Does writing headlines feel like a black art?
Are you umming and ahhing about what to write?
Of course, headlines are important—they’re the first sentences web visitors read. To many writers, headlines feel like the make-or-break line.
Get your headline right, and you engage your reader. Get your headline wrong, and people bounce off your page—they may be lost forever.
Thinking about the importance of headlines is enough to get the most experienced writers stuck.
Does the idea of writing headlines make you pull out your hair, too?
Writing headlines isn’t as difficult as you may think.
To write a good headline, you must know its aim first. And this is not always the same …
The must-know difference between web copy and blog posts
Web copy is content for landing pages, Product pages, Home and About pages.
Your web copy has to persuade people to take a specific action like join a newsletter, buy a product, or contact you.
When a web visitor arrives on a web page, she has a specific task in mind—she might be looking for a new saddle or a marketing coach. And the objective of your headline to quickly confirm she’s in the right place. Looking for a marketing coach? Here’s a marketing coach who helps you get unstuck. Looking for a new saddle to avoid a sore butt? Here’s the Selle Italia women’s gel flow saddle.
The aim of a blog headline, however, is completely different. A blog title needs to stand out in social media streams. It has to capture attention and arouse curiosity so readers click through.
Headlines on web pages tend to be straightforward, because they simply confirm where you’ve arrived. But blog post titles need a dash of seductive power to attract attention.
Let’s have a look at headlines for web pages first.
How to write headlines and subheads for web pages
On a home page, a headline often works in tandem with a subhead.
The headline and subhead together convey the most important information about you or your company. They encourage your web visitor to read further to learn more about you.
The 3 most common options for writing headlines are:
- State what you offer
- Mention the key benefit of working with or buying from you
- Tell which problem or hassle you help avoid
To write your headline, consider what’s the most important thing you want to tell your web visitor. What is he looking for?
If you are a local web developer in London, for instance, you may simply state in your headline:
Website Design and Development in London
You may think that headline is too simple, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. It’s clear, concise, and credible. If someone’s interested in hiring a web developer from London, that headline urges them to learn more and they’ll continue reading your web page.
Here’s a potential headline for a web writer:
Persuasive Web Copy That Converts Web Visitors to Customers
This headline indicates the benefit of working with you: winning customers.
And here’s a potential headline for an accountant:
Avoid Stress and Reduce Your Tax Bill with Our Small Business Accounting Services
The headline above includes a problem you help avoid (stress), a benefit (reduce your tax bill), plus a statement of what you offer (accounting services) for whom (small businesses). This is a lot of information for one headline. Try splitting this statement into a headline and a subheading.
Headline: Accounting Services for Small Businesses
Subheading: Avoid stress and reduce your tax bill
To write a headline plus a subheading, sneak into your reader’s mind. What’s he looking for? Mention the product or service he’s looking for in your headline, and list the benefit (or the problem he’ll avoid) in your subhead. Or do it the other way around.
Remember, headlines and subheads for web pages are simple and to-the-point. Confirm to your reader he’s found the right place to get what he wants.
How to write a good headline for your blog
Are your blog headlines so delicious, they attract attention in social media streams?
A title on a blog is like an item on a restaurant menu—it has to stand out to be chosen. Imagine a menu like this:
- Grilled sandwich with ham and cheese
- Tuna and cheese sandwich with lettuce
- Home-cooked Wiltshire ham on a freshly baked granary sandwich with juicy tomato slices
- Roast turkey sandwich made with leftovers from yesterday
Which sandwich attracts most attention? Which makes your mouth water more?
Research has proven that dishes sell better when they have sensory, rather than ordinary, descriptions. When people read a sensory word, their brain processes this word as if they can feel, hear, smell, or taste something. Sensory and emotional words in your headlines also grab attention and tempt your readers to click through.
