The Easy A-to-Z Guide to Writing Great Headlines [Infographic]

As a content marketer, you win the battle for engagement by making your headlines irresistible. Make an emotional appeal by putting benefits in your headline. Colons A proven headline approach is to begin with a topical keyword phrase, followed by a colon – or dash – followed by a statement or question. Power words Revisit your headline looking for soft or vague words that can be replaced with more powerful, energetic, emotional, or descriptive words. Indicate that your content presents the reader with an effective way to begin that task. Make the verb urgent and interesting. Who, what, when, where, why Whether your headline is a question or a statement, these five “w” words can help shape an interesting one. Write headlines from A to Z Crafting a great headline is not easy. Using these tips (though not all in the same headline) will attract your readers to your content. Then look at your content analytics to see which of these tips worked better than others for your audience.

Author: Barry Feldman / Source: Content Marketing Institute

As a content marketer, you win the battle for engagement by making your headlines irresistible. Let’s make our way through the alphabet and spell out 26 nuggets bound to help you improve your headline-writing chops.

You also can print the A-to-Z infographic to have a visual reminder of these tips. Thank you to Infobrandz for the great infographic design. (Go directly to the end if you prefer the infographic version.)

Ask

Posing a question, one of the oldest tricks in the book, remains one of the best ways to engage a reader.

Benefits

Features tend to bore readers. Make an emotional appeal by putting benefits in your headline.

Colons

A proven headline approach is to begin with a topical keyword phrase, followed by a colon – or dash – followed by a statement or question.

Do’s and don’ts

A headline using “do” or “don’t” indicates your content is going to advise on what does or doesn’t work for a task your audience needs to accomplish.

Emotion

Decisions are based on emotions. Capitalize on that power using the headline to elicit a feeling or to describe one.

Facts

A well-timed, topical, or provocative fact (or list of them) can be the ultimate hook for your story.

Greats

No matter what you’re writing, you likely can attach “greats” to it – great accomplishments, great leaders, great landmarks in time, etc.

Help

Help is a universal foundation of content marketing, nonfiction, and so many forms of publishing. Identify how the content will aid the reader or viewer.

Inspiration

Similar to the appeal of emotions, encouragement is well-received by audiences. A great headline may focus on the basic idea “you can do this.”

Jack

“Jack” – as in steal or borrow – is a helpful tool. Craft a headline that borrows interest from a trending story or famous figure discussed in the media.