Believe…

I’ve recently been researching methods of building curiosity and I’ve come across a number of interesting articles on writing newspaper headlines, blog posts and Google Ad words and have a set out a summary of some of the ones that I like best below.

Concepts to convey in your headline

Ask a Question

Simply asking a question raises the reader’s curiosity and they will be more likely to read the contents. See the Key Words to Use section below for the best words to use in your question.

Suggest Breaking News/Discovery

If it sounds like its some kind of breaking news, people will be more inclined to read it to get the lo-down before everyone else does. There’s that quiet satisfaction that most people feel being able to share something of import with their friends that no-one else knows yet.

The discovery element is very similar and if you can combine the two, you’ll capture not just the news hungry, but also the knowledge hungry: a new thing is almost always going to be more interesting than the same old thing discussed ad nauseum (how quickly does news get old!?).

Linked to Latest Events

Leverage the latest search trends and social interests/fashions and build them into your title. Relevance, combined with breaking/discovery news and a question is going to combine to provide a very strong call to action.

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Key words to use in your title

How

How To Make Your Blog Post Irresistible…

We are naturally curious and people will always be interested in reading stuff that looks like its going to provide us with value.

“How” implies that there’s free knowledge being given away.

Take all those endless sites offering a “free e-book on xyz” if you give us your email address for example: Personally I hate them, but they work and I still sign up anyway because the title suggests that I’ll get a load of really useful information as a result. Besides, I can always set up a Google filter to remove all emails from them straight to the bin…

These

How Many Of These Key Words Are You Using To Build Curiosity?

Used with the “How” word, it suggests that there are in fact several important pieces of information in the content and the reader cannot answer yes or no to the headline: they’ll have to open and read the content in order to make up their mind.

Why

Why Do Some Guys Get Nearly All The Girls?

“Why” implies high value content: answers to a question that is of import to the reader. As an added way of increasing the authenticity of such a headline, off set the “Why” with words that suggest that its not the absolute truth. In the example above, I have included “Some” and “Nearly”.

Which

Which High Impact Attention Grabbers Are You Using?

Piques the reader’s curiosity by making them ask themselves what high impact attention grabbers there are and whether they are missing a trick…

What

What to Always, ALWAYS Include In Your Email Signatures…

Very similar to “Which” and allows you to dictate rather than question. As a rule, this is going to be used the least and is best used for subjects that Everybody knows about or wants to know about.

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The next step

Of course there’s a lot more to writing an irresistible subject line or headline such as using emotive and powerful words, presuppositions etc. but get the basics right and you’ll probably find you’re already three quarters of the way there!

Which other situations could you use some of these? Do leave your ideas as comments.

Here’s a couple to start you off:

Blog posts (well duh! lol)

Marketing emails to prospects and customers (your boss even?)

Messages to people you like: to build attraction and curiosity (could you use these in text messages?)

How could you use them in actual conversation?

Thanks to Samuel Ng and Tom Thrush for the info.