Headlines are important to capture the audience. Articles get opened if the readers are interested in them which happens through headlines. Everytime you open something about your favorite celebrity or restaurant, the headline is always what catches you and compels you to read. Writing headlines may seem easy, but they involve a lot of work. Here are seven tactics for writing an attention-grabbing headline.
1. Fill the Curiosity Gap
Headlines fuel curiosity. Curiosity provokes action that moves your audience to read the article. To fill the curiosity gap, the article has to provide usefulness, emotion, and irresistibility. The article should evoke anger, shock, or awe.
2. Connect with the Reader
You only have seconds to grab a reader’s attention. That’s why writing an eye-catching headline is important. Your headline should deliver quality content in a few words. Since readers have short attention spans, it’s easier for them to notice something short. This is part of building the connection between your headline and the reader. Most importantly, make sure that your headline is relevant to the content to make a connection.
3. Truthful Headlines
Don’t bait readers. Sharing false information will undermine your credibility. Readers will feel your content is a waste of time and will avoid your headlines in the future . The best thing to do as a communications professional is not to be part of this problem; Commit to the truth.
4. Keep Audience in Mind
Always write with your audience in mind. The best thing is to find out who your target audience is. The questions you should ask yourself are:
What value can you give them?
What entices them to read more?
The more information you know about your target audience, the more knowledge you’ll have to write your headline.
5. Be Crisp, Concise, and Catchy
A crisp, concise and catchy headline makes for a vivid story. It’s okay to go for an innovative, artfully challenging headline. If you want the media to share your article, it’s good for this to happen so they can pick up from your version as much as possible. Don’t be afraid to experiment with wording for headlines.
6. Have Enough Words to Create Interest
The biggest thing is how long a headline should be. The one mistake you can make is the headline being short. In actuality, headlines should be long. According to Hubspot®, headlines should be under 70 characters, so it doesn’t get cut off in search results. The most important thing your headline needs to do is grab attention and create interest. With that being said, you should be careful of the words you use in your headline.
7. Don’t Write a Headline Just to Get Clicks
Everyone’s main goal is to get on Google’s top page. In some cases, some people write headlines to get clicks in hopes that this happens. Don’t follow these people; It takes more than that to get on the top page. Doing so is considered cheating. People will begin to notice when your headline isn’t matching with your article. If this happens, people will drift away from anything that references you, and you can forget being on Google’s top page with your credibility being on the line. It’s best to make sure that your headline and your articles add up.
Headlines are the gateway to getting people to come to your site. The first thing they read is the headline, and it’s sometimes the only thing they read. It’s best to make it interesting enough for them to want to click and read more. As a writer, you’d want to drive the audience’s emotion, make them curious and trust you while also being careful about garnering clicks. Lots of research needs to be done on your audience to understand what types of headlines they respond to, and try your hand at what they like.
If you’d like more on how to write headlines, contact us at The Profit Link, a small business support team based in Memphis, TN. We want to link your business to profit today!