Writing great content is one thing, but it’s another thing to get that content read and ranked. That’s where the power of headlines comes in. The headline is what grabs reader’s attention and maintains that attention all the way through to the first line of copy. Which is critical, as only about 20 percent of your prospective readers will make it past the headline to read your entire piece.
Headlines are arguably the most important part of your copy. In fact, according to the infographic, the greatest copywriters say to spend half the time spent to create a piece of content on the headline. This may seem shocking but in reality headlines are what sell your content to your audience, representing it in search engines, email, and social media. So it is essential to create headlines that not only grab attention, but also resonate with your audience. All that being said, you probably need to begin to consider spending more time on this essential element of your content.
Today’s infographic, created by Salesforce, offers best practices for writing attention-grabbing headlines. Give your content its highest chance for success using these tips.
Some key points from this infographic include:
- 80% of people will read your headline but only 20% will read the rest.
- Promise readers something valuable, and deliver what you promise.
- Your headline has one purpose- to get the next sentence read.
- Some copywriters suggest spending half the time it takes to create a piece of content on your headline.
Let us know what you think:
- How much time do you normally spend on crafting headlines?
- Have you utilized any of the mentioned online headline analyzing tools?
- What information did you find most valuable?
FURTHER READING
7 Lessons on Writing Tantalizing Subject Lines from Newspaper Headlines
