That probably turned a few heads, but I assure you, it is the case in a very specific set of circumstances.

We’re going back out to marketingexperiments.com for the further skinny on this particular strange set of circumstances, but as it turns out, it’s quite true.  They did more study of blog headlines, and they generated three examples.  Those three:

An essential resource when corporate clients tell you they have 2,000,000 documents to be reviewed.
Say Yes when a client asks you to review FIVE MILLION separate documents.
Say Yes when a client asks you to review FIVE MILLION separate documents. And smile.

You’ll notice that the second and third example are almost identical, except that one encourages you to smile.  At first glance, none of these sound like bad headlines–maybe the first one’s a bit wordy, but still.  But when the leads gathered from the headlines were measured, something bizarre and horrifying happened.

The first one generated six leads.  The second generated nine.  But adding the two-word phrase “and smile” to the second one to create the third generated NO LEADS AT ALL.

Smiling literally killed the headline. And if your headlines are dead, then your entire blog might as well be.

What’s the takeaway from all this, you wonder.  Never smile?  No wit allowed in headlines?  No.  The takeaway here is that you’d be downright amazed at what can outright destroy your blog.  Things as simple and innocent as a smile.  It’s also a good idea to consider place.  When you’re blogging about reviewing millions of documents at once, it’s probably not a good place to interject a joke in your headline.

Just a little something to keep in mind.

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