The top 2 ways to increase click-through rate on Twitter

According to HubSpot, Twitter link clicks account for 92% of all user interaction with tweets. Link clicks are the “low-hanging fruit of Twitter”, claims the digital experts, and they’re your strongest chance of gaining views and shares for your content.

But, what does it mean to “click” on a Tweet and how do you make this happen? There are nine different ways a user can click a Tweet…

1. Retweet your tweet
2. Favorite your tweet
3. Click your hashtags
4. Click your @-mentions
5. Click your link
6. Click your picture
7. Click the white space to expand the tweet
8. Click your Twitter handle to view your profile
9. Click the “Follow” button to follow you

According to Hubspot, these are the top 2 ways to increase your clickrate on Twitter:

1) Use clear language

Remember, your followers are likely scrolling through their feeds and scanning tweets very quickly. To catch their attention, be as clear as possible by choosing simple, easily scannable language.

HubSpot did a study where they compared CTRs from two different tweet types: those with clear, to-the-point copy and those with more ambiguous copy. They found that“clearly stated offers received 18% more clicks and 29.8% more retweets than the tweets with a more ambiguous copy.”

2) Use the article title or headline

Good copywriters know that writing headlines is one of the most important steps to writing an article. Headlines are what make people click. So why wouldn’t you use the copy from a great headline when tweeting out article?

One Twitter researcher was able to gain an 18% clickthrough rate simply by using compelling headlines. Hubspot’s research showed that their average tweet copy got an average of 98 clicks, while headline-based tweets got an average of 110 clicks.

Twitter is a sales and advertising platform, and headlines really do matter — and they’re a great place to borrow copy for your tweets. In studies that I’ve conducted, a single headline word change produced a 46% improvement in clickthroughs. Advertising wizard David Ogilvy was so enamored of the importance of headlines that he wrote this: “Unless your headline sells your product, you have wasted 90 percent of your money.”

As it turns out, the fundamental rule of clickable tweets is the same as the rule of clickable headlines. The headlines have to sizzle. Headlines with higher clickthrough rates tend to …

1. Be short. You only have 150 characters, so you can’t afford a long title. Outbrain discovered that eight-word titles had a 21% higher CTR than the average title. Social Media Scientist Dan Zarrella analyzed 200,000 tweets with links and found that the 120-130-character range was the sweet spot for high CTR.

2. Ask a question. Why does this work? Questions prompt curiosity, which leads to people wanting to satisfy that curiosity (source).

3. Use exclamation points. Data shows that three exclamation points will improve the CTR more than twice as much as any other form of punctuation (source).

4. Use at least one superlative. Superlatives are words like “best,” “most,” “smartest.” Headlines with one superlative outperformed all other variations of superlatives (or none at all).

5. Use a fun tone. Titles that are lighthearted and humorous have a higher CTR than their serious counterparts (source).

6. Not be in all caps. The online equivalent of shouting is a turnoff; 64% of readersprefer sentence case.

7. Include a number. Headlines that include numbers have a 15% higher CTR than those that don’t. Use an odd number if you can, as headlines that contain odd numbers have a 20% higher CTR than those containing even numbers.

8. Be a two-sided title with a colon or hyphen. For example, “SEO: 7 Reasons Why It Still Matters” or “8 Ways to More Money — Warren Buffett’s Secrets.” Titles that have two parts like these ones have a 9% higher CTR than those with one part.