Letâs be honest. At some point in your life youâve been idly poking around the web when a headline has caught your eye. You instinctively know that itâs clickbait, but thereâs something about â15 Celebrities From The 90s That Now Live In Rotherhamâ that you simply canât resist.
The human brain loves a list. If youâve ever read High Fidelity, then youâll know all about arranging your entire life in the form of a âtop fiveâ. Numbers provide order and give you a gauge to the value of information. Above all, when you use them in an article title or headline, they work.
And I mean numbers. I donât mean âsevenâ âor fourteenâ. I mean â5â. Or â42â.
Recently, Phil has been looking at how you write headlines that work and how you get people to read all of your article.
Iâm going to get more specific and look at why you should use numbers in your headlines or article titles.
1. Using numbers works
Digital marketing experts BuzzSumo analysed 100 million article headlines to find out what sort of content engaged with readers.
As part of their research, they looked at the top âthree-word phrasesâ that start headlines. Here are the results.
Youâll notice that the top two most engaging headlines began with a number:
- â10 reasons whyâŚâ
- â10 things youâŚâ
Of the ten most engaging phrases in article headlines, five of them featured numbers, including â10 ways toâŚâ and âThe 10 bestâŚâ
The simple fact is this: numbers in headlines work. And when we say numbers, we mean ânumeralsâ and not âthe number written outâ.
Many style guides suggest that any number under ten should be written as âtenâ and not as â10â.
Thatâs fine in copy, but as your headline? Always. A. Number.
Research has shown that most website readers donât read all your words. They scan the text and look for highlighted words, links, and numerals. So, using numerals helps them stand out to a reader in the way that the word doesnât.
(There is science behind this. The shape of a group of digits is sufficiently different from that of a group of letters to stand out to users’ peripheral vision before their foveal vision fixates on them. 8236 looks different and stands out more than four even though both consist of four characters.)
Nielsen say that scanning is even more prevalent for readers of email newsletters. So, if your newsletter has a few article links in it, numbers will work really well.
2. The 10 numbers that work best
As part of their analysis, BuzzSumo also looked at which numbers were the most engaging when used in article headlines.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, as we are all bombarded with âtop 10â lists in our lives, itâs the number 10 thatâs most engaging with readers.
So, when writing articles, it looks like â10 reasons whyâŚâ or â10 things youâŚâ will work the best.
There is even speculation that sites such as BuzzFeed use a specific formula when it comes to creating headlines people will click on:
Number + Adjective + Noun + Descriptive Clause
So, for financial services, this might be:
- â10 surprising allowances that will cut your IHT billâ
- â10 annoying reasons you wonât be able to remortgageâ
- â10 festive financial mistakes youâll want to avoid this Christmasâ
3. Readers think that âmoreâ equals âbetterâ
While the chart above shows that 10 is the most engaging number you can include in your article headline, it can sometimes pay to choose a much higher number. Here are a few examples from around the web:
These higher numbers promise more entertainment value for your click. For any reader with a few extra minutes to spare, thatâs an enticing incentive.
Plus, our brains are instinctively wired to understand that âmoreâ usually equals âbetterâ. This is why studies have proven again and again that weâre really drawn to numbers in headlines.
4. It gives your readers a measure of value
At the start of this article, we told you that weâd be looking at five reasons that numbers work in headlines. Thatâs exactly what weâve done.
Numbers work well in headlines and titles as they give a reader a sense of predictability. They know exactly what to expect and give your audience a distinct and measurable insight into the value that theyâre going to get from reading a blog post.
They also act as a form of expectation management. Readers are looking for valuable information in a quick and accessible format, and a numbered list provides just that.
5. Numbers equal facts
Eye-tracking research shows that users’ eyes are attracted by numbers in web content. Why? Because numbers usually represent facts.
Numerals often stop the wandering eye and attract fixations, even when they’re embedded within a mass of words that users otherwise ignore. Why? People like facts.
Sometimes people are looking for specific facts, such as a product’s weight or size. This is why writing numbers as numerals on these pages is vital.
However, even when a number doesn’t represent a product attribute, it’s a more compact (and thus attractive) representation of hard information than words.
Need any help?
Using these tips will help you to create engaging headlines your readers will love. However, if you donât have the time to create content, we can help. Get in touch with us at hi@theyardstickagency.co.uk or call 0115 8965 300.