Mastering the art of YouTube can be the key to unlocking incredible growth for your business. But with millions of videos vying for attention, how do you garner enough views on your videos to make it worthwhile producing them? The answer lies in using the ‘Clickbait Balancing Technique’…
Clickbait balancing: part one
The key to fostering more views on your YouTube videos is through click-worthy titles and thumbnails. However, it’s crucial to strike the right balance between being enticing while remaining authentic. Clickbait will lure viewers in, but misleading them will ultimately damage your channel’s reputation and trust.
In a nutshell, the title should spark curiosity and reveal just enough to get the potential viewer interested to click, i.e. “hook” them, but without giving away the entire story or inaccurately representing the content.
Consider a company that manufactures computers. They have just launched a new laptop and want to create a video about it to explain its features. They could go down the boring route of just putting the product name as the video title – e.g. “AP4000 Laptop” and, as a result, end up with very few views. Or, they could use the Clickbait Balancing Technique and title the same video as:
“This Could Completely Change The Computer Industry”
The fact that the “This” is not revealed, means someone must watch the video to find out what the “This” is (the laptop). With a title like this you create intrigue that encourages people to click. Furthermore, this title is impactful – whatever the topic is could, apparently, “completely change” the industry, which adds further mystery to the video and requires someone to watch it to find out why it’s a game-changer, because the ‘why’ isn’t given away in the title.
And that’s step one of the Clickbait Balancing Technique. We have created the clickbait aspect.
Clickbait balancing: part two
Part two is the ‘balancing’ aspect. The word “clickbait” has negative connotations as it is typically associated with misleading content, so while this technique will result in videos that are highly clickable, it’s the ‘balancing’ aspect that removes any form of misrepresentation and helps to retain credibility.
In this example of the computer company and their new laptop, the product needs to genuinely be different enough to other laptops to potentially change the industry, as the title claims, else you would be misleading viewers. As mentioned, if your titles are deceptive, you will damage your reputation and discourage people from watching other videos on your channel.
That’s why it is such an art form trying to balance your title to be intriguing yet not misleading. You need to focus on what is really interesting about your product and how you can create mystery around that, which will make clicking the video irresistible.
You can dramatically reduce the chance of any title being disingenuous by planning the title in advance of filming, to ensure that the video content actually aligns with and even mentions your carefully crafted title. This way, the title does not seem like a misleading after-thought designed merely to get views. Instead, your title will feel authentic as the video content actually addresses and correlates with it.
Local video production company, Glowfrog, started managing one of their client’s YouTube channels a few years ago. The client manufactured fishing tackle products and had been struggling to achieve more than 1,000 views on any video. They were using titles such as “XT Fishing Rod Review” which were not enticing or click-worthy. The most impactful change was to, in these examples, find out what was really compelling about the particular product, and title the video accordingly well before the filming took place – for example “World First: The Only Rod That Does THIS!”
That is so much more intriguing. What is the “THIS” that the rod does? Why is it a “World First”? You haven’t given away the answers to these questions in the title – so to find out, someone must watch the video.
They also filmed the video with this title in mind, ensuring that the person speaking in the video actually mentioned that the product is a world first and what it does differently to all others. In doing this, they created a video with a title that had enough intrigue to be highly clickable, yet also was not misleading whatsoever as the video was very deliberate and addressed the chosen title.
The final step: thumbnail choice
Another key difference was the choice of thumbnail image used. This fishing tackle client would previously just show a picture of the product in the video thumbnail on YouTube, which again did not create any mystery or intrigue. Instead, they started enhancing click-worthiness by tying in the thumbnail picture with the new ‘clickbait but not misleading’ title – for example, showing the fisherman looking at the camera with a shocked expression. The implication being that this fishing rod is so shocking in terms of what it can do that other rods can’t, that you should watch the video and discover why he is so shocked.
Marrying up this new style of title and thumbnail was the secret recipe to massively increasing their YouTube views, growing from around 1,000 per video to up to 40,000 per video. That is the power of the Clickbait Balancing Technique.
Ultimately, while the final choice of title and thumbnail should be clickworthy, by applying the above steps you won’t end up with the classic and hated “clickbait.”
Glowfrog are the leading video production company in the Midlands and work with all kinds of businesses across the region, providing high quality YouTube video production and YouTube channel management, from as little as £250 per video. To arrange your free consultation and find out how they could help with your YouTube channel growth, click the link below.
Visit: www.glowfrogvideo.com/youtube-video-production
Email: hello@glowfrogvideo.com
Phone: 01332 492 465
