10 Secrets To Make Your Headline Stand Out

Researching on a certain topic for a while, and then taking the time to write down an astounding article on it are essential efforts every great writer needs to perform. The bad news is that all this work means nothing, if the title does not draw attention.

Finding the right combination of words to create a headline that will impact the reader, provoke him and generate a reaction is no easy task. It can be done, but there are certain key points one should track. What is that one trigger that makes people share one article more than others? What exactly makes a headline better than another?

Question, how-to, number and other types of headlines have different rates of success among readers. Take a look at some of the results discovered an the study published on moz.com:

How can you make your next headline stand out and get noticed right away? Here are some tips to take into consideration:

#1 Make Lists

A CoSchedule study determined that 5% of the articles you can find on the Internet are list posts. They are extremely popular among the readers, so you can benefit from this trend and become a well-known voice by creating more articles like these. Make sure that the headlines contain their essence and that they respond to readers’ needs.

#2 Use You and Your

Writing in second person, rather than using the first person, instantly suggests the readers that you are addressing to him and to his needs. Readers love to feel that they are involved in the article they are reading, so this type of headline is much more likely to get more shares.

#3 Provide Help

People go for articles that are helping them improve themselves. Learning something new for free is one example. Try to conceive a headline containing promising powerful words like “how to” or “free”. If you want to gain popularity, help your readers envision a better life and help them feel like it’s in their power to make awesome things!

#4 Knowing What Is More Suitable For Every Social Media Channel

Take list posts, for instance. To ensure a maximum rate of success, you should first know what the best social media channels are more suitable to be used for posting them. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn work best for them. Also, there are a few words that indicate a list type-of-article coming up: reasons, thing or should.

#5 Use Facebook For Videos

Unlike any other platform, Facebook is, by far, the best one to share your video on. You will not see a video being that successful anywhere else. The secret of this phenomenon may be directly linked to how Facebook manages to embed this type of content in the news feed.

#6 Craft Different Headlines For Each Network

Every social media channel has its own audience. While Twitter and LinkedIn tend to be more business-like, Pinterest and Facebook have a more relaxed style. This means that whenever you are writing an article and planning to promote it on each of these platforms, you should design a different headline for every social environment.

Address each of these audiences accordingly, rather than using a standard formula and hope for the best. Go that extra mile and the results will show up!

#7 Know The Value Of Pinterest

If you have the right type of content to share, Pinterest can be a great tool to use for increasing shares. But you should know how to use it. Not just creating boards and uploading photos, but conceiving strategies and knowing how to “sell” your work.

#8 Know The Value Of Facebook

When Pinterest gets out of the game, Facebook is the platform which will get you the most shares. Work on creating a headline with a powerful emotional impact. You can even check the rate of emotions in it by using the Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer. It counts the emotional words in your phrase and gives back a value. A great headline has an emotional rate of 30-40%.

#9 Emotional Headlines Get More Shares

Headlines with an emotional value of 30-40% get shared much more than those with a lower rate of 10-20%. Use the “emotional calculator” to better assess the emotional value of your headline.

Some of the best copywriters rarely manage to exceed this limit. It takes time to find the right words and get to that value, so don’t freak out if you can’t do it from the very first time. Practice makes it better!

#10 Write Clear Headlines

Last, but not least, the headline you are creating should reflect exactly the main idea of your article. Leave no room for ambiguity or for double meanings. The more clear the headline is, the better the odds of readers clicking on it and reading your article.

If there is one thing people hate, that is uncertainty. They are looking for fast solutions to their problems, so they want to find them straight in the title. They want clear and specific ideas. Blame this on the short attention spans nowadays, but if you are looking to make a difference and becoming an authoritative voice, you must adjust to your audience first.

 

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