The Simplest Ways to Make the Best Headlines

 

Headlines are really the most important part of your article writing, blog, LinkedIn post, YouTube Video and so much more...  

It is the first thing that can grab the attention of your reader or web visitor.

Busy people keep their lives manageable by deciding almost instantly whether something is worth their time.

The headline is your first and sometimes only chance.

Their eye will scan the headline and an instant decision will be made.

Does it interest them, intrigue them, or amuse them or can it be ignored? There's no second chance.

No appeal. Just one chance.

There is no going back and the rest of your article, brilliant, amusing, and informative though it may be will never be read.

It's the headline's job to entice them, engage them and capture their attention so that they ignore all other distractions to read to find out more.

 It's scary, but this process takes just a second or two and it's brutal. An email appears, a web page loads, a magazine page is flipped open and in a second or two the readers has made an instant judgment - to read or move on. I’m sure you can relate to this yourself.

Using a ‘question’ in your headline is the most effective way of doing this.  This is also something that the search engines like – especially when the rest of your article contains the answer!

A question, if written well, should be able to attract, intrigue or even to gently provoke your readers to want to read more.  Using more ‘interesting’ verbs will help you do this.

Writing Headlines – Keep It Simple

There are different elements within any headline that readers will ‘connect’ with.  You can’t squeeze all of them in at once, otherwise you could actually lose the impact you are wanting to create.

Some people suggest headlines should contain no more than seven words, but you can have equal success with longer titles.

Here are some simple guidelines:-

• Ensure the message in your headline is clear and ‘to the point’
• Your headlines should highlight the ‘benefit’ to your reader of reading your article
• Get your headlines to ‘resonate’ with your reader by showing that you understand their pains or particular business issues
• It must be clear - The headline is not the place to be confusing or circumspect. It has to be clear what the headline is saying and what the rest of the article is about.
• It must be relevant - The headline must be relevant to the introduction and the rest of the article otherwise you will lose the reader as soon as they see any discrepancy.
• It must be lean - A waffle-filled wordy headline will not be read. Keep your headline short and to the point.
• It must be exciting - Don't bore your reader - excite them, amuse them, make them curious...

Here are some great resources to help to create headlines:

https://tweakyourbiz.com/title-generator

https://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer

https://sumome.com/kickass-headline-generator/

https://www.impactplus.com/blog-title-generator/blogabout

https://www.aminstitute.com/headline/

https://www.inboundnow.com/apps/kill-writers-block/

https://fatjoe.com/blog-title-generator/#title-generator

https://copywritingcourse.com/title-generator/

https://headlines.sharethrough.com

https://www.title-generator.com/

https://www.contentmajestic.com/resources/tools/blog-title-generator

https://help.thrivethemes.com

https://answerthepublic.com/ (my favorite)

https://www.thehoth.com/headline-generator/

https://www.hubspot.com/blog-topic-generator

https://seopressor.com/blog-title-generator/

https://www.portent.com/tools/title-maker

https://www.contentrow.com/tools/headline-generator

https://tweakyourbiz.com/title-generator

https://sumome.com/kickass-headline-generator

https://www.impactplus.com/blog-title-generator/blogabout

Frank Furness CSP CFP TOT is a professional speaker and consultant specializing in technology, sales and customer service.

He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 69 countries. Frank is the author of bestselling books ‘ ‘Walking with Tigers  – Success Secrets of the World’s Top Business Leaders’ and How to Find New Clients and Business’

Download your free copy of his latest book ‘'Creating the Perfect YouTube Video' at https://www.productivitycentre.com/youtube

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Video & YouTube Strategies for Business

What are you doing today that is better and different to your competitors? How do you find and attract new clients?

If you are not doing anything that differentiates you from the competition, you could be losing out on a huge amount of potential business.

One of the easiest methods to differentiate your company is to embrace technology and social media. It is easy and can save you time, money and headaches. 

One of my favorite social media sites is YouTube and here are some tips, strategies and ideas that can help your business immediately:

·       Have your own YouTube Channel and base the channel name on keywords e.g. Health and Fitness London – IT Security New York

·       Make sure the sound on your videos is clear and mixed and edited well so users can clearly hear it. One of the best inexpensive cameras with great sound is the Zoom Q3, Q4 or Q8 HD.

·       Create well thought out, professional style videos that are edited properly.

o   Use edit suites like Adobe VC3, Techsmith Camtasia and Sony Vegas for PCs and IMovie, Screenflow and Camtasia for Mac.

·       Keep your content funny, engaging, and informative so that it will keep viewers watching until the end of the video.

·       Embed your logo and website into the video. Look at http://youtube.com/salestips

·       Keep the resolution of the video as high as possible, at a minimum 800 by 600.

·       Be yourself. Don’t lose sight of the purpose and mission of the video. Think of yourself speaking to a friend in a pub or coffee shop and use the same tone and expressions.

·       Practice before posting the final video. Do a few dry runs before taping and publishing and remember if you are boring, the video will be boring to viewers.

·       Do more than just talk. People don’t want to sit and watch a person just talking to the camera. Make it exciting and interesting as well as fun.

·       Limit your video length to two minutes’ maximum, most viewers lose interest after this. Look at any movie, the scenes change around every minute.

·       Latest statistics from YouTube indicate that the average watching time is 36 seconds.

·       Use the ‘problem, solution and action’ method of filming. E.g. Have you been trying diets and still can’t move that fat (problem) – here are 3 exercises to help you right now (solution) and sign up for our free newsletter or call us to find out about our gym membership (solution)

·       At the end of each video, ask your viewers to ‘like’ the video and comment, this helps with your rankings.

·       If you are going to use music, use copyright free music

·       Grab viewers by integrating important keywords into the title. This will help to boost the search engine results.

·       Use keywords in the tags that will lead potential clients to your videos and make the first line of your description is your website address as that is what viewers will see immediately below the video.

·       Choose the most relevant category

·       Try to get the videos to go viral by spreading them  to as many websites and social media channels as possible. Once you have uploaded the video, click on the ‘share’ button and then share the video with Twitter, Facebook your Blog and any other social media sites that your business uses.

Remember to use the videos in different ways

·       Videos on the website

·       Meet the team

·       Video testimonials

·       Staff training

·       Expert advice

·       Tip of the week

Frank Furness CSP CFP is a professional speaker specialising in sales and social media. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 52 countries. Take a look at his latest resource, or to book Frank to speak at your next conference email frank@frankfurness.com or telephone+ 44 (0) 1923 248200. http://www.frankfurness.com

NOTE: You are welcome to "reprint" this article online if it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to frank@frankfurness.com