If you’d like more readers for your blog posts, then you need to grab attention by carefully selecting your words. Here’s how I write headlines:
- Think about your reader and decide how your post is going to benefit him or her. Start by writing a simple how-to headline. For instance:
- Use your simple how-to headline as a working headline and write your post first. Then write 10 to 20 headline variations trying different words. Choose the headline that stands out most and that conveys the benefit of reading your post well:
- The Easy-Peasy Method for Finding Your Writing Voice
- 11 Ways to Sabotage Your Happiness (and What to Do Instead)
- 8 Juicy Ideas to Nurture a Luscious Blog (and Grow Your Business in 2015)
Note how each headline uses powerful or fascinating words (highlighted in bold), and how each headline promises you a benefit of reading the post—find your voice, stop sabotaging your happiness, and grow your blog and business. That’s how you tempt people to click through to read your posts.
How to write subheads for your blog post
You’ve attracted readers to your blog post.
But will they read it?
Many readers first glance at your posts. They’re trying to gauge whether reading the post will be worth their time. Your subheads have to reassure them—they won’t waste their time. The two most common ways reassure your readers is to either arouse curiosity or promise a benefit.
Let’s have a look at some examples.
Below are the subheads from my guest post A Rabble-Rouser’s Rules for Writing Kick-Ass Closing Paragraphs (Copyblogger):
- It’s time to channel your inner rabble-rouser
- Rabble-rouser rule #1: Address your reader
- Rabble-rouser rule #2: Shrink the change
- Rabble-rouser rule #3: Take away the biggest obstacle
- Rabble-rouser rule #4: Touch your reader’s heart
- Rabble-rouser rule #5: Nail your last line
The last two subheads may touch on specific benefits, but these subheads mainly arouse curiosity. What’s this rabble-rouser stuff about? What does it have to do with final paragraphs? And what the heck does shrink the change mean?
Let’s look at subheads that promise a benefit. The examples below are from my guest post 35 Blogging Tips to Woo Readers and Win Business (Copyblogger):
- How to streamline your content creation
- How to woo readers with your content
- How to create a must-read blog
- How to keep your readers hooked week after week
- How to spread your ideas
- The truth about business blogging
The last series of subheads are like mini-headlines. They promise a specific benefit, but they’re relatively light on power words. They’re a little toned-down. When your readers scan these headlines, they evaluate and hopefully decide yep, this sounds good—I wanna read this.
Avoid writer’s block when writing headlines
Yep, headlines are important.
There’s no doubt about that.
But don’t let that get you stuck. Get over your performance anxiety by thinking about your reader and start playing.
When you’re writing a headline for a web page, it’s easy—repeat the conversation that’s going on in your reader’s mind. Play around with a few options, and then settle for your favorite choice.
When you’re writing a blog post title, you can play even more. Try title templates. Play with different words. Plunder the thesaurus.
Write a draft headline.
And then start to play. Have fun.
Recommended reading on writing headlines:
47 headline examples: steal these nifty formulas from popular blogs
The Godiva guide to mouth-watering blog post titles
39 ways to write delicious headlines
God, hey Henneke,
Who paints’ your pictures?
They paint your words in my head. Very captivating.
Thank you for your compliment, Afangideh. I draw all images myself 🙂
Hi Henneke. I am a new reader to your blog–and so glad I found another copywriter I resonate with! Excellent post…enchanting, I should say. 🙂
You are right that we must spend LOTS of time on headlines and subheads. It’s often the LAST thing that people think about…but it’s the ONLY thing that is important in a social media stream. I tell my clients that I spend 25% of the time writing the post and 75% of the time working on the headline–it’s that important.
I have a tool I use that I wanted to share with your audience. I LOVE this tool as a copywriter. Have you seen it? It’s the Headline Analyzer Tool from the Advanced Marketing Institute. Not only does it rate the headline (I don’t publish, generally, unless my score is 40% or higher), but it also tells you on what level you are hitting your audience–spiritual, emotional , or intellectual, or a blend of those. It’s great–give it a try!
http://www.aminstitute.com/headline/index.htm
Hi Shannon, Nice to meet 🙂
I love playing with headline analyzers. I didn’t know this one yet (thank you for sharing!), so had a look and tried a few headlines. For instance …
One of my Copyblogger guest posts was the most shared post in 2013. Its headline (37 Tips for Writing Emails that Get Opened, Read, and Clicked) scores a miserable 18.18%.
