How to Create Eye-Catching Headlines for Your Content

Of what points is fantastic content that no one gets to read?

You may have the most thoughts provoking, well-researched, comprehensive write-up on the internet.

If your headline fails to grab attention, your article will be buried in the forest of other lackluster content.

Without an eye-catching headline, it doesn’t matter the amount of time, effort and money your spend in creating your content.

Even if you are able to rank your content and secure a spot on page #1 of Google with the best SEO practices, trust me, people will still scroll past your content.

You’ll just be getting impressions with no click-through rate to show for it.

To get people to read your content, crafting a scroll-stopping title is as important as creating high-quality content, if not more.

In this article, we show you what attention-grabbing headlines look like and give you tips for creating great post titles for your work. Let’s get to it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What You’ll Need to Create Eye-Catching Headlines for Your Content

To make your headlines irresistible, you must get some headline basics right. If you miss out on them, it can be difficult to create headlines that stop people on their path.

Know Your Audience

Trying to come up with a catchy headline without knowing your audience inside out is a journey in the wrong direction.

A lot of writers get so invested in the art of headline writing that they forget who they are writing for.

In content marketing, the audience is at the center of every piece of content. The same goes for creating your headline.

Ask yourself, will my audience find this topic interesting? Beef sausage may be the next best thing after sliced bread in your headline, but it’s a total turn to an audience of vegans.

Use Action Verbs

Your audience needs a little push to do what you want. Using action verbs in your headline can do the magic.

Words like boost, accelerate, grow, increase, and the likes inspire people to take action. Learn to use them often in your headline.

Use Keywords

Using keywords in this sense doesn’t mean infusing some robot-pleasing terms or phrases in your headline.

It’s about using words people types to perform their search.

Here’s the thing. If your readers see the exact words they type in your headline, they are more likely to choose your work over all other headlines without those words.

It gives them some level of assurance that you are on topic.

How to Create Eye-Catching Headlines for Your Content

Many content creators think that the goal of writing a headline is to hint at the content. Others think it’s a summary of what the readers should expect.

While both are valid answers, they’re not the ultimate goal of a headline.

The primary goal of a headline for any type of write-up, article, blog post, newsletter, or social media content is to get people to read it.

And who can say it better than the revolutionary Ad man, David Ogilvy; “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy.

When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”

You need a great hook in your title to capture readers’ attention. Your headline must give people a solid reason to get them to click.

Now that you understand the goal of a headline let’s look at how to create eye-catching headlines with examples.

Tip #1: Make Your Headline Personal

The world is not your audience. When you try to speak to everyone, you end up speaking to no one. The earlier you realize this, the better.

Too often, internet publishers try to appeal to the largest number of people possible, which leads to unclear messaging with no target audience.

The number thing a headline must do is to help the readers decide, in a blink, if the content is meant for them.

A mass-appealing headline does the opposite- putting off even the right audience.

Before creating your headline, you must know your target audience and ensure it speaks directly to them.

They shouldn’t need a second look at your headline to decide if the title is right for them.

To achieve this, you must be straightforward and ensure they can picture themselves in the headline.

Use your knowledge about them to create titles that meet their expectations and thoughts.

Personal, targeted and on-point headlines get the audience easily pumped and interested in the content.

Generic headlines, on the other hand, only describe the content. They address no audience in particular. Here’s an example:

• Amazing Blogging Tips to Make More Money: This headline is nice but generic. While it does gives a taste of what’s in the content. It’s not speaking directly to the reader. Now compare to this;
• For Struggling Bloggers: 4 ways to Publish Less and Make More Money: This is much better. It addresses a target audience and offers specific benefits. Here’s another one.
• Freelance Writers: Here’s How to Make High-Paying Clients Run after You: What can you make of these two examples? Note it- a good title picks its audience. 
• Pro Tips: “You” and “Your” are the two most powerful words on the internet. They make it easy to captivate and connect to your audience on a personal level. Notice how we used them in the examples above. You’ll also see them a lot in the examples in this guide. The reason is- they work.

Tip #2: Pull Emotional Triggers in your Headline

Off or online, nothing secures attention better than emotions. If you want to give readers no option but to click on your content, emotional triggers are the easiest route to get there.

Humans are emotional beings. Regardless of status, we all have two things in common, fear (what we are running away from) and desires (what we are running towards).

Interestingly, fear sells better than desire. Humans are wired to strive to avoid losses and pain more than they seek pleasure. For that same reason, bad news sells better than good news.

If you can whip in either or both in your headline, you can easily sway readers to do your bidding. So how do you tie emotions to your headline? It’s simple.

Think about how you want your readers to feel when reading your headline, and use a powerful word that depicts the emotion in your headline.

And yes, words have emotions. While some words are there to state the obvious, some can evoke joy, and others can bring tears to the eyes.

These words are called power words.

Here’s an instance;

Say you’ve just discovered a strategy that ranks content on page #1 of Google, and you feel excited to share it. Which of these two headlines will convert better for your content?

• Headline 1: 6 Steps to Rank Your Content on Page #1 of Google.
• Headline 2: Stop Sweating on SEO: Reach Page #1 of Google Using this 6-Step Killer Strategy [Practical Guide].

That’s it. You already know which of the titles your audience will most likely click. That’s the power of emotion on headlines.

Two things are sure about your audience; they want to do less and get more with SEO.

