What’s the first thing in a blog post that catches your attention?
A visual? The conclusion? The style of writing? The domain? The author? The topic? Or the headlines?
Many readers which click on articles on Google or on social media, do that because of their headlines. They do that because there’s something different about those headlines and stand out from the crowd.
Headlines are one of the few common elements between social (articles that get a lot of social media shares in a specific moment because of that specific topic that is on the trend) and search (articles that are so called evergreen content that answer a certain question and people find it using search engines such as Google, Bing and others) articles
The headline is the blog post’s hook that can get you valuable readers.
And this is why many content marketers and bloggers fail with their content creation. Because they don’t invest more time in what is important, like in this case, the headlines.
Think about this: if David Ogilvy rewrote a headline for a Rolls Royce ad for 104 times, that means that you don’t have any excuse not to do it. Statistics say that 80-85% of people read headlines, and only 20% of them read the entire article.
According to Upworthy’s latest research, a great headline can bring you up to 500% difference in share and traffic.
So, if you want to get more people read your blog post, invest more time and energy in headlines.
But what about the moment when you are out of inspiration?
Well, don’t worry about that because there are a few things you can do to boost your inspiration.
In this article I wrote about the 6 ways in which you can get your inspiration back!
You will find out about tools like Buzzsumo or CoSchedule or how to use Infographics and Slideshare!
1. Buzzsumo
Buzzsumo is this great app that will save you more time and energy when you’re looking for a certain keyword or how it is performing on different articles. You can also find out who the influencers from your industry are or how viral is an article.
I’ve also found it very useful for monitoring the online activity of some brands I like to keep an eye on. You can monitor your brand’s mentions, competitors’ mentions, content from a website, keyword mentions, backlinks and authors.
I’m using it to find the top articles written on a certain keyword. I choose a topic, a keyword (or two) or a domain to search and after tapping the “Search” button I will get the most shared articles. Also, they have a specific date filter so I can be even more detailed in my search.
For example, I searched after the“visual content” keyword and I got this result.
What I found really interesting is that from a simple search I get the top most shared articles, with their headlines, the type of content (article, video, infographic) and also how many total shares it has. It’s a really big source of inspiration if you want to see how others write their headlines without putting too much effort into stalking.
So now you have lots of ideas on which type of articles are the most shared about the topic you want to write about. Pretty cool, right?
And the thing is that you don’t have to buy the product’s service, you can sign up for free and use the top 10 results you will get to find your blog post inspiration.
2. HubSpot Topic Generator
HubSpot created a tool that can save you even more time to create a headlines. Just go on this link and type the 3 keywords you are interested in appearing in your headlines.
Hubspot’s tool will generate you a few headline ideas for your blog post. But let me tell you a secret.
There is a headline formula that Jeff Goins has written about and I recommend you to take a look at it:
Numbers + Adjective + Keyword + Rationale + Promise
Now think about this formula, and replace the words with your corresponding planned words.
For example, for adjective you can write a word that describes something (great, awesome, easy), for keywords you can use a short phrase that tells us what the content is about and for promise you can think about what the reader will get from your piece of content.
Now, will be even easier to get a great headline in just a few seconds with this great tool from HubSpot.
3. CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
But how great is this headline you are working at? Is this the best you can do? Is it just something you will read and say “meh” or are you so proud of it that you can even tattoo it on your arm? (well, not like that but I think you get the point).
CoSchedule has designed a tool that is analyzing your headline from different perspectives. This tool is analyzing your word balance (such as the overall structure, grammar and readability), length analysis (character count, word count) and also will show you how it will look on Google search or as an Email Subject line. And it will also tell you the headlines keyword.
But the most interesting thing is the human part. You can actually see what emotion the reader will get after seeing your headline.
And to conclude all of these points, they are having a Headline Score from 1 to 100.
Let me tell you 2 important facts that you should look at when you are about to create a headline for your blog post:
- The maximum character you could use in a headline is 65 before it’s cut off in search results
- The perfect length for a headline is 6 words (according to Kevan Lee, Marketing Director Buffer)
Why? Because people who are interested in an article, scan the headline firstly. So when there is less to be read there are higher chances of retaining attention.
Now this tool will help you analyze your headline before it is published.
Isn’t it cool for a content marketer to get inspiration for a blog post’s headline or what?
4. Magazine Covers
Let’s face it: here are 2 moments when we (the marketers) are reading a magazine: when we are waiting in line and we don’t have the smartphone with us or when we are at home and we forgot to bring the phone with us in the bathroom, so we are reading our partners magazines.
I admit that I love reading magazines. It doesn’t matter that they are about economics, fashion, business or even fishing or cats. It doesn’t matter.
Why? Because I get a ton of ideas on articles I can write for my personal blog or other guest posts I’m doing for other websites like Content Marketing Institute, Mention, Adweek or even our company’s blog – Bannersnack.
Just pick up a random magazine, write down the first 10 or 15 headlines you read in it and change the topic from it to the topic you want to write about and voila, now you have a few interesting headlines for your next blog posts.
Did you know that more print magazines are now also using a digital platform, so they are uploading their magazines on the web to get more readers? There are platforms like Flipsnack on which you can upload your magazine and promote it on social media, embed in a blog post or even get leads from it.
But I also see Flipsnack as a great tool to find inspiration from magazines for a blog post.
You just have to sign up and you are ready to get the inspiration you want so bad.
5. Medium Headlines
This platform gives us the opportunity to have top writers and influencers from an industry in one place. You can even get the best articles of the week in your email – curated by real people.
But Medium headlines are more humanly created, more personal and don’t go with the SEO game.
They are more into the human game.
So if you are interested in more human headlines for your blog post, just go on Medium, type the industry keyword you are trying to create a blog post for and hit enter.
I recommend you to start following the top influencers for that industry and see what kind of stories they are already creating. I bet that you will get the inspiration you want not only for a headline but also for an entire blog post.
6. Infographics and SlideShare Presentations
Many content marketers talk about the influence of infographics and Slideshare presentation can have for your content marketing strategy. I also believe that these types of visuals can bring you positive results.
Creating and promoting infographics and presentation gave a few brands the opportunity to get more people on their apps. Because there are apps like Venngage, visual.ly or Adioma that not only let you create content on their platforms but also give you a few examples that can bring you the inspiration you want for your blog posts headlines.
You can easily use these infographics and their data in your blog posts.
And this will bring you more valuable information for your content. Isn’t this what any content writer wants?
Conclusion
If you want to get more traffic from your blog posts you should focus more on your headlines. But this isn’t just about SEO, traffic or social media shares. I believe that the best thing you can do to start creating valuable headlines for your pieces of content, is practicing and experimenting every day!
So don’t be afraid to experiment, to fail, to learn, to adapt and try again until you get the best results!
Which tool do you use, to get inspired for a headline?
Let me know in the comments section below
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