The Death of “The Death of” Articles
Does this headline irritate you?
Every week there is someone touting the death of something or other - usually internet marketing related (The Death of Adsense etc). (I guess I am the latest).
The fact is that the first person to come up with the title probably got a decent response rate to it.
The second person probably did ok too.
The third was an unoriginal dolt.
The rest were just plain irritating.
And that brings me to the main point.
Attention grabbing headlines lose their punch when you use them continually on the same people. Response rates will go down and CTR will be reduced.
If you follow internet marketing forums, you can already see that people are starting to become disenchanted with “the death of” articles. That niche has been hammered with them for the last 6 months and the only thing headlines of that nature are likely to engender is a brief chuckle or a roll of the eyes.
Other niches probably aren’t so jaded just yet, but the general rule still stands: Do not hammer the same people with the same headline time after time or the headline will begin to lose its power.
Now, there are enough good, effective headlines that you can use without constant repetition to drag in prospective readers.
“How to” articles can be applied to any niche. “Top 10″ articles are also ok (but still used quite heavily). “10 Ways to…” articles haven’t been hammered too hard just yet. And those are just off the top of my head. There are hundreds more titles that you can rotate in order to draw a good CTR and readership.
It just takes a little imagination and a little less (obvious) immitation.
Technorati Tags: copywriting, headlines, marketing
