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In Blog Post Titles, Beware of Anchor Bias

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Anchoring bias causes us to rely heavily – often too heavily – upon the first piece of information we receive. Whether we’re setting plans, making estimates about something – or reading a blog post – we interpret newer information from the reference point of our “anchor”, thedecisionlab.com explains. What’s the problem? The “anchor” idea gets stuck in our heads, making us reluctant to accept information that follows, information which might cause us to change our minds.

For business blog content writers, the first piece of information readers are going to receive is obviously the title of the post. We want the searcher to “drop anchor” by clicking on the link, and of course want search engines to offer our content as a match for readers seeking information and guidance on our topic.

When it comes to blog marketing, titles that seem clever are often not effective. The name of the blog post must make clear – to both searchers and search engines – what the post is about. Search engine optimization aside, a blog post title in itself constitutes a set of implied promises to visitors. In essence, you’re saying, “If you click here…

  • you’ll be led to a post that in fact discussing the topic mentioned in the title
  • you’ll be led to a post that explains how to reduce an undesirable effect
  • you’ll be led to a post that explains how to achieve a desirable effect
  • you’ll obtain information on how to do something

The tone of the blog post title also implies a promise:

  • this content is going to be humorous or satirical
  • this content is going to provide a list
  • this content is going to be thought-provoking and/or controversial
  • this content is going to be cautionary or even frightening

As blog content writers, we also need to beware anchoring. As Decision Lab explains, “Anchoring is so ubiquitous that it is thought to cause a number of other thinking fallacies, including the planning fallacy. The planning fallacy describes how we tend to underestimate the time we’ll need to finish a task. Since researching and composing an excellent blog post for a business is labor-intensive, including “reading around”, researching, composing, illustrating, and sharing, both commitment and time management need to be part of the expectations from the get-go.

On a basic level, maintaining consistency – beginning with blog post titles, then to blog post content, and ultimately to delivering quality products and services to customers – is the only way for any business to become, and remain, valued in its marketplace.

Use blog post titles as anchors, but beware of causing anchor bias!

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In Blogging, Clarity Depends on Contrasts

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The following true story, shared in Daniel Pink’s book To Sell is Human, involves a blind man sitting on a bench in Central Park with a can for contributions labeled “I’m blind”. With the addition of only 4 words, an ad exec realized, the sign would move more people to put money in the can. When the sign stated “It is springtime, but I am blind”, people were able to feel pity – here they were, enjoying the gorgeous spring day, while this poor blind man was totally unable to savor its beauty….

“One aspect of contemporary society is that people are stimulus-rich and context-poor,” Pink explains. They don’t know what the information means. By contrasting the experience of the passersby with that of the blind man asking for change, viewers saw the man’s situation in perspective.

In the book Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely talks about the importance of comparing one thing with another. People want to make their own decisions and own them, Ariely believes. For that reason, he advises, if you want to sell Product A, you must create an Option B, so that customers feel they are choosing A because it contrasts favorably with B.

In blog content writing, with the goal being engaging online visitors’ interest, we can create contrast between analytical content and emotional content, toggling back and forth among It helps to remember that most people are only interested if what you do fits with what they need or want; otherwise they are not interested. You must tell readers, not only how your product or service can benefit them, but how you can do it better or differently than others who do what you do.

The blind man in Daniel Pink’s story needed help creating a Unique Selling Proposition. In carving out your own USP, make sure your message tells visitors not only who you are and what you do, but why you’re different from other providers – and why that difference should matter to them.

In other words, in begging or blogging,  clarity depends on contrasts!

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Create Tension in Blogging for Business

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“Even a small amount of tension in your writing can move it from flat to fascinating,” Mary-Kate Mackey tells writers in Write Better Right Now. Just as bending a flat metal rule into an arc, she advises, think “arc” in setting up questions in readers’ minds. In a well-written paragraph, each sentence launches from the last, with paragraphs positioned along the larger arc of the whole piece.

Because our Say It For You team focuses its writing on blog marketing, I particularly appreciate one marketing example Mackey offered. The assignment – a travel agency pitching the town of Lily Pond, Arkansas.

The first version lacks tension:
“The small town of Lily Pond offers much for anyone willing to leave the interstate.” That’s a yawn, Mackey says – lots of places have lots of amenities to offer.

A better version, one with tension:
“FUN THIS WAY – That sign doesn’t exist on the interstate exist for Highway 58. But it should.”

Richard Anderson’e Powerful Writing Skills makes the same point about conveying a sense of enthusiasm through your writing. “Don’t be satisfied with putting down data and results or observations and opinions,” Anderson says.“ Find a way to make this information meaningful to your reader.”

But, really, can that be done? Can we, over months and years, continue to “have something to say” related to our field, keeping our blog posts relevant over long periods of time without losing reader excitement and engagement?  The answer (extraordinarily simple, yet extraordinarily difficult): We have to keep learning, constantly adding to our own body of knowledge – about our industry or professional field (and in the case of our content writing team, about those of our clients).

