As the Internet becomes more and more crowded with compelling content, it becomes harder and harder for one’s content to stand out. This is not a new theory, nor is it something that is particularly revolutionary. Marketers everywhere know that they have to adapt their content marketing strategy to reflect the shrinking amounts of time that people have to consume their content.
The problem is: many companies have adapted their content marketing strategies to lure–not entice–viewers to click on a link. You’ve seen it before:
“You’ll never believe what happens when…”
“I wasn’t expecting this at all…”
“He should considered the possible results before he tried this…”
These are all classic examples of clickbait, and they are crafted to trick viewers into visiting a link, generating traffic for the site and spurring social shares.
Outwardly, the practice seems relatively harmless: the headlines themselves are compelling calls to action that speak directly to the consumer. The problems lie in the ambiguousness of both the title, and the quality of the content. More often than not, clicking on the link will bring the visitor to a nefarious content farm, populated by wide-ranging gimmick listicles generated for the sole purpose of catching roving web surfers in their respective tractor beams.
