Marketing

7 Proven Headline Formulas That Will Help You Get Clicks Like Crazy

wrferfgeDo you think writing is easy? Actually, it is not. It is an art, and not anybody can be the artist.

The American Novelist Ernest Hemingway said,

“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.”

Writing the truest sentence that you know is not an easy task. One of the best methods that can help you sharpen your writing skill is reading. The more you read the better you can write.

What’s more involved with good writing?

Well, writing a good piece of content is not enough to attract the readers and make them read your article. You must give importance to headlines if you really want the conversion from your writing. Without a proper headline, your content can be ignored and eventually lost under numerous other content pieces online.

So how can you work on your headlines?

This is exactly what I am going to talk about today.

Without further ado, let’s have a look at the proven formulas that you can follow to make your headline intriguing.

1-Use Numbers

This is one of my favourites. When you start your content’s headline with a number, it becomes well-structured and easy-to-read. The readers get all the information in a logical manner, thus they stick to the content till the end.

It has been noticed that the headlines that start with odd numbers like, 7, 5, 11, can grab readers’ attention easily.

You can tweak such headlines by adding some attention-catching words, like top, best etc.

For examples:

“Top 5 Reasons Startups Fail”

“The 11 Best Resources for Improving Your Writing”

2- Start with “How To”

According to the writers working in the advertising field, if you start your headline with ‘how to’, you cannot end up with a bad headline.

Let me tell you a little secret behind this.

These days, most people, while browsing online, are in dire need of a sense of predictability and order in their lives. And thus their common search terms start with ‘how to’. The more they get tips, methods, hints, rules, the better way they get control and system in life. So give these tips in the simplest manner by starting your post’s headline with ‘how to’.

Here’s a trick,

Don’t just stick to the process, while sharing the tips. Add the benefits or results immediate after that.

For example:

“How to do yoga” would be better if we write,

“How to do yoga to make yourself feel fantastic in just 15 minutes”

You can see the first one misses a point. After seeing the first title, a reader cannot understand why your content is better than the other thousands of article written on the same topic as the title promises only a way of doing Yoga.

However, in the second title, I have highlighted the benefit (in a stipulated time) a person can get from yoga right after the hint of the process. That is what makes your headline stand ahead of the crowd and click-worthy.

That is why you should opt for the latter.

3-Add “The Secret Of”

This kind of headlines really work. They basically share insider knowledge and convert it into the reader’s benefit.

Let me share an example with you –

“Secrets of Cracking Your Next Job Interview”

You can tweak such a title and still tell the secrets by writing like this –

“What Makes Neil Patel a Successful Blogger”

Both way you are sharing secret sauce of something useful.

4-Add The “Proven” Ways / Methods

Earlier I discussed the importance of highlighting methods or ways in headlines. Do you know what makes it different when you add the word “proven” in it?

When you say proven ways to do something, it gets authorized in some way. People can believe that your ways can certainly benefit them. People will feel like knowing more about it and consequently click on your post.

For example:

“7 Proven Ways to Reduce Stubborn Belly Fat”

5-Opt for “What You Need to Know about”

This kind of headline creates a curiosity and readers feel after seeing such headlines as if they might be missing something. Certainly, they will go ahead to get a deeper understanding.

“What You Need To Know About Medicine”

Well, you can tweak this kind of headline and make more click-worthy by adding some words that I mentioned in my earlier points.

“What You Need To Know About Medicine – 5 Secrets Revealed”

6-Start with The “Ultimate Guide to”

This kind of headline is undoubtedly free from all sorts of wordplay and cleverness. You are directly conveying the message through the word ‘ultimate guide’ that you have some share-worthy and all-inclusive knowledge about something. Believe me, this can work effectively.

Copyblogger, the great resource for content marketing, has multiple contents of which titles start with “ultimate guide”.

“Ultimate Guide To Facebook Marketing”

7-Do Something Like Famous People / What Famous People Teach You about Something

Now I’m going to share the last formula which is certainly not the least headline formula. When you add a successful person to the topic of your post, it certainly works on your target audience, because this way they feel they can get inspiration from somebody successful and know how to be successful in something like a pro.

For examples:

“What Tyrion Lannister Can Teach You About Writing”

“9 Ways You Can Be More Like Mark Zuckerberg”

Conclusion:

Maintaining the quality of your content is a must. Also, keep in the mind that your content should be a hit based on the headline. Make people read your headline as well as go through the rest of your post.

So, the next time, make your headline compelling, catchy enough to get clicks like crazy.

Do you want to add any other headline formula? Feel free to share.

2 Comments

  1. Sandeep Rathore

    Hey Kamalika, this is a good article. I’m certain that bloggers will find this resource quite useful to write headlines.

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