Researchers in Norway tested what marketers are trying to find for years: How to write the perfect headline that really attracts readers and makes them read on. According to a study published in the journal Social Influence, the common denominator of a successful headline is a question.
The research was conducted at the Norwegian Business School and tested results on Twitter and a Norwegian site similar to eBay. The results of four types of headlines were compared:
- A declarative headline
- A question headline
- A question headline with cues directed towards the reader (eg, using second person)
- A rhetorical question suggesting the answer
What makes people click?
The absolute winner is the third type of headline - a question that somehow refers to readers. Second place goes to general questions. Declarative headlines took the third place and the last place went to rhetorical question headlines.
The research attempted to control many other variables - posts were published at the same time of the day. Similar topics were chosen so that the result is not distorted by interest in a special subject, etc.
The weakness of the study is that group of readers was probably culturally coherent, therefore, it is not clear whether results would be completely identical in the other countries. In addition, only a few topics were communicated, and one can not certainly say whether the headlines were written really effectively. A small change can have a huge impact on readership, ie. a better written declarative headline can gain more clicks than a question.
What should you take from that?
Even questions can be badly formulated: A yes-no question allows the reader to get an answer without having to read further. Therefore, it leads to a decline in interest. In addition, any benefits of a good headline will be lost if you use it too often. Sometimes it's just good to change style to keep the audience's attention.
The research should be taken as an inspiration that will give impetus to test your own style. But a clear recipe for what works and what doesn't, that does not exist. If yes, everyone would be using it already!
-th-