If You Can Write Emails, You Can Write an Attractive Blog Title
Writing great content is part of the foundation of an inbound marketing strategy. It results in more traffic and more leads. No matter how much effort you put into your content, though, it will go largely unnoticed if it doesn't have an attractive blog title. Your interesting blog will be obscured by a boring title.
Titles possess the power to draw readers into your post or push them far, far away. Your title needs to stop the reader in their tracks while they’re skimming. It must make them consider what your blog has to offer and evoke enough curiosity to keep them reading. To do so, it should include a promise of sorts that’s interesting to your audience.
Qualities of a Good Blog Title
Before you publish your next blog or eBook, ensure the title of it has these qualities:
- Grabs attention: The main job of a title is to grab the reader’s attention despite distractions. To make it leap out, a title should make a promise, evoke an emotional response, or appeal to curiosity. A headline like this would be “Which of the three mistakes are you making on your website?”
- Screens and qualifies readers: When you’re writing inbound copy, you’re writing for a target audience, not the general public, so your word choice needs to reflect that. Choose words that will segment the readers you want. You don’t want your blog to apply to everyone because you’ll get less qualified leads. Try a title like “Why your traditional marketing strategy is failing, and what to do about it.”
- Shows the big idea: From the get-go, your readers need to know the true benefit of your post or eBook. You need to find a way to communicate that in a way that resonates with them. A title “Triple your productivity instantly” would work.
- Establish credibility: The fastest way for your post to gain attention is to use authority. If you can play the authority card, do so in your title. The headline “Harvard study shows three common traits of successful people” is more credible and enticing than “Study shows three common traits of successful people.”
By using these qualities, your blog posts will bring more traffic to your website, more leads to your sales team, and more sales to your company. You’ll also gain more readers, and your reader engagement will increase through a more efficient approach to marketing.
Read More: How to Create a Compelling eBook
Effective Title Templates for Blog Posts
If you’re suffering from a case of writer’s block or are genuinely bad at writing titles, try using these fool-proof title templates for inspiration.
1) The transactional title: This title is based solely around the promise you’re making to your readers. If you have truly great content that will wow your audience, this headline will grab their attention quickly. (i.e.) Give me 20 minutes, and I’ll give you more leads.
2) The probing question title: In this title, you ask a question that creates an intense desire to know the answer, but you have to be careful with this one. If you ask the wrong question, you might get a no, so you need to ask something that really attracts your audience’s curiosity. (i.e.) Do you wish you had more blog traffic?
3) The how-to title: To make this headline work, you need to connect it to a benefit your readers care about that’s related to your content. By completing your buyer personas, you’ll know exactly what they care about. A title like this one could look like “How to get more leads every day.”
4) The reason why title: It’s smart to use the power of the reason why in your headlines because adding the word because to a request will make it more likely you’ll get what you want. (i.e.) 5 reasons you should switch to inbound marketing.
To write really great titles, you need to write a lot of terrible ones first; you’ll only get better with practice. If you incorporate these qualities and use these templates, your awesome content will get the exposure it deserves.