We Researched Clickbait… What Happened Next Will Inspire You!

Wikipedia describes clickbait as:

“A pejorative term describing web content that is aimed at generating online advertising revenue, especially at the expense of quality or accuracy, relying on sensationalist headlines to attract click-throughs and to encourage forwarding of the material over online social networks. “

Much like pornography, you know clickbait when you see it. Headlines that promise to “shock” or “amaze” or “inspire” you. Sexy declarative statements that entice you to visit a story that never lives up to the expectations set before you clicked. It’s a cheap way to generate visits to a website or a blog. For writers or companies that are paid by the click, these types of dramatic (and usually inaccurate) headlines are their bread and butter.

As citizens of the Interwebs and professional communicators, we abhor clickbait (unless we’re doing it ironically!) and think you should to. And we have three (shocking!) reasons why:

• It shows a lack of confidence in your content. If you have strong content, you don’t have to resort to cheap tricks. We believe that captivating images and meaningful words will win the day. The Internet is littered with low-quality pictures and poorly thrown-together copy. We don’t want to contribute to the landfill.
• Clickbait campaigns lack vision. Just because something is easy or popular doesn’t mean it is good. We believe in taking the time to partner with our clients to come up with big ideas and grand concepts. Will it be more work than a cheap campaign? Sure. Will it be worth it? Absolutely.
• Sloppy content cheapens brands. In the pursuit of click-throughs and conversions, you can lose sight of your identity and actually harm the brand and message you’ve worked so hard to create. No small bump in traffic is worth damaging your reputation or being known as tacky or misleading.

In closing: Just Say No to clickbait in your professional and personal Internetting. And if you need help coming up with quality concepts or content, our team of digital dreamers is just a click away.

P.S. We may hate clickbait, but we LOVE the Clickbait Headline Generator.