Write better headlines.
That’s no big relevation, and there’s a lot that goes into writing better headlines. I’ll refer you to someone like @Copyblogger who has written a great series on writing better headlines.
But there’s one area I wanted to focus on when it comes to headlines. I share a lot of links on Twitter because I am trying to find helpful information for my followers. Therefore, I read a LOT of blog posts from my feed reader. And honestly, a lot of time I am simply scanning the post very quickly to determine if the content could be useful for others.
One source that consistently provides excellent content is EMarketer. But EMarketer often ‘buries the lead’ when it comes to writing their headlines. The key facts or figures are often overlooked when it comes to their headlines.
Case in point, this morning I shared a link to a recent blog post the site wrote, titled “What are the benefits of email-social media integration?“. But here is what I tweeted: “54% of email marketers say adding social media improved their efforts according to @emarketer”.
Which title would you be more likely to click on:
1 – “What are the benefits of email-social media integration?”
or
2 – “54% of email marketers say adding social media improved their efforts”
And that post also included this graph:
Just looking at that graph, think of some of the headlines you could create for that post. Here’s a couple I can see:
“Facebook tops all other forms of social media for email marketing, new study finds”
“Over 70% of email marketers are using Facebook and Twitter”
“71% of email marketers use Twitter, only 10% say it provides best results”
What else do you see?
The point is, make sure you are hitting on the key takeaway from the post, in your headline. What too many bloggers do (and I am guilty of this as well sometimes) is we simply summarize the post, in a few words. In 4 years, this is the most popular post I have ever written at The Viral Garden. The post is about the importance of building a community around your blogging efforts, and how that can improve the quality of the content you create there. I had the post nailed, but I couldn’t figure out what I wanted the headline to be for the life of me. I could only come up with a bland one, “Why building community is important for your blog”. I realized that this title completely SUCKED. I loved the post, but the headline was horrible. I was even considering scrapping the post completely, then I decided on this headline for the post:
“The idea that ‘content is king’ in blogging is total bullshit”.
And there you go. No punches pulled, that title tells you EXACTLY what you can expect. And as a result, this post got HUNDREDS of RTs, simply because the headline grabbed your attention and made you WANT to read it. Because if you read that headline, you probably think “Amen!” or “Wait, that’s not right!”. So it’s straight, to the point, and polarizing.
But the key is, it isn’t boring. Think about this when you are writing your post headlines. Your post title is going to be competing with a TON of other content. You only have a few seconds to sell your post, and you do that with the title.
Does this work for you? If you are active on Twitter and promoting your content there or on LinkedIn or Facebook, you MUST improve your headline writing. You’ll get far more clicks and RTs, which will get you more referral traffic, and will help you expand your networks on those sites.
UPDATE: We discussed testing different titles as you tweet links to your posts on Twitter, and DJ Waldow made a great point: “Mack – You mention this in one of the comments, but not in the actual blog post: Test. I think that is critical. What may be a good/better headline for you doesn’t necessarily work for your followers, right? Again – I know you agree with this point, but thought it may be worth touching on in the actual post as some folks may not read the comments. It’s the same advice we give in writing subject lines for email marketing. Often – surprisingly – the “boring” subject lines get the most opens/clicks/conversions.”
This makes so much sense, yet can be so difficult, especially when writing about stuff that is often inherently boring (accounting, tax, small business finance).
Is it really boring or is it boring to you? I hope you are writing to people who do like the subject. And if they do not like it, then it is you who can help them get through this “boring stuff they have to read”.
Maybe i am wrong. You can also do a lot with a little creativity.
Absolutely. suppose boring lies in the eyes of the beholder.
When you are writing to a targeted audience, sometimes a balance needs to be struck between making the title interesting, but also functional.
It’s funny, Mack: I was just about to write a post using that eMarketer graph when I noticed the headline on eMarketer isn’t the headline/Tweet everybody’s sending around. eMarketer used the boring headline. Whoever started the Tweet wave with the better headline should get a paycheck.
I’m a big fan of accuracy over sensationalism, but eMarketer surprises me with their penchant for missing the hook.
