There is certainly no shortage of advice on how to write catchy blog titles. In fact, there are so many articles and posts on the subject, combing through all the suggestions can be arduous. Here, we’ve narrowed down the art of mastering catchy titles to five key steps.
1. Work With A Rough Draft
This is great advice for all writers, not just those composing blogs. Jot down a title that captures the essence of what you want to say and get writing. You are going to write and edit the content of the post, so why not the title? A working title is a great way for you to get the in the zone and once you have narrowed down the specifics of your post, you can go back and refine it.
2. Targeted And Detailed
Okay, so now that you have written your content, go back to the working title and polish the language so that it clearly reflects the message of the blog post. For example, imagine that I started writing this with just “catchy blog titles” as a rough draft. After I sharpened my focus and pared down the content, I went back and reworked the title for accuracy and length. Be sure to use correct terminology and strategic keywords organically.
3. The Long And Short Of It
While you want your title to capture the attention of readers, you also want to be considerate of length. According to marketing research there is an ideal length for every marketing item imaginable, which you can achieve simply. Read and re-read the title. If it is confusing on the first read, it is too wordy, which is not necessarily the same as too long, although you want to avoid that as well. Think concise, as opposed to short—you don’t want it to be vague; shoot for crisp, clear language.
4. Get Sexy
Yup, we mean it. Accurate does not have to equate plain and boring. Writers know how powerful language can be so focus on strong action-oriented words that convey the topic and garner a reaction. I mean who doesn’t want to be a master of catchy blog titles?! And, remember, readers are seeking an answer to a question so guide them with who, why, how, and where. HubSpot offers some great language guidelines.
5. Use A Lifeline
When we are writing blog posts, we can get sucked into a vacuum and lose perspective. Take a step back and look at your title objectively: does it truly tell the reader what they will gain from the post? Don’t feel that you need to go it alone—bounce ideas off of a colleague, or brainstorm with a coworker—sometimes a fresh outlook is all you need to make a huge difference in your success. Test the effectiveness of various headlines by trying different titles with the same content.
We often think that the content of a post is the most important and the headline is just a small component of the blog. In actuality, when it comes to inbound marketing, the headline might be more important in some ways.
On the topic of catchy headlines, writer Jeffrey Goins said this “The same principle applies to blog posts, book chapters, and so on: The title is where your focus should be. You should begin and end every article with the question: “Would this make me want to read on?” Keep this in mind whenever you are writing a blog post or any other marketing collateral.
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