Ling Ling the Panda Uses Content Marketing to Build Awareness...
Posted by Eddie Yu on Tue, Aug 04, 2009
Okay - this is not about Ling Ling the Panda. But there's a point to this title. I needed your attention. Did it pique your interest?
Here's the premise - I, like many of you, follow more than a dozen blog feeds about various SEO and Content Marketing subjects. But on a good day, I might read one or two posts. Why? ...Well, I am busier than a genetically unique male Panda in a species-saving breeding program. We all are. Well, maybe not all of us. But many of us are! Plus there are thousands, millions of other things on the web that capture my interest.
So, as soon as I sit down at my desk in the morning, it's go time. When I check my feeds, am I going to read that post titled, "Top Ten SEO Strategies??" I don't think so. Been there, done that, over, and over, and over again. Instead, the article title that might catch my attention is, "Brazilian Flying Squirrel Generates $100,000 in Revenue From Adsense," or "David Hasselhoff Knows Content Marketing Better Than You Do!"
Back to my point - Give me a headline that triggers my imagination and I might just take the minute or so to read the article. If the article title makes me wonder how that could possibly be or if there is something in that article that could maybe inspire new ideas, then I might just want to find out what's behind it.
Now, don't get me wrong. No matter what, the title must be relevant to the subject of your article or post. Otherwise you will quickly lose credibility. But a great article is useless if not read. And attracting the reader's interest is the job of a well crafted headline that stands out from the crowd.
Take it from Ling Ling. Not because he's one sexy panda, but because it makes him interesting.