Does Your Content Create Marketing Rubbernecking?

Does Your Content Create Marketing Rubbernecking?:from iLantern Blog by Beth Cohen King
 
Explanation of Rubbernecking
Most of us know what rubbernecking is when we refer to driving.  And, yes, we are all guilty of it.  Rubbernecking is when we feel compelled to look at something.  Whether it is because we are stuck in traffic and want to see the accident that slowed us down, or simply because of human nature’s morbid curiosity to gawk; we strain our necks and turn towards something of interest that isn’t the road. Something has our attention and we are driven to tweak our necks into uncomfortable positions just to get a closer look.
Rubbernecking as it Pertains to Marketing
It seems clear to me that marketing’s goals are to get people to look past the insipidness of the road, and instead feel compelled to click or watch: an email, blog, banner ad, tv spot or any other consumable content.  Our goal as marketers is to make people rubberneck, and then once we have their attention to deliver on our promise.
Human’s Pull Towards Negativity
Here is the interesting part; we tend to rubberneck towards negativity more than positivity.  In an article posted in the New York Times by Alina Tugend called, Praise Is Fleeting, but Brickbats We Recall, Clifford Nass, Communications Professor at Stanford stated that:

“We tend to see people who say negative things as smarter than those who are positive. Thus, we are more likely to give greater weight to critical reviews.”

Does this mean we will feel compelled to read an article that is pointing towards other’s failures and then see it as the gospel?  In my own experience, I have recently been compelled to read every article that has to do with Ron Johnson, the former CEO of JC Penny.  I had heard of him before but didn’t give him much attention. But, as the earnings reports began to trickle out, I found myself reading all about his blunders, and then asking myself why do I keep clicking?  Check out these titles on a search for Ron Johnson:

Titles like, “The 5 Big Mistakes….” are hard not to gravitate towards.  I can already feel my neck straining.
The role of marketers is to create and determine content that will get people to crane their necks.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that it has to be negative, but mixing in a few negative blog titles won’t hurt. Test out the results to see if it works for your audience.
In the case of Ron Johnson, negative titles got my attention.
But, Not Simply Negativity
At iLantern, we found that blog titles that weren’t necessarily negative, but rather provocative, another marketing rubbernecking goal, proved a successful tactic:
The One and Only Thing To Remember When Closing a Deal
The Science of Selling vs The Art of Selling
If Only We had a List of Triggers to Help us Find True Love
Besides Blog Articles, Where Else Do We Try To Create Rubbernecking
Ahh, The beloved email subject line.  This is an ongoing challenge of all email marketers.  This challenge is what keeps Meclabs and other research firms in business, because we still haven’t cracked the code.  Let’s be honest, the code is always changing, as technology innovates faster than we can keep up with execution.  Although we know that open rates are really only a vanity measurement, and it is the CTR that leads to action; it is subject lines that initiate the funnel. And if it weren’t hard enough to get some rubbernecking going, another crushing statistic is: 69% of email recipients report email as Spam based solely on the subject line. The goal is to create subject lines that not only fall in the 31%, but also to skew that percentage so more emails subject lines aren’t regarded as Spam. (From Jay Baer’s post, 15 Email Statistics that are Shaping our Future) 
However, if we can get those remaining 31% to click, then we have a chance at the ever-so-difficult CTR percentage rise. So, should these subject lines have a hint of negativity baked in? Or are other factors exciting enough; for example, personalization or mentioning relevant events that pertain to your subscriber? My hunch is a little bit of both.
Personalization
Marketing Sherpa presented this case study as proof of personalization in email subject lines: Email Marketing: 17.36% higher average click through rate in 7 personalized subject line tests.  Note that there is one negatively slanted subject line that saw a 7.15% open rate and a 18.76% CTR when amended with personalization.
Compelling Events
In some of our own statistics, emails that provided relevant personal mention of events in the subject lines saw a 100% increase from 05% to 5% CTR. For example,
“Congrats on Your Sales Win.”
Our next step is to combine personalization with compelling events and see what kind of results we get on our next campaign. Stay tuned.
Don’t Fret There is Still a Case for Positive Rubbernecking
Even if we gravitate towards “The Seven Things You Never Want to Do in Marketing. Ever.”, getting personal and relevant can have the same effect. The key to rubbernecking, however, is figuring out the right combination of personalization, relevance, and good storytelling, both positive and negative.  If there were a secret formula this is where I would willingly give it to you, but the secret is really testing and knowing your audience.
Conclusion
The bottom line is creating content that people want to see and that provides value to them.  It is hard to do, as we all know there is so much content out there, but if you can positively or negatively (within reason) cause a rubberneck marketing situation you are sure to gain traction with your message and potentially your conversions over the long haul.