“You catch more flies with honey than vinegar”–English proverb

This proverb applies to headlines because it is about the power of positive thinking.

In other words, you make more friends by being friendly than by being rude.

To captivate your audience, it’s crucial to write compelling headlines that draw readers in.

You get more readers with sweetness rather than sourness. An attention-getting headline instantly captures your reader’s attention and brings them in.

Headlines create that first impression of your content. They either draw your readers in or push them away.

If you write compelling headlines, your readers will want to find out more right then and there.

The right headlines can draw in even the most disinterested and skeptical readers.

If your headlines are not compelling enough, you could lose your audience to other blogs. You may be losing potential clients or customers, too.

So, how do you write compelling headlines that attract readers?

How to write compelling headlines

Here are seven tips to help you write better and more compelling headlines:

1. Make them emotional with positive and happy thoughts

CoSchedule analyzed more than 5.5 million headlines entered into their Headline Analyzer tool.

They merged that data with social sharing analytics and top content reports to understand what headlines work the best.

Their conclusion: Emotional headlines that are positive and happy drive more shares.

Why?

The anticipation of positive benefits and emotions causes us to share.

Regarding anticipation, our emotions significantly affect how we respond to our curiosity. In other words, most people anticipate happy experiences.

How to write emotional headlines

How do you write emotional headlines?

Use words from a list of trigger words. Use a list of power words, too. Doing so will empower your headlines with more emotion.

Make sure you have a balance of common, uncommon, emotional, and power words.

A structure with emotional balance helps your blog articles be readable yet commands attention from your readers.

To see some headlines in action, check out these seven emotional headline makeovers.

2. Keep your headlines short, simple and specific

Tell the reader instantly what your blog article is about in your headlines. Cut down on the length of your headlines. 

Your readers may use mobile devices, so your headlines should be short and straightforward.

Less is more.

According to CoSchedule, the best length of headlines is 55 characters. This earns the highest number of click-throughs. Ideally, these headlines should contain approximately 6 words.

Include numbers (specific numbers in headlines perform better than others) and statistics.

HubSpot found an interesting result in a study of its most shared blog posts. Headlines with numbers, years, and fewer than nine words worked the best.

Don’t mislead or trick people into reading a blog article entirely different from the headline’s promise. Give your readers some compelling reasons so they want to dive deeper.

Tease the story in the headline without giving it away.

When you are specific, you clarify what they will be getting with the content. You can always use your sub-headline or intro paragraph to elaborate a catchy but short headline.

3. Tell your readers what they’re getting

Headlines that explain something make it clear to your readers that by doing X, you will get Y. When you turn your headlines into explanations, your readers will know exactly what they are getting before they read more.

• We want to feel like we have control over our world.
• We seek tips, tricks, rules, and systems to help us understand it.

Don’t always try to come up with something clever. You could be confusing your readers rather than drawing them in.

Tell your readers what they are getting in your headlines.

4. Use lists and “how to” in your headlines

List posts and how-to posts work well. They capture the attention of your readers. These posts also keep your readers on track and focused.

List blog posts

List blog posts or listicles are blog articles that are organized around a numbered list.

The numbered list posts are here to stay if you write them correctly. The brain loves lists.

Why?

Our brains are organized to function in a specific way, and we prefer ordered lists. We have a strong desire for order and organization, and numbered lists meet that desire.

Blog articles that are lists have been proven to get results, especially for generating website traffic.

How-to blog articles

How-to articles and headlines work well because they are so clear. Your readers see immediately the benefits of reading the content.

According to research by BuzzSumo, they analyzed 10 million articles shared on LinkedIn. They found that articles that begin with “how to” had the most shares.

Your readers most likely are searching for information because they want to know how to do something better.

How-to articles and headlines help your readers learn how to do that something.

According to Brian Clark, the founder of Copyblogger, how-to articles are among the most sought-after online. They are frequently linked to and bookmarked.

5. Ask questions your readers are asking

Ask questions in your headline that your readers are asking themselves. For example, what’s the difference between X and Y?

The best questions are about something readers can relate to or want to know about.

Questions are influential in the brain because they prime our curiosity and stimulate the brain.

Questions involve your readers and get them to say “yes” to your content. Don’t ask a question that your readers can say “no” to.

If you are using questions in your headlines, remember to at least tease the answer to your question.

You should do this in your introduction.

This will keep your readers interested. We turn to Google to find the answers to our questions. Is your content answering those questions?

We turn to Google to find the answers to our questions. Is your content answering those questions?

6. Make it timely by including a year

Add years to your headlines so they are relevant to that year. One example is a popular blog article on Knowledge Enthusiast. It has been 15 of the best digital marketing certifications.

HubSpot’s most shared blog posts, they found that headlines with years in them worked the best.

Years succeed when you write compelling headlines because they manage readers’ expectations.

This ensures readers know exactly what they are getting into and that the content is up-to-date and relevant.

7. Keep your readers guessing

If you write a compelling headline, keep a little mystery.

Why?

So, the readers will want to read the entire blog article. If your headlines are ambiguous, your readers won’t read the articles, but a little mystery will pique their interest.

Curiosity requires some initial knowledge. We are not usually curious about something we know little about.

Our curiosity is piqued as soon as we know even a little bit. We want to learn more. In fact, research shows curiosity increases with knowledge. The more we know, the more we want to know.

Carnegie Mellon University professor George Loewenstein coined the term: curiosity gap. This term describes the gap “between what we know and want to know.”

This gap produces emotional consequences since we seek out new knowledge to scratch the mental itch.

It creates a feeling of loss, so we seek out that missing information to stop feeling this way.

Bringing everything together

A headline is one of the most essential parts of your content. You must still provide “meat” or good, helpful information after your headlines.

It can’t be just clickbait headlines.

Your headline needs to answer the intent behind what your audience is searching for. The key to writing good headlines is practice.

The key is to really understand what works and doesn’t work for your readers. It is an art and a science.

Take a look at other headlines and see what catches your eye.

What makes you want to read the blog article?

There is no magic formula for writing compelling headlines.

These seven tips mentioned above can help you with your headlines. They can capture the time and attention of your readers.

You will get more readers with sweetness rather than sourness.

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