Here’s a Quick 7 Ways to Solve How To Write Powerful Headlines

Nicholas Amundson

September 14, 2020
14 min read

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You spend hours writing a great article, but then you move to the most challenging part.

It is the headline. It seems like it should be easy to make a solid headline. I think, in general, it has between 5 and 10 words. How long will it take?

So you are writing a lot of different headlines, but they do not click. They’re all fine, but the audience won’t go crazy with them. And when you want to think about other ideas, there is frustration. How long does it take to write a single line?

Since you are trying to write the headlines fast, it becomes frustrating when you can’t. Most marketers end up selecting the “least sucking” headline and having less traffic than expected.

The solution is relatively straightforward: Expect to spend more time with the headline.

Copywriting legends like David Ogilvy will spend half the time making headlines for the ads or articles they are working on. Ogilvy once reported that he had rewritten the headline 104 times for the Rolls Royce ad.

Another master writer, Gene Schwartz, spent a whole week on the headline and the sales intro. But if you do not have a great headline after two minutes, do not think about it. It is entirely natural.

As long as you understand this, you will not be disappointed, and you can move on until you find the right headline.

Your headline is the critical factor in deciding how much social exposure your content gets – the fact is, most people do not read your content, no matter how good it is.

What they are doing is reading the headline.

Approximately 80-85 percent of people would read the headlines, while only 20 percent would read the actual article.

On the basis of the headline itself, people chose whether or not to read it. That is one of the main reasons why a great headline is so essential. But there is an even more important reason for this:

Many people would also decide to post content on the basis of the headline alone.

It sounds strange, but it has been repeatedly demonstrated.

After a thorough division screening, the Upworthy co-founder found that the most incredible headline could make up to a 500 percent difference in share and traffic.

Through research, we (marketers) learn a lot about which headlines draw the most share and traffic. And I want to show you the seven best kinds of headlines to write about and ways to use them effectively.

You can use them right away to boost traffic and social engagement on your website.

Know the headline’s value: there is one more thing you need to know about the headline before you take any action.

Even if the headline is the most fantastic headline ever written, it does not mean you will receive thousands or millions of shares.

Why?

As there are two other factors at play here:

Some niches are not sexy. You will never receive millions of shares in the floor cleaning article. Also, if you only have 1,000 followers on social media, it will be hard to hit the viral limit of your initial share.

Bottom line: the more followers you have, the more shares you get.

One way to compensate for the loss of followers is to pay for ads. But you are going to need a fair amount of one or the other. The reason that it is essential to understand these factors is to help you keep your expectations realistic.

In this post, You will see content headlines of hundreds of thousands of shares. It may produce similar content, but it may also be restricted based on the two factors listed above.

Your aim should be to have as many shares as possible (depending on the headline). If you do this on an ongoing basis, your website will expand.

Although going viral is a positive thing, consistently increasing your share and traffic gives you trustworthy success.

Let us get started.

How to Write Attention-Grabbing Headlines

1. "The Amazing Headline"

This first headline formula is an excellent way to break the headlines into particular components.

Although it has probably been described many times over the years, I have come across this post from the famous Jeff Goins. Let us call it the “ultimate headline formula.”

The concept behind this formula is that it could define almost every highly successful headline.

There are five major sections of it:

Number: You know what a number is.
Adjective: A term that defines something (noun). Lovely, charming, shocking, for example.
Keyword: Keyword or short sentence that tells us what the content is (possibly even for SEO).
Rationale: The primary method by which the value of the content is distributed in the paths, is the secrets.
Promise: What is the reader going to get from reading the content?

2. "X" Reasons Why Listing Headlines Are Great

Let us start with the first part of the best headlines: the number.

The list posts are easily readable and very helpful when it comes to writing an efficient headline. You now have many things to add to the headline on your list.

In an analysis of over 1 million of the most famous articles, it was found that listings are by far the most widely viewed.

People are in love with posts on the list. And we have got more data to prove it. A detailed conductor survey has shown that people like headlines with numbers.

