The phrase “scan the headlines” is a dated reference to when people used to read newspapers. Even though this phrase is outdated, it is still relevant today. This is because if you do not write headlines well, you run the risk of losing your reader’s attention.
Why Should You Care About Headlines?
If you want your post to be successful, you need to make sure that your headline is effective. If your headline is not eye-catching or interesting, all of your other marketing efforts will be for nothing.
Headline Statistics and Curious Facts
A huge amount of content is published every day by businesses, organizations, and individuals.
There is also a ton of competition.
In addition, only 20 percent of readers will continue past the headline. If the headline doesn’t interest them, they will click away to find something more exciting.
This means that headlines can have a massive impact on website traffic, potentially increasing it by 500%.
What is Headline Writing?
The process of writing headlines that communicate a clear benefit to the reader is known as headline writing. Many writers spend more time on their headlines than any other part of the text.
And for good reason.
Your headline is the first thing people see when they find your content. It needs to be interesting enough to make people want to read more.
How to Maximize Results With a Great Headline
It can be difficult to come up with the right headline, and you are not alone if you have trouble with this. Sometimes the perfect headline won’t come to you right away.
However, I also use tools to help me make my readers notice my headlines. Hello Bar, for example, allows you to make the visual impact of a headline stronger.
Both exit popups and regular Hello Bars help drive more traffic to other pages on your website, convinces people to visit other pages, and therefore remain on your site for longer periods of time.
For example, you can make the Hello Bar any size you want. Sometimes, making it bigger is better because it will grab your readers’ attention.
You could test different sizes of Hello Bar to see which works better, and let the program calculate the results for you.
There are a few things you should take into account before you start writing your headline, which means it might take some effort. The following are a few to consider.
Study Your Audience
The more you tailor your headlines to your audience’s preferences, the more engaging they will be. Do they prefer listicles, Q&As, or tutorials?
Look at the traffic for all of the blog posts you have written in the last six months and see if there are any patterns. You might notice, for example, that you get more clicks when your headline includes a number or statistic.
Share Personal Benefits
The most successful headlines are ones that offer the reader a personal benefit. In other words, what can the reader take away from the rest of the content?
This is why listicles work so well:
- 11 Ways to Shed Weight Quickly
- 15 Steps to Become a Better Runner
- 7 New Strategies for Healthy Cooking
The examples above all have a benefit and takeaway present in the title.
Use Specific Numbers and Data in Your Headline
If you want your article to perform well, try incorporating some numbers into the headline. This method is supported by research – headlines with numbers tend to get more social shares and engagement.
Debra Jason believes that incorporating numbers into headlines is effective because they are essentially “brain candy.” Our minds are attracted to and crave this type of information.
It’s important to understand the science behind odd numbers. Often, you find viral blog posts with seemingly random numbers in the headlines, and you may have wondered why the authors didn’t use even numbers in their last post.
Odd numbers are more memorable than even numbers, according to the Content Marketing Institute. This is because the brain finds them easier to digest and recall.
The researchers found that when they changed their headline to include the number 7, click-through rates increased by 20%.
It is more effective to use the numeral “7” rather than the word “seven” in headlines as this appeals to the part of our minds that crave numbers.
We have a secret tip for you if you’re writing a step-by-step guide. include no more than nine steps, because humans usually can’t process more than nine items at the same time. However, if you’re writing about tools or different ways to do something, there is no limit on the number you can use.
Utilize a Unique Rationale
The reason I’ve been able to write great headlines that have gone viral is because I’ve used unique rationales. A rationale is simply an underlying reason why something should be done. If you want people to read your content, you need to have a good reason why they should.
Around 59% of individuals share online content without reading it first. Because of this, it’s important to make sure that our headlines are appealing to those who will take the time to read it. Having a blog can increase email traffic for a business by two times.
Some of the rationales that you can include in your headlines are:
- Tips
- Reasons
- Lessons
- Tricks
- Ideas
- Ways
- Principles
- Facts
- Secrets
- Strategies
Here are some examples of our rationale in action:
- 5 Tips to Write Blog Introductions Like a Pro
- 15 Lessons I Learned the Hard Way as a 3-Year-Old Blogger
- 8 Principles for Designing a Perfect Landing Page
- 17 Facts About Content Marketing That You Didn’t Know
- 6 Insights to the Future of Search Engine Optimization
- 3 Secrets to Make Your List Post Sing
- 4 Headline Writing Tips to Make Your Titles Soar
Call for Attention
The goal of a headline is to make the viewer want to read the first sentence. Every headline should grab attention. Attention means giving someone your undivided mental focus and concentration on a task.
