Your standing in the grocery line when you look at the magazines or newspaper rack. Did one or two headlines catch your attention? Probably
Writing a compelling headline is an ART. A bad headline and no one will buy…a good headline and the magazine will sell out.
Headlines matter!
If you’re a blogger there probably isn’t a better use of your time than to learn the art & science of how to write attention grabbing headlines.
In fact, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to write a great piece of content…
… and then spit out a headline as an afterthought.
Why?
Because we live in a world of information overload and instant gratification.
Quite frankly, a poor headline will cost you money as no one will read or buy as I explained in the bad magazine headline example.
Think about it… your blog post’s headline is the first thing a reader uses to determine if they want to actually read your blog post.
If your headline doesn’t grab your reader’s attention right away…
… it doesn’t matter how good the content is behind the headline, because nobody will ever read your blog post.
So as you can see, without a good headline you run the risk of wasting precious…
- Time
- Effort
- Energy
The good news is, I’m going to share with you “5 Simple Tips For Writing Attention Grabbing Headlines” you can write for every blog post.
By the end of this article you’ll be equipped with everything you need to crank out dangerously compelling headlines that grab your reader by the collar and pulls them into your blog post.
If you are really serious in writing Great Headlines grab this: 5 Winning Headline Formulas
How To Write Attention Grabbing Headlines That Really Works
Before I get into the 5 Simple Tips For Writing Attention Grabbing Headlines, lets start by answering the question…
… what is a headline?
The headline is the most important part of any piece of writing – whether it is an article, newsletter, sales copy, blog entry, web page, email or business report. … It’s the headline’s job to entice them, engage them and capture their attention so that they ignore all other distractions to read to find out more.
A headline can be simple or complex. It can be though provoking and humous. A headline will say to your reader, “I must read this article.”
Digital Marketer’s Russ Henneberry, said it best:
“A headline is a clear, tightly written promise that is made with enough words to make a promise, but no more words than necessary.”
……”Enough words to make a promise, but no more words than necessary.”
Additionally, your headlines need to be compelling without being “hypey” or obnoxious.
Finally, you must deliver on the headline’s promise within the blog content.
… “there’s nothing worse than making a promise in the headline and then not delivering on that promise within your content.”
So always make sure your headlines are congruent with your blog content and that you deliver on the initial promise provided in the headline.
How To Use Attention Grabbing Headlines
So now that we know what a headline is, the next question is…
… how are we going to use them?
An attention grabbing headline can be useful for improving your email marketing, increasing conversions on your website, your blog and for any other form of content marketing that includes its own header or title.
The headline is the first indicator your reader has to let them know what to expect from your content.
“On the average, five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy.” ~ David Ogilvy
The purpose of the headline is to…
- Offer compelling information
- Solve a problem
- Take away pain
- Help someone achieve a goal
- Fulfill a desire
… so you should always start your content with a killer headline.
Here are 5 easy tips for writing effective headlines…
1.) Write A Summary Of Your Content
Complete your blog content and then read it. Read again out loud. What is the main purpose of your content?
Jot down a summery of your content. Then summarize the main point of your content in a single sentence.
Don’t worry about how it reads.
Keep it simple and just write a sentence. Write another one or maybe another one, two, three…
You can play with and edit it to improve the flair of the headline.
As an example, this article is about writing attention grabing headlines.
So, while the main point is about “writing headlines that will grab people’s attention”…
… that’s not the most effective headline.
It still needs some polish. Some additional thoughts. The purpose.
So after some thought and several revision I came up with:
“5 Simple Tips For Writing Attention Grabbing Headlines”
This didn’t happen on the first or even the second, third attempts.
As you read on, you will see how I added some “polish” to the headline.
By the way, here is a simple tool to analyze your headline. This tool will analyze your headline and SCORE it: Sharethrough Headline Analyze
2.) Use Numbers In Your Headlines
A very effective tip is to use numbers in your headline.
Numbers grab attention.
- 7 Easy ways to…
- 101 Ways to use….
- 10 Tips you can use now….
- 3 Top computers for today’s….
- 5 Simple Tips For Writing Attention Grabbing Headlines
Simply put, people like numbers.
It subconsciously give them a”quanitity.” It’s specific and can be applied to any headline.
Whether you’re writing headlines for blog posts, capture pages, or even if you’re writing attention grabbing email subject lines…
… numbers are incredibly effective!
All you have to do is take your original sentence (the one you’ve been working on) and see if you can add a number to your headline.
Let’s test my headline…which headline do you think is more effective?
“Several Proven Tips To Create Attention Grabbing Headlines”
Or..
“5 Simple Tips For Writing Attention Grabbing Headlines”
Most people would agree that “5 Simple Tips For Writing Attention Grabbing Headlines” is the more effective headline.
Why?
Because I’m giving my audience more specificity.
They know there’re getting 5 Simple Tips, which for most people is a digestible amount of tips to consume.
If I went with “Some Proven Tips…” or even “Proven Tips to Create…”
… my reader has no idea how many tips they’re about to read or how long it might take to read them.
So I polished it by giving them a Number.
