Making a Catchy Headline for your Content
When it comes to brand promotion and digital marketing, creating headlines that get clicked or shared is part of the job. Essentially, you want to pique interest enough that people want to find out more. But what works – and what doesn’t? It’s not always easy which is why many brands seek help from digital marketing agencies. Let’s find out more.
The psychology of social sharing
Everyone wants their content to be the best and get the most hits. So, it’s perhaps unsurprising that studies have been done to see what makes people share. According to the New York Times Insight Group, 94% of people share content to enrich the lives of others. Content must therefore be useful, actionable and solve common problems – and this should be reflected in the headline.
Articles that make the sharer look smart are ideal. So, crafting articles and headlines that address niche developments of a particular sector is a good place to start. Examples of headlines that might generate clicks based on such research include:
- What SEO Used to Be Vs What SEO is Now
- What Are the Best Times to Post on Social Media?
Interestingly, 68% of people share content to define themselves and show what interests them. Therefore, content and headlines reflecting that content should be captivating, intriguing and factually correct rather than overly promotional and salesy. Consumers often want to feel worldly and knowledgeable, but as a large chunk of people share articles before even reading 50% of them, your headline plays an important role in comparison to text from the middle of the article downwards.
Top tip: Keep headlines simple. If people are confused by your headers, they won’t know what role your content has to play in their lives and they might just bypass it. Here’s an example of a simple and overcomplicated headline:
Simple: 5 Studies Show Effectiveness of SEO
Complicated: Advanced studies from digital marketing agencies have concluded the effectiveness of SEO when conducted in an appropriate manner.
People like to be told – not asked
A survey by Engaging News Project which showed headlines to 2,000 participants also revealed that people like to be told, not asked, when reading headlines. People responded more negatively to question headlines than they did to traditional headlines that were short, clear and with an air of certainty. Authoritative, confident content that’s not pushy or demanding triumphed over headlines with questions. With the latter, people presumed the content on the other side of the click would be less useful and more wishy-washy.
Facebook and Twitter – what performs well?
According to Buzzsumo who ran a massive study that looked at 100 million headlines to see which ones got shared the most on Facebook and Twitter, headlines that promised a personal impact performed well. Examples include: “24 pictures that make you feel better about the world” and “15 travel tips that will save you money.” List posts were also extremely popular as were emotional headlines that included phrases such as “too cute” and “give you goosebumps.” In contrast, emotional headlines on Twitter did not perform as well with consumers preferring fact-based posts or to-the-point headlines with the phrase “this is what…”
Need help with your content marketing strategy? Then contact Whitefish Marketing today and access professional SEO services Kent, PPC and creative content from a reputable digital marketing agency, Kent.
