As the name so vividly suggests, clickbait is a combination of annoyingly tempting videos, news ‘facts’, must-have knowledge and uncovered secrets – content all designed to lure you to click through to a web page and scroll on and on, inevitably while you swim through streaming margins of never-ending advertisements.
Have you ever skimmed pages of someone’s childhood memories before reaching the recipe you were really interested in?
Have you ever given in to a curious headline and clicked through to a story only to find that the words have been twisted to give a false impression of the real truth?
Then you have unfortunately fallen victim to clickbait.
Our brains seem to crave a good headline and trivial, newsy information. So, is there a lesson here for legitimate corporate content?
While it’s obvious that corporate websites should avoid this type of cheap content, the psychology behind clickbait is something we can learn from and use to keep up with readers’ expectations and desires.
Here are some ideas to debate with your communications team.
Clickbait trait #1: Online readers have short attention spans
Keep your content short and in bite-sized chunks, with key messages in paragraphs small enough to fit on a mobile phone screen.
Use the old ‘press pyramid’, the inverted diagram that puts the main information first, and narrows down to other information at the end of your page in case readers scroll off and start on a new page.
Clickbait trait #2: People love to be first to know anything
Include information on your website about the elements of your products and services that make your business different. In Marketing 101 terms, this used to be called your ‘unique selling point’ (or USP).
If your company has an interesting backstory – a family business, a small start-up, a niche product with loyal customers – then mine that information for short fact snippets.
These days you could also stand out through your sustainability strategy and policies for anti-corruption; environment, social and governance (ESG); and diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I). And statistics on these elements will be crucial for your annual report as well.
Clickbait trait #3: Readers love to learn about other people
While celebrities are usually unwitting victims in clickbait content, your company teams are people with jobs, hobbies, volunteer roles and career histories that could make for interesting reading. And of course, this is where your regular social media updates come into play.
Clickbait trick #4: You won’t believe…
Unbelievable celebrity weight loss/gain miracles don’t have to be the only transformations that readers find intriguing.
If it’s relevant to your corporate product, you could include ‘before and after’ photos and videos of your services in use or your products being made. This could (of course) suit fashion and makeup, but also storage solutions, cleaning products and services, home decorating, arts and crafts.
Clickbait trait #5: One simple thing you should try before it’s too late…
If your services lend themselves to product testing, work out a timetable and strategy for filming and releasing video or photographic content of your products in action in real life.
Brand ambassadors don’t have to be noisy, opinionated influencers – you might have genuinely loyal customers who will happily provide a testimonial or two.
Clickbait trait #6: Pavlov’s dog and Skinner’s pigeons – click and you’ll be rewarded!
When we indulge in clickbait, we are behaving like Pavlov’s dog or Skinner’s pigeons (conditioned to salivate or peck for pellets of food) – we are rewarding ourselves with easy-to-read, colourful but empty-calorie content that helps to distract us from other material we should be reading and other tasks we should be completing.
If you have genuinely relevant corporate material that is long and detailed, then keep it separate and ask readers to click and download instead.
You could also apply this to informative ‘how to’ or ‘checklist’ information about your services. A short PDF guide that your website visitors can subscribe to read also lets you build an email list for future product updates and e-newsletters.
In conclusion
The next time you are caught by clickbait, think about why you took the bait. There could be lessons for improving your own corporate content with small readable chunks, and interesting facts and figures that give readers a ‘reward’ of fast knowledge about your company and your team.
Need help refining your corporate content?
Email us at team@accuracymatters.co.uk or book a call with Rachel.
