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Headlines are a “small” part of your posts and pages, but they play a big part in getting results from your digital marketing and content marketing strategies.
Without strong headlines, you’ll lose readers – and conversions.
This guide includes 6+4 easy tips to help you learn how to make headlines stand out, so you can generate more engagement, leads, and sales.
Let’s dive in.
Why Do Great Headlines Matter?
Headlines are the first thing your audience reads to determine whether they should stay on your page or not.
For example, in email marketing your subject lines directly impact your audience’s decision to open the email or not.
To get your reader’s attention you need to use the best headlines possible.
If your headlines aren’t attention-grabbing – and relevant – you’ll lose readers and sales.
A good headline gives your audience a clear idea of what the blog post or landing page is about. It sets the stage for the content that follows, providing context and a promise of what to expect.
Writing headlines the right way also makes it easier for search engines to discover your piece of content and recommend it to your target audience.
6 Steps to Write Better Headlines
Compelling headlines must be clear, easy to read, and relevant to your content. This takes time and practice.
These headline writing tips will help you learn how to make improvements, faster.
The tips in this list are actionable, applicable to any type of content, and will help you create clickable headlines and improve your click-through rate (CTR).
1. Include a Problem and a Solution
Adding a problem and solution to your headline grabs your audience’s attention faster.
You’re showing them that your piece of content understands the ultra-specific challenge they’re facing, and you have a solution to help them overcome this challenge.
This strategy makes it easier for your audience to believe you know how to help them, building trust.
Example:
Problem: Persistent sugar cravings
Solution: 7 remedies to curb them
Headline: Constant Sugar Cravings? Try 1 of these 7 Failproof Remedies
2. Use Power Words
Power words are emotionally charged words that evoke a strong reaction – fear, curiosity, excitement, etc. — and they work for different types of headlines.
Including one or two power words in your headlines is an effective way to capture your target audience’s attention and encourage them to read the rest of your content.
“Ultimate Guide: 10 Rock Solid Weight Loss Hacks Revealed” is an example of a headline with power words.
“Rock Solid” conveys strength and reliability, leading your readers to believe that they can rely on these weight loss hacks.
“Revealed” implies that these weight loss hacks are new or never seen or heard before, piquing your readers’ curiosity.
Use power words sparingly, and make sure your content offers the value your headline implies. Otherwise, your content will be perceived as clickbait, causing your readers to lose trust in what you publish.
3. Keep Them Clear & Simple
Avoid trying to create “clever” headlines to make them catchy. Your headline doesn’t need to rhyme or include a pun.
Focus on creating headlines your audience will understand immediately. If your readers instantly understand why you’ve written a piece of content, they’re more inclined to read the rest of it.
“How to Clean Your AC Filters” is easier to understand, compared to something like “7 Ways to Wipe Germs Away”.
With the first headline, your audience immediately knows what to expect from your guide. The second option, on the other hand, is vague and could lead to the wrong people clicking your link.
4. Use Numbers and Reliable Stats
Numbers and statistics make your headlines credible and interesting.
Adding a reliable, relevant statistic to your headline shows your audience that you’ve researched your topic and they can trust what you have to say.
Including numbers in your headlines – especially for listicles – let your reader know what to expect from your article.
For example, if your reader comes across an article titled “13 Copywriting Tips for Beginners (How to Write Like a Pro)” they know that this content is better suited for new writers or people with no copywriting experience.
They also know the number of tips to expect, helping them set aside the right amount of time to read your article.
5. Address Your Readers Directly
Direct communication grabs attention.
Effective ways to speak to your readers directly, include using 2nd person pronouns (e.g. “you” and “your”) and asking questions (e.g. “Do you want to…”)
This technique, though seemingly small, can be the difference between a reader scrolling past and one taking action.
6. Use a Headline Analyzer Tool
Use a headline analyzer tool to evaluate your headline and see where you can improve it.
We recommend creating 5 to 10 different headline ideas for your content and evaluating them with your headline analyzer of choice.
All in One SEO (AIOSEO) has a free headline analyzer tool that gives you feedback on how to make SEO-friendly headlines that also catch your audience’s attention.
We also recommend MonsterInsights’ headline tool and Coschedule as well.
4 Design Tips to Make Your Headlines Stand Out (Must Read)
Writing strong headlines is just one part of making them stand out.
They also need to look good from a design perspective – and these 4 tips will help you achieve this:
1. Use Text Highlights
Nothing says “look here” like animated text highlights. And if you have Thrive Architect, the best WordPress page builder, you can add these to your headlines in seconds.
The Text Highlights feature lets you call out words in your headlines (or paragraphs) on your website.
