In a world of ever-increasing content, it’s critical to have the most compelling headline possible. It’s the first thing a reader sees and, often, the only thing that can entice them to dig deeper.
Sometimes, a great headline will just come to you. But more often, you need to look outside of yourself for inspiration. One great way to do this is to look at your audience’s viral content and identify what it is that makes them share. This can help you get ideas that are uniquely yours, and that will resonate with your audience.
If you can use a popular trend or pop culture event to create a headline, it can be extremely effective. For example, a post about “Which Game of Thrones Character Are You?” took an existing article and added the theme of the current season to it, turning it into a fresh, topical piece that appealed to readers’ interests.
Another great strategy is to use a headline that promises an outcome or solution in your article. This helps to build trust and credibility and it also drives up your click-through rates on social media.
A final technique to consider is using headlines that evoke an emotion or invoke a sense of urgency. These headlines can be extremely powerful and they also tend to rank highly in search engines. For example, a headline like “How To Learn A Language In Just One Year” ranks highly for the keywords that your audience is searching for.