A headline plays a vital role in capturing the interest of potential customers and persuading them to take the desired action. Developing high-converting headlines requires understanding the science behind odd numbers, word count, and human psychology.
So what is the first step in creating one?
Step 1 # – Follow Copyrider’s Checklist for High-Conversion Headlines 🙂
- Be Ultra-Specific: Headlines should be ultra-specific to drive traffic to your content. Get straight to the point and provide the answer to your readers’ questions.
- Use Numbers and Data: Numbers and data in headlines are effective in making an article more enticing to readers. They tend to generate more social shares and engagement.
- Provide Something Useful: Headlines and content should be useful, no matter how much urgency you employ.
- Add humor: Humor can be a great way to make your headline stand out and create a positive impression on readers.
- Choose strong verbs: Strong verbs can captivate a headline by creating a sense of action and urgency. Using active voice and verbs such as “discover,” “unveil,” “reveal,” or “transform” can grab the reader’s attention and encourage them to engage with your content.
- Include questions: Using questions in your headline can effectively pique the reader’s curiosity and encourage them to read on. Ask a question relevant to your article and address your target audience’s common problem or concern.
- Convey a Sense of Urgency: Infuse your headline with urgency to persuade readers to click on your article now. Urgency and scarcity are two powerful copy elements that usually go together to produce outstanding results.
- Use Headline Formulas: Every authority blogger and content marketer has one or more formulas for writing headlines. Adopt the headline formula used by many fitness experts that identify the problem, offers a solution, and makes a promise.
- Measure Your Headline’s Success: Measure content and headline success through client/customer inquiries and social media stats.
- Use Emotional Words: Use powerful words to spur readers into action. Words have power, so use them wisely.
- Pick Interesting Adjectives: Use adjectives to boost your headline and make it super-attractive to your audience’s needs.
Now, what about REALLY important headlines like the ones used on landing pages? You only have a spare second to catch the reader’s attention to browse your site…
Here are specific guidelines for landing page headlines:
Structure the Headline Using the Right Formula for Landing Page Copy
There are three key elements to a high-converting landing page headline: clarity about the offer, a promise of a specific benefit, and the addition of an interesting element. To create an impactful headline, employ this formula:
Headline Formula = | Clear Offer | + | Big Promise | + | Interesting Element |
Embrace Odd Numbers and Respect The Proper Word Count
The Content Marketing Institute asserts that the human brain tends to trust odd numbers more than even numbers. Odd numbers assist people in digesting and remembering information more easily.
When composing headlines, consistently substitute the word “five” with the numeral “5” to cater to our minds’ affinity for numbers.
Regarding word length, the rule of thumb for simple headlines is to target 5 to 9 words. For compound headlines, aim for 16 to 18 words. If you’re crafting a step-by-step guide, refrain from including more than nine steps, as the human brain usually struggles to process over 9 items simultaneously. Nevertheless, if you’re writing about tools or various methods to accomplish a task, there’s no limit to the number you can utilize.
In conclusion, the way to know if a headline is good is to ask yourself: Am I attracted to read the text below after reading the headline? If not, start over again.
