How to Excel at Writing Catchy Headlines

You might write something like “Benefits of this and that” and think the work is done, and hope everyone will be delighted to open your article and engulf in it. But sorry to disappoint you, my friend. The truth is far from reality.

So keep your eyes wide open and follow these simple tricks to make readers fall head over heels with your catchy headlines (take a few tips from mine — the subtopics!)

Beating in the bush

People sometimes get mad at you when you point out their obvious flaws, like when you tell them their hair is messed up or that you spotted a new pimple on their face. They’ll hold a grudge against you. However, that doesn’t apply to headlines. Luckily, readers embrace directness and candor in written pieces. They find it easier to concentrate on an article with a clear and simple headline, as it clearly highlights the intention of the writer.

Beating around the bush will only do you harm and decrease the number of readers on your blog or website. So don’t be afraid to beat in the bush and direct the matter at the readers’ faces. Take these examples for concrete and concise headlines:

FREE advice from Professor Kurt (a famous expert)

100% woolen jumpers go for sale

The ultimate guide to efficient marketing strategy

Even a simple Product sales and promotion works. And if you want to test and analyze your headline even further, Coschedule has an incredible tool that’s free to use!

1, 2, 3…

The next time you check out the magazine stand in your local store, look at the front pages. You’ll find the majority uses headlines with numbers, usually indicating some points or tips that the article covers. You should implement this strategy into your headlines as well. Because a catchy headline is not only direct, but it also tells the reader what it offers. It’s those facts that stay in the reader’s head from the moment they start reading until the end. The results of a survey by Buzzfeed back this up. When asked about headline preferences, most readers chose headlines with numbers in them (a stunning 36%) from which females dominated slightly over males. This clearly shows how effective numbers are when grabbing reader’s attention and why you should definitely add them to your headlines. I mean tell me, would these titles entice you to read?

The Top 6 Social Media to Promote Yourself

4 Irresistible Visual Cues That Get More People to Subscribe to Your Blog

5 Reasons Why an SEO-Optimized Website is Your #1 Marketing Tactic

Now, don’t tell me you didn’t click on it. ;)

Drop a bombshell

“Wow!!!” You should provoke that expression on your reader’s face. You should make them want to open the content so badly and read it as if it was the last article on earth. This is how you truly distinguish extraordinary articles from the mediocre bunch.

Imagine you wrote about the birth of a child to famous parents. You surely want to make the headline sound catchy and grand. “Cutest Pitt-Jolie baby number 2 enters the world!”

To help you create an award-winning headline, use unique and strong adjectives to emphasize your main point. Words like: interesting, amazing, incredible, free, unbelievable, exclusive, fun, etc. You can generate more ideas with the help of Portent’s title-maker tool.

The ant and the elephant

Once you have the basics of what your headline should incorporate, you need to add a little strawberry on the top of the cake. That can be achieved through hyperbole, which to put it simply, makes things look slightly grander than they originally are. Think “clickbait.”

Now, don’t get me wrong. This isn’t lying or deceiving. It’s all marketing. And if you’re not using this to your full advantage, you might as well call it quits. And besides, exaggerating things doesn’t hurt anyone. Admit it, we all use it in our everyday language.

“This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me!”

“I’m going to kill him for saying that!”

Even though these are greatly exaggerated, this is what you’d call making the ant look like an elephant. Let me demonstrate what the difference is when you’re making a headline of an “ant” vs an “elephant.”

ANT = Tips for promoting your products

ELEPHANT = Do you want to make thousands of dollars by selling your products?

See how much more powerful the ELEPHANT headline sounds? Our brain loves thought-provoking questions, crazy stats, BIG words. Done right, and you’ll surprisingly reel in more readers to click your article.

WH- and YES/NO Questions

I hope you didn’t ditch your English class when the professor was teaching about the different types of questions. Because guess what? It’s time you finally boast your knowledge on this. Write your catchy headlines in the form of a question — it’s actually one of the most popular (and effective) strategy to getting your post viral. It piques your reader’s interest so much that they can’t help but click your article.

Use the most frequent trigger words: why and how. They are the two biggest questions types that can last through a whole dinner conversation.

How can SEO make you a billionaire?

Why isn’t your brand internationally famous yet?

So what’s better than offering them an answer to a question that has been stuck in their head for a long time? See what I did there? Even I ask you questions to keep you engaged. Smart, stimulating questions = more engagement.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

The last, but one of the vital tips for writing catchy headlines, is to include attention-gripping keywords that would flow through the article under your headline as well. That being said, you want your headline to find its place among the ones on the first page of search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Focus is what matters here. You should keep your article centered on several keywords that you’ve used in the headline to launch your site higher in search results. For example, if you’re writing about your company’s brand, you should mention the name consistently throughout the text, its main products and services, the markets where it’s placed, and the ingredients and materials used in the production. But be careful! More than 70 keywords can make your article invisible to search engines.