5 Ways to Write Attention Grabbing Headlines that Work
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Creating a blog post headline is often more challenging than writing the post itself. You need to capture the essence of your post in a concise, attention grabbing statement, and also tell what information is within. There’s a fine line between attention grabbing and click bait; no one likes click bait. Sure, it “works”, but let’s be creating great content with accurate headlines.
Instead, here are our top ways to create headlines that entice your readers.
5 Ways to Use Headlines to Capture Your Audience’s Attention
1. Use Odd Numbered Line Posts
Interestingly enough, there’s a spike in views when you use odd-numbered lists. Not only do lists appeal to our brain’s love of specificity, but they also give the reader foresight into how long the article will be and how much value they could potentially receive.
Unless you’re using a number like 10, focusing on odd-numbered posts can increase your readership.
For example, this article could also be titled, “5 Ways to Use Headlines to Capture Your Audience’s Attention.” (What I used as the H1.)
2. Use Trigger Words
Trigger words make the reader feel as though they’ll lose something if they don’t read the article. These are best used when trying to persuade or enable a reader: why, how, what, or when. Using these types of words makes the post sound intriguing, and it gives the reader a reason to click. Or tap.
“Why You Should Use These Tips to Create Attention Grabbing Headlines”
3. Make Your Readers a Promise
Every blog post you write should be teaching your readers something useful, so this is a great method to use. Jeff Goins states, “make an audacious promise”: promise your reader a valuable lesson, and it’ll be hard for them to ignore you. Now, only use this if you can truly fulfill on the promise; this isn’t a time for over promising and under delivering. (Although there’s never a time for that.)
“Read This and You’ll Learn How to Write Attention Grabbing Headlines”
4. Use FOMO to Your Advantage
FOMO isn’t just for convincing your friends that they really should have come out with you last night. FOMO can also be used to convince readers they should read your blog post. By implying that they’ll be missing out on some key information, you’ll initiate that human feeling that we need to know what’s happening and the need to be involved in it.
“Why You’ll Want to Read This Article Before Writing Another Blog Headline”
5. Use a Headline Formula
This is another Jeff Goins tip, because he’s a brilliant writer and you should be following him on Twitter already. His formula takes a few different strategies, and brings them together into a package that will sell your post and your brand as a whole. By doing so you can create an enticing headline that simply works.
Number or Trigger word + Adjective + Keyword + Promise
“5 Ways to Write Attention grabbing Headlines that Work”
- I chose to use a number
- My adjective choice was “attention grabbing”
- The keyword is “headlines”
- My promise is that these ways will work
You’ve probably noticed how I’ve mixed some of these pieces together in the examples, and that’s something you can also utilize. You can follow the formula above, or create your own. And if that seems like it’s too limiting, give it a few posts and it will seem like second nature.
You owe it to your work to create great headlines. What are you waiting for?
-7twelveteam
