You don’t expect your 11-year-old son to hit on the secret formula to all success.
But sure enough, that’s just what happened the other day.
Now, before I get into it, pop quiz…
How do you take a blog title and get as much as 327% more people to click on a link with 73% more shares? Look at this title:
“What are some ways to pose better at your wedding?”
At the end of this, I’ll show you exactly how to fix it to get big time improvements in views and shares.
But getting back to the secret to success stuff, last week, my son just picked up a new toy called an Ozobot.
As best as I can tell, they’re these little robot things that follow colored lines on a piece of paper. If you want to know more about them…well, that’s all I’ve got.
Anyway, he had been playing with his Ozobot all day when he dashes into my room, his face wearing the type of wide eyes you get when you have an epiphany.
He says, “Dad! I just realized something!”
I raised an eyebrow and glanced over.
“The difference between fun and boring is just a matter of how you see things.”
Wise words. I was proud.
But what’s that have to do with businesses?
Everything.
He goes on to explain that the Ozobot has two modes. It has a training mode, and a mission mode. In both, you’re essentially doing the same thing. But when you’re in training mode, it’s boring, because you just want to get through it.
In other words, you’re more interested in the destination than the journey.
And in mission mode, you feel like everything you’re doing is special and important, so it’s fun. But, really, it’s just because they frame it as a mission.
So now you’re interested in the journey and not just the destination.
The thing is, most people tackle photography in mission mode.
They give it all they’ve got. They go at it hard and dive in deep and figure it out. They’ll blow hours pondering things like back focus, whether it’s worth a thousand bucks for creamier bokeh, and how to make digital look like film.
But they tackle marketing in “training mode.”
They just want to get it over with.
Now, I’ve said it more than once, you have to get shit done.
But just as important is that you have to give a shit.
That means caring about the journey. We all want the outcome. We all want to reap the rewards. But are you the type who is willing to do the work to get there?
The other day, I saw a description on a website:
“Our photography tells a unique story that gracefully captures your love and fun.”
And the big question here is whether that stands out or if it sound like everyone else. Will a potential client see that and say, “I must have this!” Not likely. There’s too much out there that sounds the same.
In other words, it’s training mode in action.
I’ll bet anything that the person who wrote it just wanted it done, maybe thinking something like, “I’ve gotta get this site posted and live, so lemme just slot something in.”
And I’m not trying to make light of the effort.
It’s not easy. But getting into mission mode is everything.
When Amazon was just an idea in Jeff Bezos’ head, he would stalk book stores to research the crap out of them like he was performing a surgical strike. That’s mission mode, and it makes all the difference.
Now, going back to our quiz…
Here’s how you triple your response with a simple title. The original is the training mode approach:
“What are some ways to pose better at your wedding?”
Here’s how mission mode looks:
“7 ways to pose for more flattering pictures at your wedding”
And you can use the exact same principles for your content.
Here’s what makes it work:
First, based on research by Conductor, it’s been found that number-driven titles and headlines can get you over 300% more response. Marketing strategist Neil Patel refers to numbers as brain candy. They just have an irresistible pull that makes the brain light up, and it not only makes people pay attention, but it gets more shares, too.
Second, using the word “you” has been found to get 192% more attention and even more in many cases. There is no word that’s more attractive to people than “you.”
And third, there’s more specificity. This is something I picked up from a legendary and long-dead copywriter named Robert Collier. Specific always beats general. Notice, for example, how I said you can get a 327% percent boost at the start of this? Sounds better than “way more,” or even 3x. That’s specificity in action.
So things like “more flattering” will crush generic words like “better.”
And what you can see here is that mission mode isn’t always that hard. And if you take the time to learn the principles, it’s not even time-consuming. You could make these types of improvements in minutes.
But for all that, you can 2x, 3x, even 10x your views. Imagine how much work it would be to double or triple your audience.
That’s the power of mission mode.
—Spencer Lum