Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

It turns out longer is better—at least when it comes to writing headlines for branded content.

 

Branded content technology provider Polar analyzed a bunch of data provided by premium publishers, such as Oath and Gannett, to see how variation in headlines affected key performance indicators (KPIs).

 

It found that branded content headlines between 90 and 99 characters achieved a clickthrough rate (CTR) of 0.43%, higher than headlines with fewer characters.

 

The “more is better” theory also held true for the number of words included in a headline. Polar reported that headlines with 16 words garnered a CTR of 0.33%. By comparison, pithy headlines of just four words recorded an average CTR of less than half that, at just 0.14%.

 

Some other tips Polar gleaned from its work? Numbers and special characters also resulted in a bump in CTRs. So feel free to figure out how to squeeze an ampersand in there....

One crucial way to get more people to read your blog posts is by writing effective titles and headlines. But we know that's easier said than done -- which is why we teamed up with Market Domination Media to create the infographic below. Check it out to learn which words drive people to click on your content, engage with it, and convert into leads and customer. You'll also learn which title length is best for social, for search, for clickthrough rate, and for best post-click engagement....

The English language is old. Like, really old.

It’s old enough that its speakers use a good many idiomatic sayings that were thought up decades or even centuries ago, and that use words people don’t really say much anymore.

That can turn into a problem when those out-of-date words sound like other, much more common words. Especially if the sound-alike word makes a certain sort of sense in the context. Here’s the thing, though: It’s still wrong, even if it seems right....