I just opened my daily digest from one of the LinkedIn groups that I belong to. Which one of these titles would you click on?
- 3 Weird Marketing Tricks that…
- Top 3 Must Haves For a Facebook…
- 3 Major Hurdles In The…
- 3 Advanced Hacks…
In my reader, I see some variety in headlines like:
- …a Masterstroke…
- Every small business…
- Why every content…
- Your Ace…
- Ten questions…
- 10 Risks Most Companies…
- 5 New…
- 21 Tips…
Two posts on the 7 deadly sins by two different authors had NO SIN IN COMMON. So aren’t there 14 deadly sins or is one (both?) of them full of….?
But then I really laughed when I read “4 1/2 ways to…” (I didn’t click the link.)
Give me a break! So, because somebody says put a number in your title, that makes it worth reading?
One blogger put “Best Sales Post Ever”, “7 Changes”, “Change or Go Extinct”, “10 Keys” in their last 4 post titles.
So, what’s the point. They’re all trying to be heard above the noise that they are part of. Inbound and social is becoming as annoying and meaningless as outbound and advertising.
You want proof? I read a blog post this week about a self absorbed Twitterer unfollowing 16,000 people. He did it because one of his gods unfollowed 131,000 people earlier. It’s a trend. Many people believe that what they have to say is important, but all the rest of it is noise.
Tricks don’t work in sales. Tricks don’t work in marketing. Be real. Be content driven. Get your content in front of people that WANT to read it.
RainMakers & Sales Rock Stars 
Rick,This is a great point. It is funny, this goes back to the main and original idea that build the inbound marketing methodology… deliver remarkable content! Over the last 4 years, I’ve been putting content out, but it is very easy to start trying tricks like this to help boost your readers. In the end, as you mention the real value is a great article that delivers remarkable content whether you use tricks or not, the article will be valuable if your first goal is to make it useful or educational to others.
My experience is that people don’t like being tricked. Even if the intention is honorable. Much better to get found accidentally, even if it’s accidentally on purpose.