So you clicked on my post, huh? Just goes to show that a snappy title gets 'em every time.
But I saw some marketing in Phoenix today that I thought was really slick. Baiting people works for signage- because I flipped a u-turn to take this photograph- and it works for blog posts, because you are reading this right now. Aren't you?
This is obviously a political sign. Full disclosure: I didn't know who Kyrsten Sinema before today and I am not endorsing or condeming her. But her enemy's campaign manager is a genius.
And the sign just doesn't give me enough information, does it? It just teases me with this text about stay at home moms being "leeches"- which shocks me- and so I felt compelled to use my smartphone to scan the QR code.
It took me to a website, of course.
I think this is especially awesome marketing. Although I'd never heard of this person, I still had to find out why she allegedly thinks stay-at-home moms are leeches. I just had to. If it would have been blue, I would have known it was a Democrat. If it was red, I would have known she was a Republican. This sign, amongst all the other signs on the corner, stood out more than any of the brightly colored red, white and blues.
When we do this with blog posts, it's called "link baiting." Sometimes, I write posts with titles that are so absurd, that I get thousands of hits. One time, I wrote a blog here on ActiveRain and it made one ActiveRainer so angry, he sent me a nasty email without reading my post. That made me smile. I had done my job, although a bit too well in that one circumstance.
If you can make someone angry, before they read your post (and get a big ol' smile on their face once they land on it), you did good. Or, if you have more tact than I, you could make someone laugh to get them to click on your post. But you have to evoke emotion with your titles.
Once somebody clicks on my compelling title, they might like the actual content enough to "like" it or "share" it, which creates natural, inbound links for me. If they really like it, they might blog about it or reblog and create an even better link to my post, with even more juice.
Link baiting on the Internet, or here in The Rain is not a new revelation. Smart bloggers have always used it. I've written about it before.
But this is link baiting in real life! Out on the street! How the heck did this person get me to go to a website while I was out in the sunshine?
I love it.
Imagine an ad that tells you nothing, but compels you to learn more.
"Homes Exploding all over Phoenix: You Need To Read This"-- with a QR code and that's it.
Now imagine that same sign or magazine ad, with lots of information, and an agent's website on the bottom. Are you going to go to that website?
I don't think so.
Who cares?
But with the QR code, I don't know what's in store for me, so I have to go.
I have to be honest, if I saw an ad that said, "If you live in Phoenix, You'd Better See This!", I would scan that code and check it out. I would get sucked right in. And then, I either land on an awesome webpage that achieves it's purpose or I land on crap and I click away. But at least I went there. At least they have a chance of impressing me.
"Your Mortgage Broker is Lying To You: Proof Here!" Black text on a white background with a QR code taking up most of the sign's or magazine ad space is, in my opinion, pure awesome sauce.
If this little sign had a link, I wouldn't have written the link down, and I definitely wouldn't have typed any URL's into my little iPhone Safari browser. I wouldn't have looked twice at it, in fact. But this made me flip a u-turn. Come on! Leeching mamas?
Whether it's in "real life" or blogging, baiting people to visit your site or post is important.
The second most important part is making sure they land on something compelling.
Then you got 'em.
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