Did you know that out of 10 people that scroll past your headline, 8 of them will see it… but ONLY 2 of them will go on to read the rest of your post, open your email or watch your video?!?!
“What?? But my video is SO good! My article is SO informative! I spent so much time on it.“
This is why you need a headline that captures their attention and engages them enough that they’ll “invest” in reading or watching your content.
There’s actually an art to creating a good, hooky headline. In essence, you want to address WHO should watch this video, and the benefit they’ll get from it.
But there’s a couple of tricks to doing this in 7-10 words!
That’s why in this training episode, we share ‘7 Headline Hacks That Turn Scrollers Into Engaged Fans!’ It’s packed with tips, tricks and examples to help you craft headlines that get more attention and create more engagement!
Click below to watch the show: (OR, if you prefer to LISTEN, you can CLICK HERE to jump to the bottom of the page to enjoy the audio only version)
Want a free copy of our “101 HEADLINE Attention Grabbers” Guide?
You can use these Fill-in-the-Blank Templates to quickly create attention-grabbing headlines for your Posts, Videos and Emails!
No matter which media you choose, you’ll need a Title, Header or Subject Line that grabs attention and gets people to stop and LISTEN.
These days you’ve got about 2 seconds to “stop the scrollers” and turn them into engaged viewers. That’s why you’ve gotta have hooky headlines!
Download this free resource HERE, and start grabbing people’s attention today!
TAKING IT ALL IN…
There’s a lot of great information in this show – but if you want the “cliff notes” version of what we covered, here’s a quick recap:
There are a few important basics to creating a great headline. Whenever possible a headline should contain these 3 elements: 1) the problem (and pain), the outcome (and benefits) and it should hint to the method of transformation (the solution).
Hack #1 – SPY! (Minute Marker 05:21)
There are high-budget companies that invest a LOT of money into researching how to capture your attention. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to break out your 007 persona and get to SPYing.
Fortunately, you don’t need the big budget (or fancy tools) of a true spy, you just need to go to the magazine section of your grocery store (or google.) Find magazines that speak to the same people you are trying to talk to, and see what headlines they use on the cover of their magazines.
It’s pretty simple, but you’ll be amazed at how much you can benefit from just modeling what they do! You can also use your sleuthing skills on Facebook’s transparency ad area, books on Amazon, or you can even sign up to mailing lists for people that do this really well and you can see how THEY do it.
Hack #2 – WHO?? (Minute Marker 10:02)
You want to call out to your SPECIFIC audience right away! And the headline is your opportunity to do that. Like, “Hey, Busy Moms, did you know…?”
Right away, your audience will know they should pay attention because you’re talking directly to them!
Hint:: Think about the identity or interest of those who would really LOVE to watch your video and you can use that to let them know immediately that they’ll find value if they watch. Here are a few examples we found on YouTube:
- 5 Realistic Self Care Ideas for Busy Moms
- 7 Daily Health Habits for Busy Moms
- How to Find Time To Exercise as a Busy Mom
- Busy Mom Make-up and Hairstyle Tutorial
Hack #3 – NUMBERS (Minute Marker 11:26)
An interesting brain fact is that your brain ‘believes’ numbers more than words, and ODDLY, odd numbers more than even numbers. Odd numbers also seem to help people digest and recall information more easily.
Headlines with numbers have 73% more shares on social media according to a number of research studies.
Start paying attention to the way numbers are used and notice your own reaction to them. They get attention and notice the tendency to believe them.
Here’s an example, rather than saying “People have noticed a lot of the time…” “People have noticed that 33% of the time…” As you can see knowing the actual percentage is much more powerful.
And if you want a laugh, start noticing how many times people use 73% or 77% in their study citations. It’s more powerful than saying 3/4, it’s using odd numbers and it’s just weird enough to get attention and make you think “there’s no way that’s made up, that’s such an odd number.” (We’re not saying those facts are made up, but it is odd how often those numbers are used when you start paying attention) 🙂 There’s a REASON for that!
Hack #4 – COMPRESSION (Minute Marker 13:13)
If what you have to share saves someone time, money or effort… that’s GOLD! Be sure to point that out!
People are always looking for ways to compress the amount of time it takes to do something, or the cost they have to pay or the effort they have to extend. So let them know right in your headline, that you can help with that. Examples:
- TIME: “In just 10 minutes a day”, “Super Fast”, “In under 30 minutes”
- MONEY: “On a shoestring budget”, “For pennies a day”, “For less than a cup of coffee”
- EFFORT: “Without working out”, “Without drugs”, “Without extra products”
Hack #5 – MECHANISM (Minute Marker 15:21)
Words that indicate a “new idea” or a “secret method” or an “established and proven solution” help people open up and trust that this information might be dependable information.
This has been used for ages! And old Calgon commercial used to show a woman asking “How do you get your shirts so clean, Mr Lee?” Mr Lee said, “Ancient Chinese Secret.” He was using Calgon. Mr Lee was incredibly market-savvy!
It just helps people open up to the fact that you might have a solution for their problem. A solution that might work even for them! All from a simple word or phrase:
Words or phrases like: Tips, Tricks, Hacks, Proven Method, Secret Formula, Insider Strategy, Easy Routine.
Hack #6 – POWER WORDS (Minute Marker 16:50)
Certain words trigger a psychological or emotional response. These are words that carry a concept that, for one reason or another, people can’t help but be influenced by the use of that word or phrase.
Here are some examples of Power Words or Phrases:
- New and Improved!
- Free!
- Latest!
- Secret
- Save
- Hurry
- Today Only
- For a Limited Time
- Exclusive Offer
- Last Chance!
- Effortless
- Intuitive
- Foolproof
Try googling or using a thesaurus to find unique or creative adjectives – just be sure when creating your hooky headline that you opt for being CLEAR over CLEVER.
Hack #7 – FORMATTING (Minute Marker 21:05)
You’d be surprised how big of an impact simple formatting choices can have on a headline!
For a video headline (in a social media post) you might only have the options for Bold, Italics, Underline, Caps, Parenthesis, Colons, Dashes, etc.
But on your own website or in marketing material, you can also use different colors and fonts. And don’t underestimate the impact this can have!
One recent study by Content Marketing Institute, found that including a single hyphen or colon in the headline increased click-through rate by 9%.
Wow, one little hyphen can have an impact on the number of people that watch your video or read your article? That’s really powerful!
There you have it, our ‘7 Headline Hacks That Turn Scrollers Into Engaged Fans’. Try out these hacks for yourself and keep you eye on the number views, likes, shares, etc. to see what kind of difference they made for you!
And if you want a jump start to creating hooky headline, download our 101 Headline Attention Grabber Guide for some fill-in-the-blank headlines to get started fast!
BTW, if you’re on Facebook and you’d like to join the conversation from this episode, you can find that Show post here. We’d love to know if you heard something you liked or if you were inspired and got an idea of something you’re going to implement! Come say hi and feel free to share your thoughts with everyone in the chat!
Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode Here:
