TIPS 1-5:
Headlines

Increase click-throughs with titles that pique curiosity and promise value

#1 It's all about "you"

If there's one undeniable truth about human behavior, it's that people are incredibly interested in themselves. You can dramatically increase your click-throughs by just referencing the audience. Using words like "you" or "your" have been proven to get noticed.

A professor at NI Norwegian Business School ran an experiment over a four-month period, testing the performance of various headlines when shared on a Twitter account of 6,000 followers. They found that headlines that used the second person got 175% more clicks than those that didn't.

#2 Question time

The space between what we know and what we don't is called the curiosity gap and it plays a key role in all top-funnel marketing writing. Framing your headline as a question opens up a new curiosity gap in your reader, which can dramatically increase click-throughs.

That same study by the professor in Norway also tested headlines written as questions. They found that question headlines got on average 150% more clicks than declarative ones. However, they do admit that the questions they tested used more enticing words than the statements (so pinch of salt).

#3 Be a negative Nancy

You know how you were always told: "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all"? Forget that. You're a marketing writer and, like it or not, it pays to be negative (at least in headings - stay tuned).

Outbrain published a study on 65,000 paid link titles between April and July 2012. The average click-through rate on titles containing negative superlatives was 63% higher than their positive counterparts. It's hard to say exactly what triggers this behavior, but it's been theorized that positive headlines come across as cliched or hiding a hidden motive, whereas negative headlines feel more authentic and impartial.

#4 It's a numbers game

The wait for an Uber isn't actually shorter than the wait for a cab, but it feels like it is because we know exactly how many minutes we need to wait. Headlines are the same. Clicking through to an article or a webpage is a big ask - people are busy. But, when you give them a number (5 ways to..., etc.), the transparency makes the time sink feel like less of a big deal.

Conductor carried out a survey on headline types and found that the most preferred headlines by respondents (36%) were those that contained numbers. The second most-preferred type was a full 15% less than this. Also, female respondents were bigger fans of numerical headlines than males (39% vs 32%).

#5 How to...

An alternative to asking a question, the "how to" headline is another way to open a curiosity gap. It also suggests that your content is going to be practical, so it's important to actually meet that expectation if you don't want your reader to bounce as soon as they realize they've been duped by yet another fluff piece.

In the Conductor survey, the "how to" headlines were voted the third most clickable, very close behind second place. Why are they so popular? It all comes down to clarity. People are drowning in information out there. They want to learn new things, but they have to filter everything for something relevant to their interests. A direct "how to" headline allows them to see instantly whether that's something they want to learn or not.