How To Write The Perfect Headline For A Blog

Did you know: 80% of online readers don’t actually make it past the headline of a blog?

Understanding how to write the perfect headline for a blog is crucial. If 80% of your readers lose interest after reading your headline, imagine the amount of traffic, engagement and sales you could be missing out on?

I have spent over 8 years writing content on my Warren Knight website, as well as contributing on various other platforms and deciding on the perfect headline for a blog is extremely difficult, however the internet is a great place and today, I am here to help you with this.

How many times have you had a great idea for a blog and have written a great piece but cannot decide on a headline for a blog, or feel uninspired? I know I have. Keep reading to find out my 5 top tips on how to write the perfect headline for a blog as a small business, along with using one of my favourite headline tools.

1. Use Numbers

Before writing this article, I went back over a years worth of blogs I have written to see engagement inside of LinkedIn. I found that over 75% of my most read articles use numbers to describe the content I am sharing, e.g. “7 Secret Twitter Features You Should Be Using” which I shared just two days ago, and already has 1,748 views and 303 likes on LinkedIn alone.

2. Trending Topics

On the 19th July I wrote a blog titled “Why Pokemon Go Is Great For Small Businesses”. This blog went VIRAL. I have had 11k + views, 1,419 likes and 74 comments JUST on LinkedIn. I have had people talking about this article on every single social platform, and have been approached by industry leading news outlets to write a follow up exclusively for them.

Whilst I didn’t think it would go as viral as quickly as it did, it is definitely worth noting that a topic as popular as Pokemon Go definitely interested people and when you are looking at writing a headline, think about what is going on around you and how you can hone in on trending topics.

3. Talk About Your Target Audience

This is something I have done for as long as I can remember. You will always be able to tell exactly who my target audience is based on the content I write, who I talk about in the blogs and most importantly, by the headline. Just like the Pokemon Go article, I use my key phrase of “small businesses”. I have written hundreds of articles that either use that phrase or “SME’s”. It is so important for me that my audience knows my content is for them, and that 99.9% of the work I do, is with the small business sector which I am extremely transparent about.

4. “How-To”

Just like this blog, I have started the headline by defining exactly what it is; a “how-to”. If you were to look back through my articles you will notice I write a lot of “how to’s”. I know my audience loves my “how-to” articles, as well as my “how-to” webinars. I always stand consistent with my blog titles as well as my webinar titles to make sure my audience are responding as well as I would expect them to.

5. Specific Social Network Based Headlines

Whilst this might be specific to what I do as a social media strategist, you can apply this to your business. Every Tuesday I talk about the latest technology within the digital marketing industry as well as the latest updates on each social network.

I have found that my LinkedIn blog series earlier this year generated a lot of traffic, as well as my Instagram Redefined article, Twitter rule changes article, Pinterest driving sales article and many, many more. Think about your industry and how you can talk about a specific tool or technology that your audience will want to read about.

Headline Analyser

Advanced Marketing Institute have a great, free headline analyser tool that will check your headline, and give you a score based on three different factors;

1. Intellectual: Words which effectively talk about a specific product/service
2. Empathetic: Words that will resonate with your target audience and encourage positive sentiments.
3. Spiritual: Words which will appeal to your target audience on a deep emotional level.

You can check out this tool here. I would love to hear about the types of headlines that work for your target audience!