What is Clickbait?

You have probably ever clicked on a type of content (especially a headline) that catches your attention. If so, then you know what clickbait is and how it works.

Clickbait headlines typically aim to explore the content, thus acting as a bait. The readers are asked to click on the content to satisfy their curiosity. These are usually sensationalist headlines that are not always followed by quality copy.

What is Clickbait?

Do you want to know what clickbait means in Spanish? There are several translations for this English neologism commonly used in our language. Clickbait is translated into Spanish as ciberanzuelo, cibercebo de clics, o cebo o anzuelo de clics. When you refer to a catchy title whose main objective is to make the reader curious, you can simplify and call it clickbait.

This term also has a negative connotation, since its use is usually associated with misleading headlines, sensationalism, and poor and low-quality content.

Clickbait examples:

There’s nothing like examples to help you understand what clickbait is. Here are some!

• You won’t believe the end of the story of…
• The news that you can’t stop reading
• This article will change your life!
• The 10 Most Amazing Things in the World
• The 5 reasons why…

These types of phrases are seen quite often in online content. As you can see in this example from the digital magazine Playground, these are flashy, rather general and uninformative headlines. Finding almost nothing about the actual content of the article, the reader is forced to click to find out more. That’s the trick! It works!

Be careful when using it!

If you are wondering whether you should use this tool in your content, the answer is “it depends”. The first thing to ask yourself is, why do I want my audience to click on the headline? If your site has advertising and your goal is simply to attract traffic to generate revenue, go ahead! This is the key to the success of many sites such as Buzzfeed, Playground or Upworthy, among others.

However, if, on the contrary, you are looking to offer quality content, improve the image of your brand and retain your readers, you must bear in mind that a striking headline will not be enough. In fact, if you abuse sensationalism without offering content that adds value, you could even lose visits to your website. Put yourself in your audience’s shoes for a moment and try to answer this question: “Why click on a headline again if I already know that its content is only going to waste my time?”In the long run, misuse of clickbait could affect your reputation.

Benefits of Clickbait:

The main advantage of clickbait is that it can help you generate web traffic, and with it, potential revenue. You can use it in any of your email marketing campaigns, but I recommend that the headline is always accompanied by a quality text. If so, you will also be improving your opening rate, one of the most important metrics in email marketing.

As always, we recommend that you take care of the texts and images you include in your messages. In addition to clickbait, there are many other techniques that can help you make your emails more attractive. For example, you can use storytelling or personalization.

Conclusion

In general, clickbait is nothing new. Sensationalist headlines and the yellow press have been using this way of catching the reader since journalism existed. It is just another email marketing tool and resource.

Remember that your headlines should not mislead your audience. The disappointment will be much worse for your brand than if your reader had never clicked on your link!