3.) Include Exciting Adjectives
The 3rd tip on how to write attention grabbing headlines is to include exciting adjectives in your headlines.
These are words that grab your attention and help to inspire action from your reader.
Here are a few examples of strong adjectives to use in a headline.
- Essential
- Excellent
- Effective
- Fantastic
- Important
- Mind blowing
- Proven
- Valuable
- Ultimate
- Simple
- Easy
Important point, people buy on emotion and justify later with logic.
Therefore, their emotions are the primary motivating factors for making a purchase.
When you use emotion evoking words in your headlines you’ll have a much better chance of grabbing your reader’s attention and pulling them into your content.
4.) Keep The Headline Short
Tip Number 4, keep the headline short.
I’m guilty of writing Long Headlines and struggle to keep them short. This is why I will create a dozen or more headlines and modify each until it is short but effective.
Write them out…look at each and start to discard the ones that does not fit your content. Does it grab your attention? Does it fulfill your promise?
Headline grabbing sentences.
Google recommends a maximum of 70 characters.
Along with the character count, you should pay attention to the number of words.
In most studies, headlines with between 10 and 12 words tend to perform best.
You could go as low as 8 and as high as 14 words.
But, these may not be as effective.
Therefore, your headlines should be short & punchy use as many words only as necessary.
Don’t be afraid to go back to the drawing board with your headline.
Remember the words of Russ above?
“A headline is a clear, tightly written promise that is made with enough words to make a promise, but no more words than necessary.”
5.) Be As Specific As Possible
Finally…
Specificity!
In fact, specificity is critical!
There is nothing worse than a vague headline.
Consider the following two headlines…
“Gifts For Dad”
Or…
“7 Gifts Under $50 For The Dad Who Has It All”
The “Gifts For Dad” headline is about as vague as they come.
However, the “7 Gifts Under $50 For the Dad Who Has It All” headline is very specific.
How many gifts?
7 Gifts
How much do they cost?
Under $50
Who are they for?
The Dad Who Has It All
This one headline has successfully answered three potential questions floating around inside the prospect’s head.
So as you can see, the more specific your headline is, the faster and easier your reader will be able to identify if your content is for them.
What’s Next?
Now that we’ve looked at the 5 Simple Tips For Writing Attention Grabbing Headlines, let’s take it a little further and look at the types of headlines.
3 Types of Headlines
There are 3 main types of headlines you can write, each of them having a unique benefit.
They are:
- Social Proof headlines
- Threat headlines
- Gain headlines
Social Proof Headlines:
Social Proof headlines serve to leverage the fact that many other people have already done this (i.e. bought this, wear this, eat or drink this, etc)
As humans, we like to know that we’re not the only one doing something.
Social proof serves as a safety net for us and helps to ease us into moving forward with a decision or a purchase.
- Here Is A Trick That Is Helping Thousands Of People To ….
- The #1 Secret …… All The Cool Kids Are Talking About
- How To ….. Like The Pros
Threat Headlines:
There are two strong emotional triggers that are often cited for why people take action: Threat and Gain.
The first one of those two is… moving away from pain.
The threat headline capitalizes on the “move away from pain” motivating factor.
- Do Not Try Another ….. Until You [take desired action]
- Are You Making These 5 Critical Blogging Mistakes?
- The Ugly Truth About …..
Gain Headlines:
Opposite to Threat headlines we have Gain headlines.
In addition to people being motivated to move away from pain…
… they also want to move towards pleasure.
Gain headlines serve to fulfill our desire to get closer to pleasure.
- How To Build An Online Business You Can Be Proud Of
- The Fastest Way To [achieve a specific goal]
- How To Lose 20 lbs. In Two Weeks Without Working Your Tail Off
As you can see, when you write attention grabbing headlines, it will make all the difference when it comes to your reader determining if they want to take the next step and dive into your content.
My Final Thoughts
Now that you’ve read the 5 Simple Tips For Writing Attention Grabbing Headlines you’re ready to start writing your own headlines.
1. Write a great headline. Read it out loud.
Does it grab your attention?
Also, does it convey the topic of your blog post and encourage your reader to read the blog post?
If it does, you’ve written a good headline.
If not, you may want to try writing 4 or 5 different headlines.
List them all out and then pick which one reads and sounds best.
2. Use Numbers in your headline to grab their attention.
3. Include exciting adjectives. This helps to inspire action from your reader.
4. Keep your headline short.
5. Your headline should be Specific. There is nothing worse than a vague headline.
Now your ready, go out and start writing some headlines while using the 5 tips you’ve learned here.
Finally, if you’re struggling to come up with ideas on headlines I highly suggest you get: “5 Winning Headline Formulas” 5 proven way you can instantly grab your prospect’s attention and pull them into reading your sales letter or watching your video.
Also, if you received value from this blog post “5 Simple Tips For Writing Attention Grabbing Headlines” I would appreciate it if you would share this post on Facebook or Twitter!
Many thanks to my good friend Bill Pescosolido for his valuable input to this article.
Until the next time,
PS: I highly suggest you get: “5 Winning Headline Formulas” 5 proven way you can instantly grab your prospect’s attention and pull them into reading your sales letter or watching your video.