These headlines make an explicit promise, and the reader knows what to expect from the content. That is possibly the reason why these styles of headlines are chosen.

Participants in the survey also evaluated the clarity of the different types of headings.

As you may have guessed, the list of articles was seen as the clearest:

While we are on the topic, the posts on the list not only attract additional attention (due to their headlines), but they also seem to read more.

Lists are much easier to read, and readers can search through them, jumping quickly from one section to another to see if they are interested in something.

Let us assume that you have seen these two headlines:

“3 ways to lose 20 pounds.”

“50 ways to lose 20 pounds.”

Which one is most appealing to you?

In many cases, it is the one with the more extensive list.

Many bloggers took advantage of this to create content that instantly generates increased traffic and shares.

For example, Brian Dean has compiled a list of all possible known Google ranking factors. It has received over 44,800 shares to date:

An article on five ranking criteria would not have been impressive. But 200, huh? Yeah, this is great.

And that is why so much has been shared. Create your headline list: the good news is that part of the headline is up to you.

If you have a 25 things list, then “25” would be added to your headline. So that leaves the rest of it. The other tactics in this article are going to help you complete that part.

3. "How to" Write a Headline that Draws Attention

Another powerful type of headline is the “how-to” headline.

The general structure is as follows: How + Action (to do something) + Exclusive Benefit

For instance, “How to fall asleep in less than a minute,” is a real post example.

It is an understatement to say it went viral on social media. Over 300,000 shares were already received on Facebook alone:

In that case, the “action” will fall asleep, and the only benefit is that it can be achieved in less than a minute. The real point of sale comes from a unique advantage. It has needed to be something valuable.

With this example, people are desperate to sleep quickly; thus, if you have a solution that works quickly (as the headline says), readers will be interested.

If you have an excellent article to back up your headline, it is going to be shared. It works: There are several explanations why more writers can use “hands-on” headlines wherever possible.

First, it is easy to write. Divide this into two main components:

The action usually is effortless, but spend a few minutes searching for various ways to add it to the headline.

For instance, with the action of falling asleep, you could write “How” or How” to:

Think about it from the reader.

They do not care if you fall asleep soon; they prefer to do it on their own.

If you were born with the remarkable ability to fall asleep instantly, it would not be an exciting thing.

But if you have learned how to do it yourself, and you can share this real solution, the headline immediately becomes even more enjoyable.

Now, the second part of the headline. It is a little bit more complicated. Prepare a set of all the potential benefits of the action you’re telling the reader to take. Again, continue to focus on this from the reader.

Let us come up with a couple of them for our example:

"Under a minute" (original)
"In less than a minute" (variation)
"In less than 60 seconds" (another variation)
"No matter where you are" (another benefit)
"And to wake up energized" (another advantage)

You can quickly create a list of 20 headlines, consisting of different benefits and different ways to explain them.

Practice and experience are also needed to create and choose the best option. This way, you can find a formula that you can replicate repeatedly and enhance your writing skills.

4. What are The Mistakes to Eliminate When Writing the Headlines

Alright, now is the time to clean up. This segment does not deal with a headline mistakes. But admit it, that made you curious.

What is involved in adding the word “mistakes” to your headline?

It is a magic adjective that draws almost every kind of reader’s attention, making it robust.

In general, people are afraid to make mistakes. No, it may not be a paralyzing fear; many realize that everybody is making mistakes.

However, We should strive to stop making mistakes wherever possible; it is rooted in almost everyone. So when you see a headline with the word “mistakes,” you want to be sure you are not doing anything that could be considered dumb.

Here is an example of this:

11 Mistakes Most People Make When Washing Their Hair

Even if you are not in that audience, you can grasp the significance of the headline.

What mistakes are you going to write? The good news is that you have a word in the headline that you have already decided on: errors.

The aspect that takes the headline practice is to decide whether the audience is interested in a certain kind of mistake.

It is a good idea to acknowledge this when creating content as well. And to do so, you have to answer an important question: First of all, the audience must be interested.

