Sean D'Souza: Lead the way from attraction to conversion

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Which articles convert? And which articles attract? And how do you roll out a strategy that maximises the twin impact of attraction and conversion?

You can learn everything you need by just scanning the New Yorker and Cosmopolitan.

Cosmo-type articles are great for attraction. New Yorker-type articles are great for conversion. That's right: if you have an article that sounds like something from the cover of Cosmo or Men's Health, then you potentially get: more tweets than non-Cosmo-like articles; more people forwarding on to Facebook and other social media and more readers forwarding it to friends via email.

Look at these Cosmo articles: "77 Sex Positions in 77 Days"; "75 Crazy-Hot Sex Moves" and "10 Cheap Fun Date Ideas".

Seriously ... 77 sex positions in 77 days? I mean that's a lot of daily practice - but it doesn't matter.

We humans find it impossible to walk past anything that gives us seven, 17 or 700 ways to do or achieve something.

So we're greedy. That helps the attraction factor. Cosmo-type headlines are also ideal in the sense we know it's going to be "light reading".

We like "light reading", which is why gossip magazines do so well.

The reason these articles create lots of traffic is because most of us are suckers for endless ways to do things.

We love those numbers, and mostly the articles are just bullet points.

Sometimes there's some meat to the bullet points, but it's mostly just points. This gives you the feeling that you're learning something - and you are - but there's no depth to the knowledge.

Guess what: it doesn't matter!

If you have enough articles that use a sort of Cosmo-style headline and body copy, you will get the same results that Cosmo has for decades - good results. And that's great attraction.

But what's good for conversion?

In-depth New Yorker-type articles are outstanding for conversion. If your article drives home a specific point, you impress the heck out of your reader.

And that impression is so powerful that the reader is compelled to investigate further.

The investigation then leads to more in-depth articles and then it's almost impossible for the reader to ignore your "subscribe" button.

This doesn't just apply to articles but to video and audio as well. An in-depth piece sucks you in. The more time you spend reading, listening or watching something, the more you're keen to follow up with the source.

But make no mistake: we're not necessarily advocating length of the content, but rather depth of the content.

Detail and analysis is what we're talking about. Detail and analysis that empowers me a lot more than skinny bullet points.

When this detail shows up in your audio, video or text, you will see a difference in the conversion rate.

So, what's a good strategy? It depends on you, of course.

Some blogs/newspapers are almost always driven by Cosmo-style headlines and copy. And some are driven by the New Yorker-style. So which one would you use?

I did say it depends on you, but I'd recommend you use both.

And using both will not only attract a larger number of clients, but also get you greater conversion.

You could also interlink articles, so that a Cosmo-like article leads to a New Yorker-type article. It's a strategic push when someone reaches your website or blog. You're driving them from light material to deeper, more detailed content. And here's where you really shine.

But do you have to follow this strategy?

If you look at Cosmo, Men's Health and all of those magazines, you'll find that they mix it up a bit - for a reason.

It's fine to have light articles and bullet points coming out of your ears but light articles can rarely stand alone.

Think about it: even Playboy has in-depth articles once you get past the "attraction" stage.

It's worked offline for years and it will work online just as well. And now that you've noticed it, you too can implement it into your article-writing and publishing strategy.

If you want the attraction, go Cosmo.

If you want the conversion, go New Yorker.

It's a pretty good strategy.

Now use it.

Sean D'Souza is chief executive of Psychotactics and an international author and trainer. He is the author of The Brain Audit - Why Customers Buy (And Why They Don't).

psychotactics.com