What's in a headline? There's a number here, a "how to" there, a couple of power words, possibly a colon and a few exclamation marks thrown in for good measure.
Now that formula doesn't seem very scientific. What actually goes into a headline to make people click?
According to a study done by Copyblogger, only two out of every 10 people who read your headline will actually click through to read more. That seems very low, right?
So how can you create effective digital marketing headlines that get people to click over to your site, read your content, and buy your stuff?
There's actually a lot that goes into crafting the perfect headline. And because marketers and business owners are always trying to increase web traffic, a lot of studies have been done on what makes someone want to click.
Let's dive into some of the top tips for creating headlines that generate clicks and conversions.
1. Leave clickbait at the door.
If there's one single thing that you need to do in your headline to establish authority and credibility, it is to never, ever lie. Don't try to increase drama about your post by exaggerating in your headline or creating something clickbait-y just to get the click.
Sure, maybe you'll get a click, but you'll also get an immediate exit, no return, and possibly a bad reputation.
Ensure that whatever you say in your headline is 100% true.
2. Keep it short and to the point.
Your headline is not the time to fluff.
Storytelling works well in professional emails, blog post introductions, and thank you cards, but not in your digital marketing headline.
In fact, headlines with just 8 words perform 21% better than others.
So you don't want to stuff a bunch of fancy words into your headline just because you think it sounds better. Your headline should state exactly what a reader is going to get out of your blog post in as few words as possible.
3. Numbers reign supreme.
People just love a good listicle. If you're creating a list of things or ways to do something, include the number of items in your headline.
Although top 10s are still immensely popular, interestingly enough, headlines with odd numbers actually perform better than those with even numbers.
So next time you're trying to decide how many items to include in your list, consider capping it off at an odd number, place the number into your headline, and watch to see if your reach increases.
4. Negative posts perform better.
Including words like "never" and "worst" in your headline tend to appeal to readers. They definitely want to know what the worst things in your industry are or what they should never ever do. It calls out their curiosity and makes them want to click over to your post.
Keep this in mind when creating your headlines: instead of talking about "how to" do something, perhaps you want to go over "how not to" do that thing.
Headlines with these types of words actually performed 59% better than those with positive words, so what do you have to lose?
5. Use power words.
Power words are adjectives that give your headlines some serious pizzazz. These are words like ultimate, essential, powerful, actionable, wild, quality, or proven.
Instead of just saying "3 Ways to Do X," your headline reads "3 Powerful Ways to Do X."
Seems like such a small change, but it can completely change the way your headline is read. It gives it a stronger edge and makes it much more compelling, earning that click through to your blog post.
6. Create a guide.
People love full-length feature films. Or, in the world of blogging and information, guides and how-tos.
For example, "The Ultimate Guide to..." or "The Step-by-Step Guide to..." and words like "DIY" or "Beginner's Guide."
The age of information is strong, and people love the idea of learning how to do something completely, from start to finish. Especially for free in an online article or blog post.
7. Your headline should be able to stand alone.
Think about it this way: where are you sharing this blog post? Likely on social media and in emails, and at least initially, all your readers are going to get a taste of is your headline.
Without the post accompanying it, does your headline make sense? Or do readers have absolutely no idea what the context is?
If it's impossible to tell what your headline is trying to convey without having the rest of the content on the same page, it's not a good headline. And it's definitely not going to entice anyone to click through to see what the heck it's about.
(And if it does, it's probably clickbait, and you need to go back to number one in this article.)
8. Don't ask questions.
Questions in headlines can be tricky. The reality is, some work and some don't. Although many people think that posing any type of question in their headline makes people think and wonder how the post can answer that question, some of these headlines can be ineffective.
In fact, in a study that looked at some of BuzzFeed's worst performing posts' headlines, nearly 40% of the bottom quartile were posed as questions. That means almost half of the worst of the worst headlines for BuzzFeed were questions.
Moral of the story? Leave question headlines to the experts.
Your headline is an incredibly important part of your inbound marketing strategy. It's the centerfold of the whole "inbound" thing. It's what gets people to your website, reading your content, clicking around to learn more about your business, and ultimately becoming a customer.
Before we sign off, we wanted to leave you with a few more compelling headline statistics:
- Using a hyphen or colon within your headline increases your clickthrough rate by 9%. Ex: "The Beginner's Guide to X: What I Wish I'd Known"
- Headlines ending with three exclamation marks (!!!) get double the clicks than any other punctuation. Although it still doesn't beat out no punctuation, you might as well do three exclamation marks if you are going to do any.
- Using the words "how" or "why" is better than the words "who," "what," "where," or "when."
Don't want to bother with your own digital marketing headlines? Contact us and we can create them for you (plus a bunch of other things)!
Written By: David Carpenter
