How to write an attention-grabbing headline

(Kind of like that one.)

Journalism 101 teaches budding young writers that the headline is the most valuable copy to hook the reader in. And considering that 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy but only 2 out of 10 will actually read the rest, we know this extends to realms outside of journalism, like your website, social media content, and blog posts.

In addition to grabbing the reader’s attention, there are other key factors to writing a good headline, which we’d like to outline here.

• Make sure the headline clearly explains what the article is about
• Your headline should be optimized for search engines and social media
• Less is not necessarily more (have you seen the length of some Buzzfeed headlines recently??)
• Give readers a takeaway, including an emotional trigger, lesson, or something of value they can hold on to.

It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to get a headline just right and writers often struggle to come up with something that will leave the reader wanting more. Here is a headline from Copy Blogger that recently caught our attention:

“3 Vital Marketing Lessons From the World’s Most Offensive Doughnut Shop”

Makes you want to click on the link to read more, eh?

If you keep the bulleted points in mind while writing content for your site and social media, you should have no problem increasing your traffic and keeping your audience interested!