How often do you pick up a tabloid from the grocery store to read about the latest Hollywood drama? What tempted you to open it? Chances are, it was due to a strong headline. A headline is the first thing a reader sees when browsing and it is the most influential piece in attracting them to read the rest of the article. Read below to learn how to apply this same strategy to your business-related blogs.
Think About Where the Reader Will See Your Blog
Before writing your headline, it is important to first think about where your reader will be finding it. This will shape how you format the headline to reach the highest click-through rates (CTR). The two most common channels are social media & search landing pages.
- Social media: On this channel, your goal is to catch reader’s attention as they are scrolling through their feed and entice them to click through your post. This means your post needs to have a strong call to action that directly asks the reader to click the blog link. Also, consider adding an image to the post to cover more screen landscape. According to Buffer, adding an image to a post can boost click-through rates by 18%.
- Search: With 75% of users clicking on first-page search results, the goal for reaching users on this channel is to appear as high as possible on the search page. This can be achieved by inserting questions or relevant keywords into your headline that match users’ searches. Google Trends is a great place to start learning about which keywords are currently trending on Google searches.
Cleary Tell the Reader What to Expect
The most important message your title should communicate is informing the reader of what the blog contains. Readers want to know exactly what to expect before committing to reading. To do this, stay away from vague summaries and instead very specific. Clearly state what information your blog holds or the problem it will answer. Do not mislead the reader with any false information in the headline. If your content does not deliver what the headline says, the reader will become frustrated and no longer trust your blog & business.
Write multiple versions
Practice makes perfect. The more headlines you write the better. At some publishing companies, editors must write at least 25 headlines for each blog post before picking the top one. This process will force you to think more creatively, see where you can condense, and test different versions.
Most Used Commonly Title Strategies
- Numbered Lists – These titles are ideal for brainstorm blogs that give people multiple ideas or strategies on a topic. A strength of this title is that adding a number will help the reader expect how long the blog will take to read. Be careful to not make this number too high as the reader could become disinterested due to its expected long length
- “3 Tips for Writing an Attractive Headline”
- “5 ways to grow your business on Instagram”
- Questions – Do you expect the reader to find your blog through a Google Search? Then this is the ideal strategy. Use our earlier recommendation of Google Trends to learn which keywords are trending with Google searches and insert those within your question.
- “What percentage of my paycheck do I need to save each month?”
- “How many daily calories should I consume to gain weight?”
- Vs – This is a simple blog strategy that can be used to compare 2 products or services. This is ideal for a business that wants to educate consumers on two similar products or services they carry. When using this headline strategy, make sure your blog is very informational as the reader will expect to learn all about the products’ benefits, disadvantages, and final opinion.
- “SEO vs SEM: Which strategy is best for your business”
- “Tile vs Wooden Flooring: Which one fits better within your budget”
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