Simple And Powerful Ways To Break State And Command Attention With Your Content

Well it’s not so obvious to everybody that we all get marketed to multiple times a day all the time. We often just don’t realize this because we ignore most of it anyway.
The same applies for marketers on the Internet too. With so many blog posts, articles, videos all over the joint, we tend to ignore perhaps 90% of them, maybe even more.
Keeping this in mind, we also know our target audience is the same way.
The will ignore 90% of the things that they feel are irrelevant to them and just continue on with their day. Obviously, if our content is treated the same, then we don’t get traffic and we don’t get leads and we don’t sell stuff or get paid.
So now we’ve established that the very first priority for any marketer, online or offline, no matter what form, is to break state or grab attention.
If you read content from the best copywriters then you will realize that they always have ways to get your attention, whether it’s to open their emails, watch their videos or read their blog posts.
Where is the point of your article or video that breaks state?
The title, of course.
So now you know that in order to get attention, you must first and foremost focus on your title.
Now if you want to grab people’s attention with your title, then of course you don’t want something boring. Sometimes you need to be a little bit off the wall. Be a little weird, interesting, or just plain catchy.
Here’s some comparisons between titles. Let’s say we’re writing an article about copywriting.
You have one article with a title like ‘Some Copywriting Techniques’ – that’s a pretty mundane and boring title.
But what if you had a title like ‘Four Simple Copywriting Techniques That Made Me $35k A Month That The Gurus Won’t Tell You’?
See what was done there? The second title had specific elements in it. The word ‘simple’ instantly connects with the audience who doesn’t want something complicated which is more appealing most of the time. There was also a personalized story in there like how it made $35k in a month.
The next element is another thing that really breaks attention quickly and you will see that in the second title.
Controversy.
Notice that often bad news spreads a lot quicker than good news? That’s because people for some reason, are often intrigued by what they fear.
Controversy is a way to play with such emotions. It gets people’s attention and makes people want to check it out.
The title mentioned what ‘the gurus don’t want you to know’. It sparks a feeling of anxiety and a bit of urgency, because the gurus are often highly regarded in this industry and if they don’t want you to know something – you want to know it.
Another little thing I added as a quantifiable value. I mentioned ‘four’ techniques in the title. Immediately, the audience will perceive the piece of content may weigh as more valuable since four is more than one, two or three principles.
Of course there are many ways you can play around with this concept. But don’t be like one of the other boring writers who just put lame titles like ‘Company X Review’ or ‘Company X X Scam’ that’s all been done to death because you can easily find 5-10 blog posts with similar titles spammed around a lot of the Facebook groups.
You can also take these similar concepts and expand it on video. Rather than just having a great title, you can also do something in your videos to break attention.
Instead of having a blank wall in the background and wearing a suit and tie, why don’t you try having a breathtaking view of the ocean in the background while wearing a colorful shirt or something? Something more catchy and actually makes people curious.
Of course this may vary on who your target market is.
Again, keep these elements in mind and practice them in your content and you may very well stand out from all the spammers!