Ahh, the warm glow of publishing a fantastic blog post. A post packed with so much helpful information you could charge for it! It should be going viral but you’re lucky to get a few shares on each social media platform and no comments. So what’s wrong? In the process of diagnosis, always start with your headline. Your blog headline is the spruiker for your blog. If it’s as attention-grabbing as an introvert at a dance party and no one clicks, it really doesn’t matter how good your blog content is. Your blog headline need to grab people’s attention, spark their curiosity and make a promise that almost irresistible. Your headline needs to earn the click. There are loads of resources about writing headlines but make no mistake… writing the kinds of headlines that go viral can be really hard work. Most of us don’t want to spend hours writing a blog headline (when we have a thousand other things to do) so I’ve broken down the process into just three steps. 3 steps that will turn your vague, boring blog headline into a compelling, click-worthy firecracker!
Step 1: Compelling blog headlines offer real value
Ask yourself these two questions:
- What’s the one idea I want readers to take away?
- How will their life be changed?
For this blog post I want you to know that writing a clickable blog headline doesn’t have to be a time-consuming headache. The potential result is a blog post that gets opened – a lot. I’ll start with those questions and we’ll work through how a blog post headline changes.
- Learn a quick and simple headline-writing process
- Learn a quick and simple headline-writing process (that will make your blogs post more popular)
That’s pretty straightforward but not that interesting.
Step 2: Enticing blog headlines aren’t vague
As I scroll through my news feed I’m waiting for something to catch my attention, a blog post that offers to educate and entertain. If I can’t tell what a piece of content is going to be about, I move on. Your blog headline needs to be specific. A more specific promise (step 1) is more credible and more specific content feels more digestible.
If your blog post is about marketing – what kind of marketing?
If your blog post is about training – what kind of training? Whom is it for?
If your blog post covers a few steps, stages or tips – can you make it a list post?
My headline,
Learn a quick and simple headline writing process (that will make your blogs post more popular)
Becomes
3-step process to writing blog headlines (that make your blog posts more popular)
[specific number of steps] [specific type of headline] [outcome or promise]
That’s long and unwieldy so I’ll try and say the same thing in fewer words.
3 steps to writing more clickable blog headlines
Step 3: Clickable blog headlines aren’t bland
The last step is all about powering up the language you use. Power words throw a stone into a smooth puddle and that’s what you need to do to get attention. Can you use words describing strong emotion? Hate, love, fear, pain, dream, stress, overjoyed, humiliate, guilty, incredible Can you add some exclusivity? Secret, hidden, revealed, truth, forbidden, never Can you use words to inspire some urgency? Now, discover, new, quick, fast, hurry, direct Can you imply the content is unexpected? Surprising, unique, astounding, breakthrough, simple Here is a longer list of power words to draw from. When we power up the headline for this post, it becomes:
3 surprisingly simple steps to crazily clickable blog headlines
Your blog headline doesn’t have to have to be sensational (with heaps of power words) to be click-worthy but consider how you can tweak average descriptions or outcomes to use words that are more surprising and eye catching.
Watch and learn
As you spend time on social media and select blogs to read, pay attention to the headlines that catch your attention. How are they using these three steps to earn your click? And the next time you write a headline that simply describes the content you’re about to publish – STOP! Step through this simple process and turn your headline wallflower into the life of the blog party.