Headline analysis tools can provide great guidance (and they’re pretty addictive!) and the principles on which they’re built are usually sound (emotional words attract more attention and boost shares). But it seems difficult to develop a tool that really understands the nuances of language, attention, and persuasion. It’s a mix of science and art.
You are exactly “write”. 🙂 In fact, this is a great tool for those who are just starting out and need to understand what makes a great headline. It helps get the mindset right, if you will, and then the words.
Wow, great blog.
I’m relatively new to blogging, and I have been reading about ‘do this’ and ‘do that’ with a blog, but this is the first time I have read about the headline. Slap myself on the forehead. It seems so obvious now and your teaching makes it so easy to grasp–I wish you had taught my chemistry at school; never got it! Anyway, I am all over this and look forward to the snack-pack, I do hope there is chocolate in there!
BTW, Vince Favilla sent me in your direction, saying wonderful things about you.
Ha! Chemistry! Now quite my strongest subject… I always made up my answers, and somehow it worked.
Do you like Godiva? You’ll find their chocolates here: https://www.enchantingmarketing.com/how-to-write-blog-post-titles/ (and more stuff about writing headlines! 🙂 )
Nice to meet, Kevin. And glad that Vince has been speaking well about me 😉
Henneke,
I love headlines! I could write about them all day. I just wanted to note that when you said “Headlines on web pages tend to be straightforward, because they simply confirm where you’ve arrived” that doesn’t always have to be the case.
I’ve found that it can be really effective to make your page headings like little CTAs, saying things like “Work With Us” or “Get More Information”– making it more compelling to click. What do you think?
Your posts are so fun to read. I just love your style.
Hope you’re enjoying your 2015!
Brittany
I think it depends on where your customers arrive from. If they arrive from Google and the headline says “get more information” then it might be confusing. I’d make that headline more specific – what’s the information about? What will they learn on the page?
However, if they click from a link on your site and the link says “work with us” then having “work with us” as your headline sounds fine.
Good to see you again, Brittany 🙂
Hi Henneke,
Awesome post.
You’re definitely right. A blog title has to capture the attention and arouse curiosity.
Question. How much times do you spend on headlines? Hours? Or however long it takes you to write those 10 – 20?
In a post I wrote recently, I wrote this headline “The Secret To Creating Blog Posts That Grabs Hold and Keeps Your Readers Attention Everytime” and I’ll admit that it sounded good to me in my head.
And was better than the others I could have come up with.
But yesterday, a proofreader corrected it for me and suggested I go with, “The Secret To Creating Blog Posts That Grab Hold and Keep Your Readers’ Attention Every Time”
So my question is, how do you know if you’re grammatically correct with your headline? If that makes sense. Because the original sounded great in my head, but I guess it wasn’t.
I don’t normally struggle with headlines but perhaps that was a sign I need more practice of that I need to take it more seriously.
Regardless, great post and you gave me something to really think about.
– Andrew
Hey Andrew – feels like we’re on a pub crawl together today, seeing you on various blogs! 🙂
I sometimes make grammar mistakes, too. We’re all human. The only way to avoid it is to get a proofreader. Or you can try to simplify. I try to keep my headlines below 80 characters (incl spaces). So I’d probably go for: The Secret To Creating Blog Posts That Keep Your Readers’ Attention Every Time; or even: The Secret To Creating Blog Posts That Keep Your Readers’ Attention
I find it difficult to say how much time I spend on writing a headline. Sometimes 5 minutes, but at other times it might be half an hour. I enjoy playing around with my headlines, so usually don’t watch the time!
Thank you for stopping by.
Hi Henneke,
I know, I was seeing you all over the place today. Really enjoyed that other post, by the way. It seems that I’ve been making more grammar mistakes lately but I’m working to correct it.
I need to take more of an approach that you take. Just play around with various headlines and not really pay attention to the time.
Thanks for the advice.
– Andrew
P.S. Purchased “Blog to Win Business” today and I’m looking forward to reading it.
Yes, try playing around. It can sometimes help to change your working place, too, to create a sense of fun. Try sitting at your dining table or your favorite sofa with a pencil and paper rather than at your desk.