Scott so much of the content EMarketer creates is based around studies or findings. That begs to include the findings in the title as the ‘hook’, but they often miss this. Hey it happens to the best of us 😉
Great timing of your post. I’ve been experimenting with article headlines and I too have found the more info I can give in the headline which sets the article’s expectation the better the RT and page view.
Also, I try to make the headline somewhat keyword friendly, without forcing it to assist in my agency’s positioning and SEO efforts.
Thanks for the wonderful insight Mack, I’m going to remember everything I’ve just read and use it everyday. I’m going to notch it up another level and incorporate it within all social media platforms because I’m forever coming across link’s that are poorly written but actually turn out to be an excellent read. Reminds me of the baked bean philosophy – if only the packaging on the cheap bean’s was tweaked a bit, then more consumers would buy them because ultimately – they taste just as good if not better. Jay croft
Honestly, what I click on depends on what I need at the moment. Neither one of those headlines grabs me. The first is, yes, boring, but the second implies I should follow the herd. Also, they mean two totally different things; I would not guess that #2 would lead to the same article as #1. I’m inclined to say a jazzier headline that mentions email/social integration specifically might get my click.
I agree with you that the headline holds all the importance while dealing with media like Twitter.
The problem is as you mention finding the right headline for the right post.
It’s a matter of experience I am sure, so I have to suggest to people starting, or not yet getting the desired results: don’t get discouraged, you’ll get there. I am still waiting for that myself.
Hey Gabriele! One thing I also do is to change the description of the link when I share it on Twitter.
For example, if I were EMarketer, I would share the link to this post 3-4 times on Twitter, and use each of those descriptions for the link, then track and see which version of the article got the most RTs and clicks. Could help me in writing future headlines.
Hah, what can I say, hi5, that’s what I do to, a sort of split a/b testing with Tweets, I use google’s UTM variables attached to the link to keep track of various title options and Tweet’s posting times, then shorten that URL so I can track it on Bit.ly. And to keep track of all this, an overly complicated Google spreadsheet, but it works for me so far.
The worst is when you create a title…like it… post it… then think of a better one later. I read somewhere that it should take you just as long to create the title as the content. Is that BS?
Bill I think it depends on the writer. I know a lot of people say write the title first, then the post. But I am usually more comfortable writing the post first, then making the title fit.
I think the key, and Meg and others hit on this below, is that the title can be great, but if the post doesn’t back it up, it’s a waste. Thanks for stopping by!
This is a good reminder for me. I try to keep my titles short, use good key words AND communicate concisely what the topic is about. Boy, my scientific writing skills just don’t quite include ‘catchy’ though. I need to stretch a little and take some chances. Thanks once again for the prodding.
I use Twitter all of the time. I have resisted using Facebook for my business. Looks like I need to take a second look.
Thanks for the post.
Mack – You mention this in one of the comments, but not in the actual blog post: Test. I think that is critical. What may be a good/better headline for you doesn’t necessarily work for your followers, right? Again – I know you agree with this point, but thought it may be worth touching on in the actual post as some folks may not read the comments. It’s the same advice we give in writing subject lines for email marketing. Often – surprisingly – the “boring” subject lines get the most opens/clicks/conversions.
Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve commented here. I read (nearly) every post. Keep kicking ass. Hope to see you face to face soon. MP event in February? I’m speaking!
DJ Waldow
Director of Community, Blue Sky Factory
http://www.blueskyfactory.com
@djwaldow
DJ good point, tell you what, I will edit the post and add your comment, with a link to your blog. Deal?
You are a good person, Mr. Collier!
As a copywriter, this isn’t a mystery to me. People want / need to be engaged, and the promise of real / relevant / compelling information behind a link is the best way to get them to click it.
However, people have also been burned by red herring headlines (a MAJOR pet peeve of mine — you dislike your audience enough to pull a bait and switch?) from some of the biggest names in social content, so you need to be able to back up the interest you drum up with your headline.
Great copy doesn’t make up for a lack of substance, in other words.
If you can put it all together — sharp headline, top-notch content, easy-to-scan structure & formatting and an image that doesn’t look like an iStock photo special — you’ll get and keep readers.
