How to use “curiosity drivers” just like clickbait on Quora
The other day I told you about how copy in the coffee market is unhinged.
But I actually think Quora is worse.
When I downloaded the app earlier this year, I thought it could help me with market research.
I haven’t really found that to be the case.
Why: Quora has become more of an “entertainment” platform than a Q&A platform. You can even grow a sort of following on Quora, which makes it similar to the other social sites.
And for that reason, a lot of the content is straight-up clickbait.
Take the following article headlines for examples, which appeared in my Evening Summary last night:
Farmer's Pig Gives Birth, He Takes A Closer Look And Realize It's A Human Baby
A 90-Year-Old Woman Was Left To Die Without Any Food, Something Hits Her That Left Everyone Shocked
Mom sees something coming out of baby's face, when she find out what it was, it left her in Awe
GIRL MAKES 6 BABYSITTERS QUIT, MOM SETS UP CAMERA
Woman Wears Moms Ring For 25 Years, Later Jeweler Reveals The Shocking Truth
Doctors Gave These Conjoined Twins 24 Hours To Live. But Something Unbelievable Happened
I only clicked the first article (about the pig baby) to see where it led.
From what I could tell, it was just a bizarre, made-up story hosted on a site with a ton of display and native ads.
That seems to be the goal with these headlines.
Spark *just* enough curiosity to get you to click through and then consume a ton of ads.
Despite how terrible they are though, I think there’s something to learn from them.
Basically, each one can be sliced into three “curiosity drivers” that people have a hard time resisting … at least, depending on the sophistication of the market.
The strange and unusual (Half pig half human baby?)
Drama and controversy (Why’d the mom fire 6 babysitters?)
Secrets and conspiracies (What was wrong with the ring she wore for 25 years?)
Each of these curiosity drivers taps into something deep in our lizard brain that leaves us begging for more information.
Now … Do I think these headlines are “good”? No. They’re terrible. And they’re simply designed to pull as many clicks as possible from low-intent traffic.
But the emotional drivers are there regardless.
And if you can tap into the psychological strategy they use — the unusual, the drama, the secrets — you can easily strengthen the pull of your headlines.
David Patrick