Words like Stop, Reach, and Killer are Power Words. These words make the difference.

Be warned. You must be sure your content will deliver on its promise before using emotional triggers in headlines.

Else, what you are doing is akin to click-baiting, which can hurt the reputation of your business.

Tip #3: Use Numbers to Give Concrete Takeaways

Numbers have a special appeal, and readers love them for two reasons; they give out what the content offers off the bat, which is the straightforwardness that casual scrollers seek.

Secondly, numbers work in headlines because they add specifics to the scope of the content. It sells the content as skimmable and promises the reader it’s easy to consume.

Several studies have revealed that headlines with numbers generate more engagement and social shares.

Moreso, the human brain loves numbers for the orderliness they bring to information consumption. Let’s see some examples.

• 5 Content Marketing Mistakes That Cost Small Businesses Thousands.
• 7 Amazing Strategies to get Visitors to Your New Blog
• 9 Powerful Tools to Automate Your  Social Media Marketing

That said. There are 3 ground rules for using numbers in your headline.

1. Numbers as digits work better than numbers in words

Meaning you should always change the word “Five” to the figure “5” in headlines.

So instead of “Five Ways to Instantly Monetize Your New Blog,”  write “ 5 Ways to Instantly Monetize Your New Blog”.

The latter appeals better to the brain.

2. Odd numbers are considered more authentic than even numbers

The reason behind this may be obscure, but research has proven this odd number theory true.

A study by the Content Marketing Institute discovered that the human brain tends to believe in odd numbers more than even numbers.

Moreso, Odd numbers are easy to recall.

3. Small numbers are more digestible than big ones

However, this is subjective. Using an obscurely large number in your headline for a How-to or step-by-step guide will put your readers off.

But for listicles, you can use many large numbers as your list demands.

Lastly, don’t overuse numbers except in due course. If your content doesn’t have solid takeaways, there’s no point in using numbers in headlines.

Don’t force it.

Tip #4: Use a Unique Rationale

Some of the best-performing headlines on the net have one thing in common- they give readers a reason to click.

That’s a unique rationale- an underlying reason the audience needs the content.

How will it benefit them? What problem will it solve? What changes will it bring?

If your headline can show how your content will transform readers’ lives, you’ll have their clicks.

Some unique rationales you can use include Reasons, Tips, Secrets, Lessons, Tips, Ways, Ideas, Facts, Principles, and Strategies.

Here are some of them in action;

• 9 Facts About Blogging That 99% of Bloggers Don’t Know
• 13 Ridiculously Simple Tactics to Become an Amazon Best Seller
• 5 Secret Successful Bloggers Won’t Share with You
• 7 Headline Writing Tips to Get more Click

Do you get the idea? To increase your click-through rate, give readers a compelling reason to check out your content.

Tip #5: Use Shortcuts (Formula and Tools)

Formulas are done-for-you headline writing structures. You can easily pick one, plug and play.

Be bold and use them because everyone does. Even the most successful bloggers and marketers have headline formulas they turn to for inspiration in their swipe files.

Formulas are so good because they are already tested and proven. Instead of scratching your head to create a scintillating headline, why not try your hands out on different headline formulas to find what works best for you?

Once you choose a formula, what’s left is to use Power words to make your headline stand out. Below are 4 amazing headline formulas that work for all niches.

We put one example under each.

1. How to [achieve something desirable] without [Fear/Challenges] How to Lose 10 Pounds in 6 Weeks Without Forgoing Your Favorite Dish

2. Here’s how [Somebody] [Does Something] Here’s how BloggingTips Get 100,000 unique Visitors in 3 Months. 

3. [Number]  Little known Methods [to do something] 7 Little-Known Methods to Increase Blog Traffic

4. How to do [ something] like [Successful People] How to Write Copy that Converts Like David Ogilvy

When using formulas, deciding on the right headlines can be tricky.

Headline analyzing tools can help grade your headlines based on different criteria and score them on how well they appeal to readers.

And if you wouldn’t mind, using a title generator is an easy option.

Ideally, you’ll have several headlines, up to 20 at times, for one content. Headline analyzers are great tools for narrowing down the list.

Just plug in your headlines and start tweaking the words and tones to increase the score.

CoSchedule Headline Analyzer is a great tool in this regard. This tool grades your headlines and provides actionable advice to better them. Check it out.

More Helpful Content Tutorials;

• How to Repurpose Content: If one of your content is performing well as a blog post, it’s likely to perform well as a video, infographic, social media post etc. This guide teaches how to repurpose content in various forms.
• How to Update Website Content: Updating your existing content is a powerful way to improve SEO and requires less work. Learn how to make your old content relevant again in the detailed guide.
• How to Write a Blog Post: Do you want to know how to write a blog post that pleases humans and search engines? That’s why we create this guide, to walk through the steps of creating quality blog posts.

Wrapping Up

Writing eye-catchy headlines for your content is no big science. As you can see, there are easy-to-follow tips and tools to make your job easier.

From making your headline personal to pulling emotional triggers and using numbers to give concrete takeaways, you’ll never again write mediocre headlines.

Don’t forget formulas when you are stuck. And when you have multiple headlines that all seem perfect, use a headline analyzing tool to grade and filter them out.

We hope this guide helps you create an eye-catching headline. If you need further help, don’t hesitate to drop your message in the comment section below.