Hope you’ll enjoy the book!
I love this line Henneke – “And then start to play. Have fun.”
Very often we try too hard trying to think of a headline. It becomes a lot easier if we simply try to have fun instead. After a dozen or so ideas, a really good one comes up!
Yes, I’m glad you mention this. I agree with you – it really works like this. It’s a kind of trying without trying. That’s why a sense of play seems so important.
I can’t come up with a headline in one go. But when I start playing around with the words, then a good idea always magically appears. (It works the same with thinking about metaphors)
Thank you for stopping by, Peter 🙂
Yes, she has a sense of humor – mainly irony 😉
😉
Thanks, Henneke. Another informative article. I love your sense of humor. Does it come natural to you, or do you have to work at it?
To be honest, I’m not sure.
I used to think I didn’t possess a sense of humor (and have been told so in the past), but more people have suggested they like the sense of fun in my posts. So perhaps it does come natural to me? I do my best to avoid stuffy examples 🙂
Hi Henneke,
Another enchanting post.
I especially appreciate the information on headlines and subheads for blog posts. This is something I struggle with each time I write a blog post.
Thank you!
Yes, you’re not the only one. This probably is the most difficult part of blog writing. More practice really helps!
Good to see you again 🙂
Totally agree with Benny up there … great distinction between blog titles and webpage titles. That was so good to hear. I’m not sure if I’ve seen anyone make the difference so obvious before.
I’ve always felt like I’ve got more freedom to be creative and clever with blog posts than with sales copy, but that really confirmed it.
And yes, that whole approach of just banging out 10-20 variations is so key!
Demian took me to task every chance he got on my headlines and subheads and pretty much always said the same thing: “Go write 10 more.”
Thanks!
I feel quite strongly about this distinction between web page titles vs blog titles. Too often they get mixed up.
And yes, I agree with you – blog titles can be more creative, more playful. Good web page titles often simply repeat what a reader is thinking already.
I used to write 20 – 50 headlines before deciding on one. I’ve gotten a little lazier now and usually write between 10 and 20. 😉
Thank you for stopping by again!
Hello Henneke
I like the idea of putting your service in the headline and the benefit in the sub head. This makes it easy to scan and understand.
One of my favourite copy-writing books is Make Your Words Sell.
It advises that you make your headlines and sub heads tell the whole story in a condensed version. So scanners still get a good idea of what you’re saying. It also says that your sub heads should act as beacons to guide readers back to any points they want to re read.
I’ve heard about Ken Evoy’s book, but I’ve not read it.
And yes, there are two kinds of subheads. Perhaps I didn’t cover this well enough, but I didn’t want to make the post even longer! On a web page you have the subhead that goes with the headline (and together the headline & subhead explain the basics of what you offer) and then you have subheads spread over your web page (with short paragraphs below each of them) – these subheads tell the key points of your story to scanners.
Thank you for adding that!
Another outstanding post. My question is how about headlines for videos. Any particular mindset or approach for a headline for a video?
Thanks a lot.
Joe
Hi Joe
To be honest, I have no experience with video marketing at all.
I’m guessing this may depend on the goal of the video and how people find it. For instance, if you’d have a video that turns up in a search result for “how to repair a puncture” or “how to cook a banana pancake”, then having a simple headline (like for web copy) might be enough because you fulfill a specific task (you teach people how to learn something they want to learn).
However, if you have a YouTube channel and you’d like readers to click from one video to another and another, then you might want to make your headlines a little more enticing. If you look at Marie Forleo’s channel, for instance, then her headlines are more like blog post titles.
Hi Henneke,
Great comparison between headlines for web copy and blogs.
I like the restaurant menu metaphor and examples 🙂
Thanks!
Food metaphors remain my favorites.
There was a time that even Google got confused about this site’s topic. It would occasionally send traffic to my site when people were searching for cycling or cooking related phrases. But I think Google has figured this out by now.
Thank you for stopping by again! 🙂
Wow, that’s absolutely cool!
Never heard a story about google getting confused like that 🙂