Attention Hacks that Make Content Irresistible to Watch

Fixing this issue guarantees your growth on social media:

You spend a lot of time and effort creating quality content, but get low views and interactions. Don’t waste your effort by giving a wishy-washy first impression that people skip and ignore in a blink of an eye.

Let’s take YouTube as an example. When you open YouTube Home screen, the algorithm serves you some irresistible thumbnails and titles.

What if you’d apply the same principles and techniques on your content that these videos are using to give a massive boost to your views?

Use these secrets to grab attention instantly and get the click

There are two questions people ask themselves when deciding to watch or read any content:

Is it something I want to know?
Does it look like it’s going to say something I don’t know already?

Before you focus on the thumbnail or the title, find an angle for your content that makes it interesting.

For example, I could have titled this article:

“Get More Clicks with This Secret Weapon (It’s Not What You Think)”

Two problems:

Some people have no idea what CTR is and why it matters
There’s no intrigue and people know that already

Read the previous two questions again.

Craft titles that make people stop and read

I’ve been recently reading Ray Edwards’ How to Write Copy That Sells, and I love the simplicity and wisdom of his teachings. One simple way to get attention is by crafting an “If – then” headline. Here are some examples:

If you can follow this diet, you’ll drop 20 pounds in 2 weeks
Start from 0, go to 100K per year
Cold email formula that gets 50% reply rate
Fall in love with sales by watching this video

It’s basically saying “from A to B.” Try this method when you write your next headline or title.

Drop the screenshot to multiply your views

Forget using a screenshot of your video as your thumbnail. According to Google, 90% of best-performing videos have custom thumbnails.

↳ Take some pictures and create a custom thumbnail.

Here’s a great exercise you can do to test if your thumbnail has a fighting chance on YouTube.

Take a screenshot of your YouTube home screen

Open the image on Photoshop or Photopea

Place your thumbnail on the grid and ask yourself is it catchy enough to get some of the clicks.

Edit and Repeat until your thumbnail is on par with the rest.

Why this is critically important?

– Just posting a video or content without caring about the title or thumbnail too much is like making a birthday cake without caring how it looks. Would you taste a saggy mess?

People make snap judgments based on the few visual cues they have. If you don’t care about the visual impression, people won’t care about your content.

How to make sure that you give the right impression?

Once you have written your article or created your video, you might be mentally tired to really get the first impression right. It’s tempting just to post it and move on. But that would be a mistake. Skipping the most important part is akin to ski jumping and not paying attention how you land.

Instead, take a break if you need it, and check how others are posting similar content on the social media platform of your choice. Think from the perspective of the target audience and take inspiration from other posts. Doing this part right can mean the difference between 10 and 10x views.

If you’d prefer someone to help you craft eye-stopping thumbs and titles, you can DM me or check my dedicated service for social media thumbnail creation:

“Social Media Thumbnail & Title Optimization – Scriiv”

What is your experience with thumbnails and titles? Let me know.

Written by

Maru Hieta

Creator – Scriiv

My advice: “Leverage your digital skills and leap into new adventures”

I’m self-employed marketer and creator, enthusiastic about YouTube, copywriting, and conversion rate optimization to name a few. Unstoppable visionary.

→ Join the journey to elevate your online presence and grow your brand!