HOW TO WRITE CATCHY HEADLINES THAT GET WAY MORE CLICKS
Let’s face it, there is a sea of crappy content online these days and it’s really easy for quality content to just get lost amongst the noise. So if you want your content to stand out from the crowd, you need to know how to craft really catchy headlines that stop that monotonous scroll and get the right people to sit up and pay attention. So today, I’m going to share my best tips for crafting attention grabbing headlines without spending hours at your computer watching that little blinking cursor of doom.
Plus, I’ll share how you can get your hands on my secret headline writing formulas, which will have you pumping out absolutely killer headlines that convert in literally minutes.
So let’s dive right into these tips.
Tip #1 – Think about WHERE your content is appearing and WHO you want to attract.
Depending on which platform you prefer to share it on, you need to use different tactics to make sure that your headline is going to catch attention.
On platforms like Facebook or Instagram, your content is going to be appearing in the newsfeed. But in platforms like Youtube or Pinterest, your content is far more likely to appear in search.
If you’re trying to show up in search, you need to make sure that your headline reflects what people would be typing into a search function.
But it’s a different playing field when it comes to the newsfeed. Because if you think about how we behave when we’re scrolling through a newsfeed, we literally just scroll, scroll, scroll, and wait for something to catch our attention.
So you’ve got to think about what would actually catch your potential client’s attention as they’re mindlessly scrolling through that newsfeed. And it’s usually one of three things.
Entertainment – We click on headlines and titles that we think are going to be entertaining. That’s why if anybody ever posted a video of hilarious people slipping on ice, I’m going to be clicking on that thing because that is going to entertain me all day long.
Curiosity – Something that makes me think, “oh, I wonder what that actually is. Oh, I wonder what the answer to that question might be”.
Relevance – this is perhaps the most important, because even if it’s entertaining, even if it makes me curious, if it’s not relevant to me, then I’m not going to be clicking.
Tip #2 – Be CLEAR, not clever.
This is a trap that so many content creators fall into. Because we feel like in order for us to stand out, we need to be fancy or we need to be funny or we need to be really clever, little quirky or we need to use some kind of unique angle that makes us stand out from the crowd.
And look, to be honest, your little clever quirks might work great for a warm audience who already know you and get you, but if you’re trying to attract, a colder audience, you need to make sure that they actually GET what it is that you’re trying to say and how it’s relevant for them.
The thing that you’ve got to remember is when you are fighting against that scroll, you have literal milliseconds to catch people’s attention and make them understand that they want what you’ve got to offer. If you’re making me think too much, I just can’t be bothered and I’m scrolling on by. That’s not because we’re jerks. It’s just literally because you haven’t caught my attention.
So you need to be really clear instead of being clever. Otherwise I don’t get it. And I’m scrolling on by, because you missed your opportunity to grab my attention.
Tip #3 – Position your thing as something that your potential peeps would either want or need.
As creatives, it can be really easy to get caught up in what WE want to communicate. But you’ve really got to keep in mind what your potential client would actually WANT to consume.
So let’s use a little example here. Let’s say that you’re a nutrition consultant and you have written an amazing blog piece about the benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar, and so you put it out there into the world with that headline… “The benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar”.
That’s great, but is that headline what you want to communicate or is it what your potential clients would actually want to consume?
Unless I’m massively into diet and lifestyle and nutrition and all of those kinds of things, I’m probably not going to be clicking on your content. Unless you position that exact same topic as something that I would actually WANT to consume.
So if you use a headline more along the lines of “Boost your weight loss efforts by drinking this one thing every single day”… now you’ve positioned that as something that I actually really need to know the answer to. Now that exact same piece of content is going to get WAY more clicks because it speaks to a problem that your potential people actually really want help with.
Tip #4 – Tackle my immediate objection.
Now whenever you make a claim or a promise in your headline, my brain is going to immediately throw out potential objections. It’s like our little “bullshit-ometer” goes beep beep beep beep… I’m not sure I’m buying that.
So you could use a headline like “How to lose 10 pounds”… and my brain is immediately going to say, “yeah, but I bet I’m going to have to live off Kale for the next six months”.
But if you use your headline to immediately address that objection, now you’ve got me.
And the way that you can do that, is you can use “without” statements.
“How to get the thing that you want, WITHOUT the thing that you don’t want”.
For example, “How to lose 10 pounds without ever setting foot in a gym”.
Another alternative that you can use is an “even if” statement, which addresses the immediate excuses that I’m going to throw up, which say, “oh, I can’t do that because of this”.
So you’re going to frame this headline as “How to get this thing that you want, EVEN IF you’re worried that this thing will stop you”.
For example, you could say something like, “How to launch your online course, even if you don’t have a big list”.
Can you see how that immediately addresses the objection that I’m going to throw up there? And I’m going to be clicking on your content to find out how to do that.
Now if you were to incorporate just those tips, you are going to see a massive increase in views and clicks on your content. But I want to make sure that you avoid that blinking cursor of doom that I mentioned earlier.
So to help make sure that you don’t get stuck, I’ve put together a free guide with 15 of my favourite formulas to craft killer headlines, literally in minutes.
Now formulas are great, but some people worry that if they’re going to use a formula for writing their headlines, that their content is going to end up sounding like everybody else’s. So in this free guide, not only do you get those 15 formulas, but I’m actually going to teach you exactly how to find your own unique, juicy and compelling language to put into those formulas so that they don’t just smash it out of the park and get way more views and clicks, but that your content sounds perfectly unique to you.
So get your hands on that free guide, and I can’t wait to see the catchy headlines you come up with.
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