How to Create an Impressive Headline
By: Cosmin Angheluta
Tags: Writing, Headlines, Writing Tips, Productivity, Writer

How to Create an Impressive Headline

3 Types of eye-catching titles to use for your articles

Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash

In the past, I always struggled with choosing good-looking titles for my articles. I tried to make them functional, and make them stick in the reader’s mind, to attract their curiosity and make them read what I had to say. Still, I made two colossal mistakes.

The first one was using titles that attracted me instead of the masses, and the second was using generic headlines with no power words.

It frustrated me. I had no clue about which was the problem, so I couldn’t even imagine a solution. Then I did some researches; I read many articles on how people’s mind gets attracted, and I understood my taste differs from the others. I love poetic headlines, titles that wink at me something, but the vast majority of people likes something else. Thus I learned to forge what they liked, so to create a honeypot for my readers.

The Headline’s Secret

There are three types of headlines you can use to make your article more eye-catching and stand out. Or, at least, those are the three I discovered.

As a general rule, when writing an article, always remember to trigger an emotion in the reader’s mind, starting with the title. It doesn’t matter if it is negative or positive, but you need to find a trigger and a necessity in the reader’s daily experience, so you can meet their expectations and solve their doubts.

From what I studied in these last months I’ve been writing, I extracted three types of headlines with a high probability of affecting the reader’s attention. Let’s analyze them one by one.

Headline #1 — Deliberate Emotion and Emphasis

The first headline is the one that uses emotion deliberately and goes straight to the point. If you express the right emotion and emphasize it properly, it can become one of the most powerful titles you can forge.

Still, keep in mind positive emotions are notable, but negative emotions sometimes are even better. You should address those and give a solution to escape them.

For these titles, power words like mistake, hate, or even forever, can enhance the appeal. Also, you can use numbers, since several studies highlighted how they attract people more than written words.

3 Mistakes you will regret your Entire Life

This headline uses the emotion of regret, and the longevity of the entire reader’s life, to attract the attention. Also, it uses a number as the first word of the title and the mistake power word.

Since nobody wants to fail in their lives, the readers will open the article and see how to prevent a potential problem. However, most of the time, they will fastly skim through it to see what to avoid, so try to keep them interested in the first lines of your story and create a link with their experience as soon as possible.

You are not as happy as you thought. Here’s why.

Using a positive emotion, and then negating it, has an enormous impact on the readers’ emotions. Your title will make them feel threatened by their environment, and they will search for a solution in your words.

This headline deliberately aims to create doubt in their mind. Why shouldn’t they be happy? What are they missing? Still, be careful. Once you attract them, give significant explanations and solutions to the danger you alerted, or they won’t come back to read any other articles.

Headline #2 — “How to” and an action

Different from the first one, the second headline uses a practical necessity of the reader and tries to satisfy it with useful suggestions and tricks that could help. It usually contains much of the writer’s experience, and it uses scientific researches to support its thesis.

In these articles, you become the seller of a lifestyle, while the reader is the buyer observing the potential gain you are showing. For this reason, the benefit has to be crystal clear. Using the how-to power word is not enough: make your article captivating, or it will not get reads.

I use this headline type frequently, so I will make some examples of my how-to articles.

As you can see, the headline starts with the how-to formula and then expresses a specific concept: the promise to the public. These few words contain what the readers will achieve if they open your article, but also the hook that will draw them in.

The concept of the idea bucket is unknown, since it is my creation, so it winks to the curiosity of the reader. What is the idea bucket? How does it work? The only way to know the answers is to read the article.

This headline also starts with the how-to formula, but it is slightly different. Instead of trying to develop curiosity, here I use a straightforward language to make a promise to the reader.

The power words are only two. The first one, stoic, explains the concept of the article, while the second, happy, promises a fulfilling emotion.

As always, when you promise such a beautiful feeling, make sure you deliver. Nobody wants to read an article that promises things but then accomplishes nothing.

Headline #3 — Counterintuitive opinion and benefits

The last headline aims to trigger a consistent emotional burst in the reader, searching for controversy and clamor. The goal is to express and convince the readers of a thesis contrary to the common belief. So the writer has to explain why the alternative is more precious, and why it brings more benefits than the predominant vision.

These titles can also use a technique based on brackets. As in the last example of the second headline, brackets can help you reinforce the message, or completely twist it.

School prepares you for life (or does it?)

In this first example, you have a recurrent belief (the school preparing people for life) and the beginning of doubt. Without the part inside the brackets, the title wouldn’t sell anything to the writer, and nobody will open it. But the brackets make it more appealing because it triggers curiosity and doubt inside the readers’ mind, so they will be more willing to read it.

Why shouldn’t school prepare people for life? What is the secret the author discovered and wants me to know?

To-do lists (do not) improve your productivity

Again, in this title, we have a common belief, but here the author plays with the possibility of negating the thesis with only two words. Notice that, by invalidating the argument, you also offer a hidden benefit, which is the possibility to be more productive by abandoning to-do lists. Still, you are not saying it deliberately, so the reader again develops curiosity.

Usually, those kinds of articles always work. Controversy and conspiracy are welcome these days, but never forget to give some reasonable explanations while keeping your intellectual honesty intact.

An Article is not a Book

Most people write articles and give them poetic names as if it was a book, but the vast majority of readers do not care about the title, they care about the message.

Journalism has accustomed us to direct and appealing titles, those that give useful information and, but also attract attention.

The readers search both for controversy and benefits in your articles. They don’t want to know what you did yesterday in your bedroom. They want to understand what you learned from staying all night up, unable to sleep, how it influenced your body, and how you overcame it. They want to improve their lives, and yours should be the article to help them succeed.

Sell your knowledge to your public and give them what they are seeking. Any writer has a unique experience to share. With time, you will find your target to influence.