Can Better Headlines Help Bring You More Clients?

You invest significant time to write a great article. When you’re finished, you can’t wait to share it with the world. What if I told you if you invest as little as 20 minutes more you could increase your readership and sharing by double, triple, or 10X? What the secret of connecting with more people? Great headlines help you get more attention for your organization!

That’s right, people who invest time creating a better headline get significantly better results. I thought I would share several ideas that have helped me build a global following of over 170,000 readers worldwide. That’s not a huge number by some standards, but I need only twelve clients to fill my coaching practice to earn a seven figure income.

My background is in direct response marketing. I’ve been writing better headlines for over 25 years. I was trained by many of the world’s best marketers on how to write great headlines. Does it still apply in today’s hypercompetitive social media driven marketplace? My answer is yes, but with one critical warning. You need to learn how to create multiple headlines based on the media in which you are working.

If you write better headlines your message will be shared by many more people. Better headlines mean significantly more exposure!  I want to share an unusual idea I found over the past 5 years. This will not be news to people who are in direct response or people who measure results on what they write, but most social media messaging is not read by most people who share it.

I would bet the number would be less than 5%of people who share your material read it. Depending where you publish, the numbers may increase, but I seldom see it over 10%. How do I know this? My clients test and put metrics around their marketing campaigns.

For all marketing automation technology has improved our ability to see into the world of our clients, we still need them to take the initial step. Great headlines can help tip the odds in your favor.

Here are several ways to create stronger headlines. Next week, we share several different templates and tools to help you increase your speed in writing a great headline.

When working with product managers and marketing leaders in our clients, we use brainstorming sessions to create many ideas before choosing the best headlines. Virtual brainstorming sessions are very powerful when working with a wide range of professionals on your sales and marketing teams.

Here are three additional ideas that can help create better headlines and connection to your best clients. Great headlines help the client engagement process.

The first way of developing better headlines is look at what works with your target market. It’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to come up with completely new ideas for a marginal return for your investment. Most of my clients keep extensive records on what their results are for their many different campaigns.

It is essential to create headlines that grab your reader’s attention. In the past, words were more important than images, but social media and younger audiences are more visual. You might want to consider adding stronger images to increase your content’s impact. Combining great headlines and powerful images can significantly impact your brands’ reputation. Look for images and videos that help set your brand’s appeal.

The second way of developing better headlines is to not always rely on curiosity. Curious headlines worked more effectively when we saw fewer headlines on a daily basis. Do a quick test for yourself, check out how many tweets use curiosity to get your attention. I would bet it’s between 15-25%. You can still use curiosity to increase response, but consider using different hooks to grab your market’s attention.

The third way of developing better headlines is to consider using humor or sarcasm. Both these increase results significantly, but be aware they can also fall flat with many of your best readers.  We are going to talk more about this in a future blog, but make sure the humor isn’t insensitive. My best advice when using humor is to make yourself to object of the humor.

We’ve run out of time today. Next week, we return to talk more about where and how to develop better headlines.  We will share a process that makes you a great headline writer. We will also share several headline templates that make headline writing a breeze. See you next week.