Kevan Lee gave us 30+ Ultimate Headline Formulas for Tweets, Posts, Articles, and Emails. Or 30+ templates for headlines that make us click, even as we roll our eyes…
Click-baity, Upworthy-style, BuzzFeed-type headlines work, because they have the backing of human psychology. These headlines whet the reader’s appetite and tug at the brain until we’re compelled to read. Sure, there’s a little echo of “Hah! Made ya look!” but if the post delivers on the promise, we’ll grudgingly do it again next time. “Curiosity killed the cat; satisfaction brought it back.” And in an Internet saturated with “content,” writers might do well to consider the psychology when crafting catchy, clever titles for books and blog posts. We can easily outfox ourselves with a clever turn of phrase.
Human psychology is a powerful thing. If sex, fear, and death sell products, then fear of dying while lovemaking ought to be a winning formula. The headline should promise a way to avoid that fate; the content should deliver on it. Advising abstinence won’t work, because for most people, fear of not having sex probably trumps the fear of dying during coitus. For some fascinating analyses of subliminal cues in advertising, see Sex and Death in the Ice Cubes. As writers, we know the power of symbolism and metaphor. Consider the title of this post – what fears am I using to pique interest, here? What rhetorical devices are used?
Things to keep in mind when writing titles or headlines:
- Only 1/5th of the people who read your headline will read the content;
- People focus on the first 3 words and the last 3 words of the headline;
- Content must relate to the headline and deliver on the promise;
- Social media behavior is largely driven by a need to belong and the degree of emotional arousal (fear, sex, death being a few of the powerful cues to strong, emotional response);
- Emotions are contagious; the good news is, positive emotions are more contagious than negative ones;
- Self-censorship is strongly linked to a poor understanding of who our audience is;
- Our brains crave novelty and surprise – they itch for more info if their curiosity and interest are piqued (Ever wonder who created the first Upworthy-style headline, and when? The answer may surprise you!);
Lee suggests following Upworthy’s practice of brainstorming 25 headlines, then voting on the best ones. “Twenty-five headlines for each post? You must be kidding. I barely have time to blog. I have books to write!” Consider this: If only 1/5th of the people who read your headline (or your book’s title!) are likely to click and read your content on average, why would you not put as much time and effort into writing the perfect headline as into crafting the perfect prose for your post – or your book? How many times have you looked at an Upworthy headline and tried, unsuccessfully, not to click it?
Granted, “She Runs Away from the Creepy House at Midnight. What Happens as She Teeters at the Cliff’s Edge Will Leave You Speechless – with Laughter” probably isn’t a great title for a gothic romance. Could be shorter, punchier. Maybe laughter’s not appropriate for this particular cliff-hanger. Think about it for a while. Mull it over. Jot down another twenty-four. One’s bound to work out, even if 3/4ths of them are silly.
If you don’t want to be like the boy who cried wolf, though, don’t get into the habit of promising more in your headline than you are delivering.
Same thing with book descriptions. I know a writer who writes wonderful descriptions – you just HAVE to try at least the Look Inside feature – but I hate his stories. Every one.
Unfortunately, he has me questioning descriptions now!
Oh, yes. Don’t promise more than you deliver. I did say that! Nothing worse than deception, because who’s going to buy a second book from an author they don’t like OR trust?
I do have problems coming up with good titles. Thanks for the info!
Good luck on the rest of the challenge! We’re doing “I’ve Got The Music In Me” this year on The Road We’ve Shared. – looking at how important music is in the Down syndrome community. I hope you’ll stop by and see/hear! http://theroadweveshared.com/category/a-to-z-blogging-challenge-2016
You know my position on titles, aka headlines. I hate misleading titles, titles that don’t deliver what’s promised, and obvious clickbait that has nothing to do with the topic of an article. I admit that most of the time I’m bad at titling things… so there’s no way I’m even bothering with trying to come up with more than one title most of the time. lol
Well, the good news is, psychology doesn’t apply to search engines. So if you can’t get clever, just opt for meaningful.
It’s interesting, but I often use a headline (subject line?) that is a title of song, or lyrics from the same, though it usually is connected, in some way. But I’ve also used strange word/non-words, in my subject. I don’t know if it gets me more views, or reads, but it entices me LOL
Good idea, when I have the time, to look for headlines.
If amusing yourself is the primary goal, you’re rockin’ it! LOL I think if you can be genuinely YOU – AND apply some of the psychology here – you’ll hit on your own winning formula. But there is some science behind why these “click-baity” headlines work, and why clever doesn’t always win the day. NOT that I’d ever urge anyone to adopt a 100% click-baity, non-clever, PsyOps approach to blogging. First, it would annoy the fool out of most of our readers. Second, we’d get bored with it, ourselves, soon. Leave it to those sites we love to hate, even as we can’t stop our twitchy index fingers from clicking. But it never hurts to KNOW this stuff and add it to the toolbox.
I find most of my titles have the basics; but then the headline/title itself can be manipulated into just six words, or three important ones, an article or two, and then three more important words.
It’s worth looking at a headline with the ‘rules’ in mind to see if you can’t improve it a bit.
I also remember to think as someone who doesn’t know the content of the post: does this title tell them what to expect, or do I need to put some nouns in there.
It doesn’t take long to take your placeholder and spiffy it up a bit.
That’s right! Thanks, Alicia. I know many of us have an urge to rebel against the “science” in favor of the title we WANT to put on a post (or a book) and sometimes we SHOULD win that argument in the name of art. But sometimes, when the art isn’t the focus, we should consider using all the “tricks” in the book. I mean, I HATE it that I can’t resist the compulsion to click those obviously click-baity headlines. But then again…
I figure it’s not just me! 🙂
Thanks for the titles, But only title is not enough you should add image to get attention of the readers.
http://jahangiri.us/2013/images-motivate-readers-to-share/
Along with this try to find out best timing for your tweet. So you can get maximum audience for your blog post.
You can also try : http://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer to generate seo friend title for your blog post. 🙂
Hmm. Current headline scores a 61. “Psychotic, Sexy Images Motivate Readers to Share” would score a 67. If you ever wonder what folks are doing wrong in social media, it’s probably trying too hard to game an algorithm.
61 is not bad at all, Try to score 70 plus for suitable headline. Every title contain common, uncommon, emotional and powerful words. So try to mix up all of them in single title for a strong headline.
Oh, you’re gonna love tomorrow’s post. The title only scores a 54, but I can live with that. 😉
ha ha ha…well, Best of luck 🙂