If I write an article about the errors that advertisers make when choosing their hairstyles, you probably would not be too interested.

But if I write an article about the mistakes marketers make when they try to sell something through email marketing, many of my readers will be willing to read it.

My readers are interested in sales, traffic, conversions, shared social media, etc.

If I write about the mistakes, it must be about the mistakes that marketers make that can impact one of those primary objectives.

Another bonus: While you can write articles about a single mistake that your readers might be afraid to make, you mostly create multiple errors.

Can you remember everything differently? It is going to be a list post.

You should combine the use of “mistakes” in your headline with the number of things on your list (Reasons I have mentioned before).

5. What are the Best Practices for Writing Headlines?

One type of headline that can help you gain more social shares is a question headline.

You ask the reader a question that they will be interested in finding the answer to, and it is assumed that your content will provide the solution. The subheading in this section is an excellent example of this.

Here are the most complex of curious facts:

A Renowned Psychologist Says There Are 4 Types of Personality Based on 4 colors. Which are You?

More than 3.6 million times have been shared on Facebook since it was published:

Social networks are an ideal platform for spreading such headlines, as they have to do with the user.

It makes sense for them to see the headlines raising questions about social media.

In particular, you have probably seen question headings for almost every famous Facebook quiz.

The most significant point is to include the best headlines for questions that communicate directly to your reader.

Do not ask them:

What is the best way to fall asleep?

Ask them:

Do you know the best way to fall asleep?

This forces them to answer the question, and if it is “no,” it usually makes them look for an answer.

6. This is the Best Headline Type EVER!

A known researcher, Dr. Hakim Chishti, has taught me a lot about the marketing world.

He was more interested in figuring out what triggers people’s emotional reactions. And what he found out was that several words evoke emotions rather than others.

He also found that emotion leads to action. When people feel good or negative about their content, they act. It could be a tweet, a link, or something else. Typically, this is something you want to inspire.

And most of that curiosity is going to wake up when you read your headline. That is why you need to concentrate on generating emotional headlines.

Try to get the readers to spend as positively or negatively as they can.

The EMV Index: The EMV Index (Emotional Marketing Value) was developed to aim to quantify the emotional influence of words in a sentence (or a headline).

Based on an analysis of 1 million of the most prominent articles, the EMV score relates very well to the number of shares the article receives.

The higher the EMV score, the more actions that an item usually gets.

Technically speaking, the highest score is 100, but that is not achievable.

Good copywriters, on the other hand, appear to earn 30-40 percent for their headlines.

Use this EMV Headline Analyzer to analyze your headline. Enter the headline, choose a category, and submit it for analysis: You will instantly spit out the EMV score for your headline:

7. Make Your Headlines SHINE with This Method

A final review so you should make sure your headline covers your overall base to see if it meets all the things on the “SHINE” list.

SHINE is an acronym that is sometimes used for headlines. It means that:

First of all, Is your headline specific?

It should be clear that its content is on a particular topic. Considering the headline: “What You Should Know About Your Roth IRA This could be about anything.

A better headline would be: “What is the best way to cook Fish? Now, it is got a specific topic.

Second, Does it demonstrate any helpfulness?

There must be something of importance to the reader at the heart of every content.

Your headline should make it clear that your content can solve a problem or make something more useful.

Third, is there some urgency?

There must need to be something that inspires the reader to read the content right away. If the reader is not expected to do so immediately, it is impossible to do so later.

If you solve a big problem, the pressure is built in. Otherwise, you have to give some immediate benefit that the reader would get from the content.

Four, Does it have to be said?

All content must have something different, regardless of the topic. Otherwise, why would anyone have seen your content when they could have seen it in the past?

Take Away

Your headline is the most critical part of your content when it comes to getting traffic and sharing on social media.

But it is not easy to create a great headline; it takes a lot of practice and experience. I have shown you seven different ways to apply right away to start writing better headlines.

Start using it as soon as possible. It will improve quickly, and it will continue to improve when you use tactics over time.

If you still have a question about what makes a great headline? Let me know in the comments below.