3 Psychological Triggers that Can Move Your Audience from Indifference to Desire

3 Psychological Triggers that Can Move Your Audience from Indifference to Desire

Reader Comments (59)

  1. One of the biggest emotional triggers for me fear and I use that emotion on a daily basis to beat procrastination and consistently take action in my business. As noted in this article, a headline that poses a question which can trigger the emotion of fear will probably get a fairly high clickthrough.

  2. A very nice article.

    For me one of the most important things is what you touch on when you mention how certain headlines work better for the Copyblogger readers – knowing your audience. Knowing who your readers are and what makes them tick, makes it that much easier to appeal to their curiosity.

    Some very good tips I’ll be sure to use 🙂

  3. Just entering into the field of content marketing and learning how to trade information for attention. I found this very useful in that it shows how people can be drawn in by what they don’t know than by what they already know. If you look at it closely, you realize that curiosity is how we sell. No one will buy a solution to a problem they can solve by themselves. So presenting a new solution stirs up their curiosity and if you do your job well enough, can earn you the sale.

    Thanks Amy for sharing.

  4. There’s nothing more disappointing (in the blogging world that is) than browsing an incredibly intriguing headline, only to find out that you’ve been misled.

    That being said, when you read a great headline and the content actually delivers, you leave feeling more satisfied, like I felt after finishing this post. 🙂

    Really great writing Amy.

    • Great point. Being a headline Ninja only helps if the article itself delivers. Delivering on promises is a skill in itself. (And Amy did that very well!)

    • I’m with you, Greg! There’s nothing worse in the blogging world than a completely misleading headline. The practice puts a sour taste in my mouth and makes me far less likely to visit that blog again.

      Great post, Amy! Even though headlines that pique curiosity are great, I think I would still read a Copyblogger article titled “How Your Writing Is Like A 7-Foot Banana.” I imagine only great things would come from that. 😉

    • I’m glad the headline lived up to it – had me worried then 🙂 Poor headlines have been abused so much that more people are ignoring them because they think they know what’s going to be delivered, or don’t believe that the article will deliver.

      That’s where tinkering with the curiosity trigger can really help you stand out and deliver…

      Ooh, was getting all “Adam Ant” then… well, almost

  5. Amy, this is a great post and its going to work for me more than just a post.
    I have to read and read and read until i get the main picture. Its going
    to work like a course for me

    Sheyi

  6. Fabulous post Amy. I’m a curious dude by nature, but I’ve never really understood how to generate it in others. Powerful stuff.

  7. Great info. clear. points, nice follow through. Some good tips to think about (and… perfect timing as I’ve got some writing I’ll be doing this afternoon.!!)

    thanks Amy
    ~
    Christoffer

    PS — anyone reading.. DO check out Amy’s sales page — one of the BEST video I’ve seen ( it’s like a real person talking to you.. naturally, friendly…. believable!)

      • Yep, and your practice shows… good results ! ( things like .. you smile.. and leave pauses …. things like your voice varies in pitch. (especially when you do your pitch.. if you know what I mean!!?!.)

  8. A great reminder that all marketing is connected to human emotion. In short, we’re tasked with creating “want”, and generating curiosity is a great way to do it.

  9. This is great — your headline was a prime example of this post. I immediately saw it in my inbox, clicked it, and dived in.

    Well done.

  10. Spot on advice Amy!

    Don’t overdo it. Like cooking a fish, as Lao Tzu said, don’t overdo it. You want to get it just right. Too over the top and people will ignore it. If you introduce little curiosity, people have been there, read that, and you get no clicks.

    Nail it, and you’re golden.

    Thanks Amy!

    Ryan

  11. Love the idea.

    Creating a great headline with curiosity is definitely the best way to attract readers to read the whole post.

    Thank you Amy for this great post. Really love it. 😀

  12. There’s nothing wrong with teasing readers as long as you deliver them what you promise in the headline, and you’ve done just that with this post. I can’t tell you how often I click on blogs because of the catchy headline and then immediately click away due to a virtually unrelated article. It’s disheartening. Anyway, nice work!

    P.S. I have to know — what happens when a curiosity demon wreaks havoc? And what does it look like? I’m intrigued! 😉

  13. Nothing sparks my curiosity more than a headline which promises to teach me something unexpected and immediately helpful about a service I already use. I can’t resist headlines that promise new tricks for an old site.

  14. I don’t like the fear factor – too much of it in politics. I’ll take the honesty factor any day, any time. Love the curiosity factor – you’re right on with that one!

  15. I the best way to move your audience to a stress free enviroment is by building relationships that will reward you in a positive way. Building relationship should be via social media by infusing energy and passion.

  16. Great points. I think that I react very well to emotional headlines, but, of course, just as anybody else, I also click on headlines that awaken my curiosity.

    Yes, there have been many times that I have been disappointed by headlines. There are always bloggers who don’t get it right and over promise, but never deliver in the actual article. So, you have to be careful with promising too much and you have to hit exactly what you are writing about and not just go for the clicks. Nobody will stick around if you have a great headline but an awful post.

    • Thanks Anne-Sophie, It’s a difficult temptaions to resist because you know a big promise in a the headline is going to pull some clicks, , but you don’t get many opportunities to disappoint readers before they just stop coming back.

  17. Your article headline stimulated my curiosity. I am always looking for ways to improve my headline writing skills as well as my article writing skills. Good article. Thank you for the tips.

  18. I second what Lauren said!

    Amy, your writing style and copy knowledge are both just superb. I love how you pick at the real little habits most of us have (such as endless wiki surfing) to drive home a fantastic lesson on persuasive writing.

    And I was pleased to see you talked about when to stop as well. If you never deliver on your tease, well then people are just going to walk away. 🙂

    • Thanks Danielle!

      I have lost many hours to endless wiki-surfing. It’s a problem I’m trying to get help for (but I keep looking for the answer on Wikipedia and so…) 🙂

  19. Thanks, Amy – great tips! That balance is such a tricky dance, isn’t it?

    How about combining fear and curiosity: “Is Your Date is Serial Killer? Five Ways to Find Out”

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