Many people are trying to capture your customers’ attention, so you need to make sure that your content is interesting and engaging. Keep in mind that people have shorter attention spans than they used to, so you need to make your content concise and to the point.
If you want to acquire and retain customers as a small business owner, one way to do so is by engaging them with great content.
Your content will be great if the headline captures your reader’s attention.
To persuade your customers and prospects to continue reading, your headline must be compelling.
Instead of focusing on email subscriptions and sales, focus on using headlines to get people to read the first sentence.
The true purpose of a headline should be to persuade the reader to continue reading. If the headline is successful, the reader will be engaged by the introduction, subtitles, bullet points, and story, and will be more likely to become a customer.
Use Strong Words on Your Headlines
Words can be classified as strong and weak based on the impact they have on the reader.
If you analyze the headlines that are most effective, you will notice that they tend to use verbs that imply movement or accomplishment, and don’t include many short words that don’t contribute to the meaning of the headline.
Make Creative and Bold Statements
You should not constrain your creativity when you are writing headlines. I find that writing is easier when I do not censor myself.
You should feel free to make a bold or controversial statement if you want to be a mover or shaker in your industry. Your opinion may differ from the other people in your industry, but that shouldn’t stop you from taking a stand.
You can also get clicks by taking a negative approach. For instance, I could have titled this article “Why You’re Not Writing Good Headlines.” In other words, tell your readers what they’re doing wrong and how to fix it.
Ask a Funny or Uncommon Question
“How Many Headlines Can You Write in an Hour?”
This is a great headline that will get the reader’s creative juices flowing, as well as the writer’s.
“Why Do Your Headlines Suck So Much?”
This is another example of a headline that includes humor. Just be careful that you don’t say something that would offend your audience if you use sarcasm or wit as part of your headline.
Use Interesting Adjectives That People Will Remember
While many writing experts argue against the use of adjectives, I believe they serve an important purpose in headlines and sentences by clarifying the noun and adding color and interest.
Consider the following headline:
There are 17 tips in this article that runners have been missing out on.
We could make this more interesting for readers by spiffing it up, as shown below:
If you’re looking for ways to improve your running technique and performance, here are 17 tips you may have been missing out on.
It suggests that the article will be filled with valuable, actionable material. I could trade out that adjective for many others:
- 17 Fascinating Runners’ Tips You’ve Been Missing Out On
- 17 Foolproof Runners’ Tips You’ve Been Missing Out On
- 17 Actionable Runners’ Tips You’ve Been Missing Out On
These adjectives provide more information about the subject, “tips.”
Follow the 4 U’s
The use of acronyms can be helpful as they are easy to remember.
The 4 U’s of writing effective headlines are pretty simple:
Before I show you some simple ways to write headlines that will call for attention, here are four rules to follow. They’re considered the “4 Us” of writing attention-driven headlines:
The four Us are:
Make the Headline Unique
My blogger friend told me that he finds headlines that are compelling and then makes them unique for his audience.
“Unique” means that your headline is different from anyone else’s.
Be Ultra-Specific
To be effective, a headline must be ultra-specific.
The headline of your content is the most important aspect, no matter what format or platform you use to publish it.
If you can give your prospects ultra-specific headlines that answer their questions, you can convert them into loyal readers and customers.
Convey a Sense of Urgency
Derek Christian believes that effective marketing is based on creating a fear of missing out on a great opportunity.
Your headline needs to be urgent in order to get readers to click and read your content. If it isn’t, they are likely to bookmark it and never come back to it.
Even if your case isn’t related to health, we’re all in the same situation. Everyone is always looking for that extra push to get them to do something immediately instead of putting it off until later. That’s what urgency does; it encourages people to take action when they see it in a headline.
Provide Something Useful
The final rule to follow to ensure your headlines are effective is to make them useful. This ties in with the previous three rules of uniqueness, specificity and urgency.
Even if you use a lot of urgency in your headline and content, it will not be successful if it is not useful. It is not possible to write a specific and unique piece of content that is not also useful.