Focus on just one part of the story, and you’ll lose folks along the way.
But Meg you are a writing superheroine, the rest of us are mere mortals 😉
Great point about making sure the post matches the title. A snazzy title and flat post is no better than a flat title and a good post. That was actually why I started focusing on improving the quality of my titles about a year ago, cause they were so bad in relation to my posts.
I think it was Kathy Sierra that said that an expert is someone that thinks they can always improve their current efforts, and is always looking for a way to find that improvement.
These are points I live and learn each day. It’s the debate between an SEO title and a people friendly title which has been discussed before on one of your guest posts Mack on MENGonline I think it was. If you use social media then your posts need to be social and eye catching and of course be relevant to the content. I always appreciate your reminders Mack. Hope you are doing well.
Hey Jonathan, good memory on the MENG Blend post! Yes I think if you’re smart about it, you can create a great title that matches the post, is ‘snazzy’ or whatever word you want to use, and that also hits on your keywords.
But, having said all that, I think you still need to write for your readers. Be it the title, or post. Write in the language they can understand, and relate to.
Mack,
It’s weird how a particular topic can crop up in several blogs within days of each other. If it were just headlines, I’d understand. That’s a huge (and hugely important) subject.
But I just published a post on this very topic: getting more RTs for posts. With the improvements in the built-in SEO tools/plugins, particularly in WordPress and with various themes like Headway, writers now have the freedom to create headlines that evoke emotion and appeal to people.
Still, I don’t always use the post’s published headline when I tweet. I think that sometimes a “Twitter teaser” written to catch the attention of tweeps in a nanosecond, before the tweet flies through the stream, can work even better. I gave some examples in my post last week.
And I agree with Meg. The bloggers who go for the shocking headline and then don’t deliver on the promise in the post may lure me once, but I won’t return. I feel strongly about the bait-and-swich headline and wrote a post called “Headline Trickery” a while back. The trust of our readers needs to be earned—and maintained daily.
I love your examples, Mack, and, yes, testing titles is a proven strategy that works particularly well on Twitter. Thanks for the insights.
I always try and kick off a new blog post by starting with the headline first. Once I’ve established my headline, I proceed to flesh out the main content of my post. Though I admit, I can probably get better at writing catchy headlines. Copyblogger’s “Headline Writing” series is a great reference point for this! Love it and recommend it all the time to newbie bloggers 🙂
I remember about ten years ago copywriters everywhere were running scared because a new software just emerged that generated headlines based on content keywords. Agency executives used this new technology as a threat to a copywriter’s relevance – thereby keeping the writer’s salary (and ego) in check. The software never emerged. Today we have more people self-publishing than ever before – most of whom could never write a headline before the tools of blogging. Sure, there are some (former) journalists who are in this space and who understand how to grab attention long enough for the audience to take action (click) and there are copywriters here who easily manipulate the language to get viewers to do what they want – but these are refined skills that come with time and old-school experience. You don’t learn these things by simply reading a copyblogger post and then writing 500-700 words. You’ve got to dig deeper within content. You’ve got to understand how concepts work. And most importantly you’ve got to know the audience as well as you know your wife. Only then can you even begin to approach the level of proficiency that most copywriters and some journalists have when it comes to grabbing your attention long enough to get you to do something they want you to do.
Earlier this year I wrote a post titled ‘Sarah Palin’s Nipple’ (http://bit.ly/aXYhI6) which got a ton of buzz just from the damn headline.
Here’s a tip – a well placed expletive is worth a ton of stats in a headline.
Headlines are important for blogs as well as podcast (both audio and video).
The example I often use is:
1. Joe’s Bar and Grille, 23rd and Main Streets
2. Do You Want The Juiciest Steak In Town? We Have One On The Grille With Your Name On It.
OUR names are unimportant. Heck, sometimes when introducing myself to a group I even FORGET to mention my name. Get people INTERESTED and they will ASK what your name is. (Personally, I usually leave my name for last: get people interested and THEN tell them your name: by then they’ll know if they even want to remember your name.)
So… use this same thinking with titles and then test, test, test.
Charlie Seymour Jr
http://RepairYourOwnLegendNow.com