So you’ve finally wrapped up your 1500 word blog with this awesome content, along with an irresistible headline. And you’re quite confident that it will rank high with the search engines and stack up tons of organic traffic to your site.
That’s brilliant! I’m sure your hard work and creativity will reap the rewards.
But just wait a second here… Before you go ahead and publish your blog, and kick off your Inbound Marketing Plan, I’d like you to ponder over a few questions;
Did you know:
- Headlines containing 8 words convert 21% better than the average?
- Using a colon or hyphen within your heading will add 9% to your Click-Through-Rate (CTR)?
- Headlines ending with three exclamation marks get twice as many clicks, compared to headlines with any other punctuation!!!?
If you’re aware of such nifty tips and regularly put them into practice, hats off to you!!!
But if this stuff is new to you or you'd like to learn more, then let’s face it – The first impression you make on a prospective visitor, is via your content ‘title’ or ‘headline’! And it could well be the ‘only’ impression made, if you’re not putting the right effort to make it stand out, or make it ‘appealing enough’ for the readers, to want for more.
The rest of your well-crafted content makes no difference. Actually, it will be ‘non-existent’ if you can't convert the casual browsers into readers through a compelling promise, woven into the fabric of your Headlines.
Given the stats that 80% of your visitors will read your headline and only 20% will proceed to finish reading the article, it's only logical that we craft ‘catchy’, powerful and magnetic headlines, that pull our visitors and encourage them to dig for more.
Here are 5 quick secrets to help you craft ‘Headlines’ that convert;
1. The ‘How To’ Effect.
The ‘How To’ headlines are clever ‘eye catchers’, because they provide immediate benefits to the readers, as it stands to offer answers to a pertinent question or an issue and could also possibly lay out the procedures associated with the solution.
It clearly taps into the psyche of the people of the 21st Century who are leading fast-paced, busy lives – always eager to find tips, tricks and methods to make things easier for them.
For example;
How to get 100,000 readers for your blog?
How to run an Inbound Marketing Campaign?
The headlines clearly signal a solution (procedural) to find the answer to an important issue, which the reader could be looking for.
An added spin to the structure would be to provide a ‘dual benefit’, given that both of the benefits are logically related.
For example;
How to save time and get things done?
How to win friends and influence people? (Now this is a timeless classic by Dale Carnegie which has been read by millions around the world).
Here the promises are associated with the benefits outlined in the titles. All you have to do is match those promises via clearly outlined, procedural content in the body of your article.
2. List Posts – The number game.
List Posts are effective in grabbing readers’ attention, as they tell them precisely ‘what’ and ‘how much’ they're going to get from the read.
It tells the reader the exact number of ‘reasons’, ‘tips’, ‘secrets’, ‘ways’, etc., that's in store for them. For example;
Top 5 Lead-Generating Ideas for Your Content Marketing
7 Ways to Find a Topical Market that Will Fuel Your Digital Commerce Business
3 Effective Call-To-Actions - Boost Your Click-Through Rates
The key to this structure is to write the numbers in ‘digits’ and not in words. It turns out our brain is hard-wired to pick out the digits, as they automatically organise information into a logical order, and odd numbers seem to get more attention than even ones – as they're perceived to be more authentic. The Content Marketing Institute says that Headlines with odd numbers had 20% a higher click-through rate than those with even numbers.
Numbered headlines also give readers the ability to quickly scan the content and provide the flexibility to grab a few takeaways, even when in a hurry.
3. Having two parts – Takes 2 to Tango!
Another secret to ‘successful headlines’ are they come in pairs. A main title followed by
a subtitle. A sub-headline, supporting the main heading, with additional clarity. The Content Management Institute claims, ‘A colon or hyphen in the title indicating a subtitle, performed 9% better than headlines without’
For example:
The Ultimate Blog Marketing Checklist: 65 Tips, Tools, and Resources
Email Marketing – What Do You Want to Know?
Lead Generation – The ‘Tipping Point’ in Inbound Marketing
In all of the above examples, the title is divided into two parts. The first part speaks of the topic in discussion, whereas the second part (after the colon or hyphen), provides more support and clarification regarding the first part. It could also act as a catalyst to prod the readers (as in the second example) to look into the ‘meat’ of the article.
This idea can be equally applied to any form of content besides blog headings, such as;
in ‘calls to action’, email titles, webpage or newsletter headings, etc.
4. The Testimonial Trick
A neat trick to gain attention of the readers is to play the ‘Testimonial Card’ in the headlines. This will immediately stop them in their tracks to figure out the claim.
Testimonials are stories told by ‘other people’ like you, who have used the product/services or the ‘info’ and benefitted from it. This sort of ‘third party’ endorsement entices readers to probe further, as it creates a curiosity to genuinely ‘know’ the experience or it could also work for the skeptical mind.
For example:
“Neil helped us grow to 500 million page views a month” or,
“It’s the first book on Content Marketing that really made sense to me”
Testimonial headlines are generally used within the website content or to create ‘call to actions.” The above example is a ‘call to action’ headline from Neil Patel’s blog Quicksprout.
Make them absolutely ‘CLEAR’
Headlines that convert more, are simply ‘crystal clear’ to the readers. It's devoid of any ambiguous terms or words that confuse the readers.
Every word is carefully crafted to share precisely what the content is going to deliver.
For example;
30 Social Media Engagement Tactics To Boost Shares And Conversions
10 Ecommerce Redesign Tips To Increase Your Conversion Rate
3 Powerful Reasons Why Businesses Should "Keep On Blogging"
Looking at a study conducted based on the 5 Most Common Title Types at ConversionXL,
the ones with more clarity were also the most appealing.
The 5 headline types tested in the above study were:
- Question - What are Ways to Make Drinking Tea More Delightful?
- Normal - Ways to Make Drinking Tea More Delightful
- How To - How to Make Drinking Tea More Delightful
- Reader Addressing - Ways You Need to Make Drinking Tea More Delightful
- Number - 30 Ways To Make Drinking Tea More Delightful
From the above test, it's clear that headlines with Numbers resulted most favourably. People naturally move away from uncertainty and confusion and gravitate towards clarity when looking for information or answers to their queries.
This brings us to the end of this blog. If you want to find success with your websites, blogs, newsletters or CTAs, it's absolutely critical you craft exceptional headlines for your content – as it's the only way to set the right stage, for any other marketing efforts to shine!
If you'd like more assistance with keywords or want to discuss anything covered today, we'd love to hear from you.
Call Andy Fox (me) on (03) 5249 5570 or email andy@element7digital.com.au
Our Website is element7digital.com.au
