How to create a headline that people click on – and a blog that people stay on

Why should you care about how to create a headline that people click on – and a blog that people stay on?

• It familiarises your brand. It takes the average consumer 7 interactions with your business before they recognise your company.
• The more clicks you get, the more likely you are to engage potential prospects.
• Blogs in general increase your SEO, and blogs with higher traffic is an indication that your domain is of value to people. If visitors share your content, you can gain some inbound links and increase your traffic.
• It humanises your brand.

There are plenty more reasons why it’s important to have quality headlines and content, but let’s jump into how to create an alluring headline (and not clickbait!).

How to create a headline that people click on

First of all, you need to consider whom you want to click on your headline – your target audience. The website metrics you get from these visitors are the ones that matter, and which you can then optimise to increase results.

Ask yourself what do your target audience want to see? Perhaps they have a problem you can solve. One way to find this out is to simply ask 5 of your existing clients what keeps them up at night to do with their business. Then create a blog around this related to your line of work!

In your heading, try experimenting with the following suggestions:

(all examples are headings of previous Ingenio Technologies blogs)

1. Show the benefit. Use your headline that prove the article will be of value to the reader. For example:

“Increase your network security for free with these easy tips”.

2. Create a sense of urgency – people are more likely to click on your article now, rather than later if they have a reason. For example:

“Secure your iPhone, iPad, or Apply Product By April 7^th”

3. Use targeted messaging. Like we talked about earlier, you can filter who clicks on your blogs through the messaging you use. For example:

“An open letter to businesses still using Ordinary Printers”

4. Talk about trending topics. Trending topics are topics that are highly discussed in the present time. For example:

“5 ways Donald Trump will affect the Tech World”

5. Invoke curiosity. Not click bait curiosity… but relevant curiosity. For example:

“How much can a business lose through PC downtime? (Case Study)”

How to create a blog that people stay on

You’ve now got a visitor to your site through your amazing headline. How do you encourage them to read on? By having an enticing and interesting first two sentences. These sentences set the tone for the rest of the article. So use them wisely. Here’s some tips of how to create enticing first lines:

1. Say what the visitor will gain from reading the rest of the blog
2. Show your authenticity and personality.
3. Be creative. Take a look at what I did in this blog here.

How to create great content

Focus! When you are creating your content, you must focus 100% on your writing. There are many ways to increase focus. Most people use coffee, however there are various other techniques such as listening to calming music, and ‘unplugging’ for a short while before you start. It’s beneficial to get creative in the process too. Having plants around your desk is proven to increase creativity.

Use statistics. There’s nothing better to back-up your points than to use statistics.

47% of buyers viewed 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep. – (source)

If your content is too long you run the risk of people not bothering to read it. A standard blog article is between 300-500 words and should be no longer than 1000 words.

To conclude, here are the qualities of a great blog:

• Unique, engaging and shareable
• Relevant and of genuine interest to your target audience
• Interesting headings to grab viewers’ attention.
• Includes a Call To Action
• Includes social share buttons
• Not too long (300-500 words is standard)
• Use quality and royalty free images.
• Let’s your personality and authenticity shine through
• The first lines of the sentences must be alluring to show the reader what they can gain from reading.

I hope this article has got you thinking and that you’ve taken something of value away with you. Happy blogging!