Adding them in Thrive Architect is easy. Anytime you're using our visual editor, select a piece of text, and click the highlight color picker. That'll give you the basic highlight type.
But then, open the 'Highlight Options' dropdown and you can pick from 12 different highlight types.
Select your text, add highlight, and choose your preferred type!
Some highlight types are static, but others are animated.
Animated highlight types let you set their stroke width to thicken up those lines, choose to display it over or underneath your text, and choose to animate once, loop the animation, or have it replay every time the text re-enters your browser viewport.
You can enable or disable the highlight from different screen sizes, adjust the animation speed and even adjust the time-between when it's set to loop animation.
Check out the 12 different highlight types we've included!
2. Choose the Right Font
Your font choice plays an important role in how your headlines are perceived.
Fancy fonts look good on book covers and in invitation cards, but tend to read poorly on desktop and mobile screens.
Stick to clear fonts that your audience can read easily.
Some good fonts to use in your headlines and body copy are: Arial, Roboto, Oswald, Helvetica, Open Sans, Lato, and Montserrat.
3. Use ALL CAPS to Draw Attention
This is a neat way to make your headlines look interesting – and more direct.
“15% Off Black Friday Sale Discount Starts Now” vs. “15% Off Black Friday Sale Starts NOW”
Which headline is more likely to draw attention? Option B.
Use all caps to emphasize a specific word to get your audience to react. But don’t overdo it.
All caps can be perceived as “shouting”, and you don’t want your audience to think you’re yelling at them.
4. Play Around with Color – Carefully
Adding color to your headlines is another effective way to draw your audience’s attention to specific words. Colors are also powerful moodsetters.
For example, oranges and pink create a sense of playfulness, while red is known to evoke a sense of urgency or passion.
Understanding website color schemes can help you find the right colors for your headlines.
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With the right page-building tools, you can implement these design tips in seconds. We recommend Thrive Architect.
Thrive Architect is a user-friendly drag-and-drop builder that helps you create web pages, sales pages, and blog posts that stand out.
This tool also comes with features designed to help you create eye-catching headlines in seconds.
You can change your heading sizes in seconds, set a specific color for a piece of text, apply a different font to your headlines and body text, and of course – add text highlights.
And that’s not all.
Thrive Architect includes hundreds of customizable landing page
templates to help you create professional-looking pages and SEO-friendly blog posts.
You can also use a variety of design elements, in the builder, to drive your audience to take action and convert.
Some of these features include:
- Simple drag-and-drop editing
- Flexible column layouts
- Social media buttons for easy sharing on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.
- Illustrated lists to showcase your products or services' key features and benefits
- Testimonial blocks to highlight glowing customer reviews and win your audience's trust
- Call-to-action (CTA) blocks to make your site visitors take immediate action
- Hero sections to catch your site visitors' attention and immediately inform them of a current offer
- Smart pricing tables to impress your visitors and convince them why your products or services are worth the money
- ...and so many more.
Thrive Architect lets you create any type of landing page for your small business website — coming soon pages, webinar registration pages, eCommerce checkout pages, impressive homepages, and so much more.
You can purchase Thrive Architect as a standalone plugin or as part of our WordPress plugin bundle – Thrive Suite.
If you purchase Thrive Suite, you get access to 9 other plugins to grow your audience and turn them into customers — a/b testing tools, lead-generation forms, countdown timers, and so much more.
Next Steps: Rewrite Your Sales Page Copy
If you’re not seeing the conversions you expected from your sales page, you’ll need to work on more than just your headlines.
A good exercise is to take one of your sales pages and rework your headlines and copy.
Use these free tutorials to help you create sales pages that lead to conversions:
How to Create the Perfect Long-Form Sales Page (+ Templates)
The PAS Formula: A Fool-Proof Copywriting Technique You Can Start Using Today
Is Your Website Helping or Hurting Your Conversion Rates?
Effective headlines & good copy are important for your content strategy, but if your website is hard to navigate and hard to read…your readers will drop off and you’ll lose sales.
Your website's design should contribute to winning your audience's attention, instead of driving them away.
So, if you think your website could be much better, it’s time to make a change so you can finally reach your business goals.
We recommend using Thrive Suite to overhaul your website and create something that’ll impress your audience and encourage them to convert. This is the ideal option for bloggers, solopreneurs, startups — all kinds of businesses.
And if you don’t have a website yet, and are looking for the best WordPress plugin bundle to get started, this is still for you.
Thrive Suite is an all-in-one toolkit that contains plugins, landing page templates, opt-in form templates, quiz templates, and more; designed to help you create an amazing website for your business.
If you've been thinking about taking your business to the next level and want to use high-quality tools for a crazy reasonable price - Thrive Suite could be for you.
