browse through but should have read your content in its entirety.
This is a more reliable indicator of which posts or contents on your site are truly the most engaging.
Do not just let your audience click, do not disappoint them as well.
Always align your clickbait content to the expectation you promised on your clickbait.
This way, your customers will keep on coming back for more and invite others to do so as well.
