You Had Me at Hello

When we sit down to write a blog post, we often start with an idea. That idea may or may not end up being the name of the post or the headline.

I would challenge you to name your post AFTER writing it rather than naming it first. (That’s how the headline for this post emerged.)

Allowing the headline to flow out of the content is often easier than coming up with a hard and fast title … and then writing to it.

Apply some time and creativity to developing your headline. You want to pique curiosity, stand out and encourage click through when you promote your post on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ and LinkedIn. The headline is your main promotion tool.

You might have a post that you put a little extra time into and you want to pitch it to other bloggers or on bookmark sites such as Digg or Delicious. A good headline helps your content get picked up and shared; believe it.

Here are some ideas to consider to punch up your blog post headlines:

• Tie the Headline and Photo cleverly together
  “Cleared for Take-off” and photo of a rocket blast with a subtitle, “Announcing our New …” Hopefully your audience will appreciate the time and care you took to craft an entertaining lead-in.
• “The Zen of …” and fill in the blank.
  Zen lovers want more Zen and they will be curious to see how you tell the story.
• “Don’t Read this Unless You Want to … Better”
  Ha! I love being dared into reading something and then I get some self-improvement too? Yes.
• “Real People Talk about …”
  Give me Real, give me Simple, and there are a few other words that make us feel good in our busy, often impersonal world … and these words help encourage reader engagement.
• “Do This One Thing and You’ll be Amazed at the Results”
  As I said, I am a sucker for simplicity (I have time for ONE thing!) and I am always seeking to improve myself, so you had me at hello.
• “Warning! This Blog Post Might Shock You …”
  The post could be about something shocking … or not. It would pull me in, how ‘bout you?
• “A Feel Good Story About …”
  I wanna feel good and do good … you’ve given me some info about the context of the content. I have enough info to know if I want to dig deeper.
• Top 10 …, 8 Proven Methods, and 5 Ways to ….
  Using the list is effective because it is clean, simple and usually requires only a quick scan by the reader to glean useful info. Use list headlines strategically, and not all the time, as readers tire of it.

Know who you are speaking to when you write a headline and have that audience in your mind’s eye as you are writing. Apply some care and creativity to developing that headline and I promise that your audience will appreciate it. ~Lori

What headline styles pull you into reading the content? How much time do you spend figuring out that perfect headline?