One interesting parallel is found in ballroom dancing, my own beloved hobby over the years. “Dancing would be impossible without a certain amount of tension,” explains danceforums.com. “In time and with practice you will learn to match your leader’s arm tension: when it’s relaxed you will be relaxed, when he is increasing his tension, you will fill it, you’ll match it, and you’ll know he’s up to something,” an instructor explains to females..

In blogging for business, a simple arc gets readers to want to know – What’s the consequence of this tension? What is the business owner or practitioner leading me to? What’s at the end of the arc?

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Reify Your Blog Posts

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There are concepts that exist in a purely abstract way, and, in blog content marketing, we have to, as hackernoon.com puts it, “find ways to explain those concepts so that they make sense to as many people as possible”. In fact, as we’ve come to realize at sayitforyou.net, blogging itself is a way of reifying complex information.

To reify is to make something abstract more concrete or real. Sociology textbooks define ‘reification” (which literally means to “turn into things”) as “the process of coming to believe that humanly created social forms are natural, universal, and absolute things”. In the two sayings “You can’t fool Mother Nature” and “fighting for justice”, Nature and Justice, both abstract concepts, are treated as real people, even though we know they’re not, There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this, authors Chevette Alston and Lesley Chapel explain in study.com, because reification can turn language abstractions into tangible understanding.

“Concepts like happiness and intelligence and personality are called constructs. We cannot see them directly. They are labels, concepts, literally constructions in our heads. By giving such complex processes a label, we can discuss them, psywww.com explains.

Not everyone agrees that reification is beneficial. “When we assume that a concrete, tangible thing has the quality of abstract concepts, when the thing-in-itself is forgotten and the thing-as-thought-of is mistaken for the thing itself, that can be dangerous, Biznewske.com explains. For example, assuming that someone is an expert simply because they have a degree is a reification fallacy. Assuming that a boxed product such as cereal is a symbol of health and nutrition is a fallacy. Reifying an idea such as “male privilege” means taking it as true when it might or might not be true.

Hacker.com, though, “gets it”. The essential challenge we blog content writers face, they understand, is explaining abstract concepts in the right way, because doing that makes the difference between business success and business failure. Readability is a critical aspect of online writing, in which we business bloggers are out to retain the clients and customers we serve and to bring in new ones.

The products and services we’re writing about can’t be amazing in the abstract, which is why reifying blog content can be just what’s needed to make it engaging and real..

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Add the Fred Factor to Your Business Blog

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user friendly blogs

Within ten minutes of his house are two giant hardware stores that are known for their low prices , Mark Sanborn relates in his book The Fred Factor, but he never goes to either one. Instead, Sanborn goes to a smaller store about ten minutes away. There, when you walk in the door, knowledgeable helpful staff members greet you and take you to the exact spot where you can find what you need. And, Sanborn adds, they ask enough questions to find out if what you asked for is what you need for the job. All organizations have access to the same information, training, compensation systems, and processes. So why do some succeed and others flop, Sanborn asks? The secret is passionate employees.

How can that “Fred Factor” be made to come across a computer screen, I wondered. With so many potential customers meeting you online these days, rather than in person, how can you replicate the feeling of being greeted by “knowledgeable and helpful staff members”? First-time blog site visitors can, indeed, become customers IF, Neil Patel explains, “you listen to them and give them a good visitor experience.” The goal – moving visitors upwards through the “trust pyramid”, from awareness to understanding, then belief, and finally to action.

The process begins, Patel says, with defining your ideal reader. See that customer as one person, not as groups of people, then develop a unique selling proposition around that very person. Just a Sanborn was saying about his favorite hardware store, success is all about solving problems and making customers happy. What valuable gift can you give to your first-time blog visitors in order to excite and retain them. Put yourself in their shoes and feel their pain, Patel says.

Sanborn was impressed with the fact that the hardware associates were right there at the door to welcome him and help him navigate to precisely the right shelf to find what he needed. In precisely the same way, now that visitors have found their way to your blog, your immediate challenge is to put them at ease by assuring them they’ve come to the right place and convey that they are valued.

Translating a face-to-face shopping experience into a digital visit is the challenge we blog content writers take on. Saying you offer superior customer service is never enough – you have to specifically illustrate ways in which your company’s customer service exceeds the norm. Stories of all kinds help personalize a business blog. Even if a professional writer is composing the content, true-story material increases engagement by readers with the business or practice. Case studies are particularly effective in creating interest, because they are relatable and “real”.

You might not think of simplifying your website navigation as another way to personalize your service, but it absolutely is. Both the content of your blog posts and the navigation paths on the blog site had better be easy, calling for fewer keystrokes and less confusion. Just as the hardware salesperson asked questions before taking Sanborn to the right section of the store, the website can help “steer” visitors to the right click.

Think of ways to add a “Fred Factor” to your website and blog.

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