8 Tips for Creating Headlines That Increase Conversions

As a business owner and/or marketer, you should always look for ways to increase your conversions. A higher conversion rate directly affects your return on investment. This means that you’ll be spending less on acquiring new customers.

Improving your headline copy is one of the best and simplest ways to improve your conversion rates. The headline is the first thing that your readers see, and it hugely affects their decision to click on the article. It should be clear, concise, and intriguing enough to capture your audience’s attention.

Powerful headlines shouldn’t just be applied to blog posts. You should also focus on creating captivating headline subjects for the following:

• Search engine meta tags. Meta descriptions or meta tags are excerpts of text that show the readers a sneak peek of the full content. This should give your reader a gist of the whole article, so you should make sure that it captures their attention.
• Email subject lines. Your email subject headline should be interesting enough for your subscribers to feel inclined to open the email.
• Product names. Creating inviting headlines for your product names should be on your top list, especially if you own an eCommerce site. Avoid making it too long and just focus on including the most important keywords.
• Article titles. Your article headlines should describe what the article is all about. It should be at around 50 – 60 characters and rich in relevant keywords.
• Subheadings. Adding subheadings to your articles can help your readers understand what they can gain from reading each paragraph. It also helps keep your blog post look organized. Subheadings should be at around 10 words or less.

Create Different Variations

Practice makes perfect, and this applies to writing headlines, too. Consider writing eight to ten headlines for each article. Creating more will help stimulate your brain, which will help you become more creative as you write.

Additionally, you can still keep these headlines for future use. You’ll need different variations for each channel that you’ll be posting on. Using a variety of headlines on your emails, social media posts, and meta tags increase the likelihood of your target market stumbling upon your post, as it helps improve the SEO.

Using different headlines will also give you the chance to test out which ones will get the most clicks. You can use this information when coming up with headlines for your future posts.

Include Relevant Keywords

Your headline should contain relevant and high-performing keywords. This will make it easier for your target market to find the article. Not only this, but your blog post will also have a higher chance of ranking better in search results.

It is a must to perform proper keyword research before writing your headline and article. You should avoid using certain words that can cause people to abandon the post. Marketing Insider Group found that there is a 59% drop in click-through rates for articles that have the words “secret, amazing, best, and simple” in their titles. The reason behind this is that too many articles that are clickbait use these words in their titles.

Perform keyword searches on websites such as Ubersuggest or Google Keyword Planner. Once you’ve got the keywords that you want to use on your headline, it’s time to optimize them.

• Use the keyword/s at the beginning of the headline. There is a higher chance that your article will be placed higher in search engine results if you include them at the beginning of the title. Google and other search engines tend to “trust” headlines with better keyword placement.
• Don’t force it. Do not force the inclusion of keywords in the title just for the sake of it. Your headline should sound natural and professionally written, or else people will think that your content is just spam.
• Always double-check your headlines. Your title should be free of spelling and grammar mistakes. Not only will your readers get turned off by this, but they will also think that a bot wrote it or that you don’t put enough effort into the content that you put out.

Use Numbers on Your Headlines

There is a study that headlines with numbers perform better than those that just contain words. They are easier to read, plus, it helps draw attention to the post. Readers will know what they should expect and how long the article will be if they see a number in the headline.

Additionally, you can also include numbers in your subheadings. Most readers only skim through the entire post looking for things that they are interested in reading. Without subheadings and numbers, it can be straining to the eyes of the reader to find bits of information that they would want to read. This can lead to them abandoning the post altogether and finding one that is structured better.

Avoid Writing a Lengthy Headline

Your headline should only contain the keywords and a few words to support it. Your post might get flagged by search engines if the headline is too long. However, it should not be too short, either, as a vague title can confuse your readers.

Think of it this way: your headline should be a snippet of the most descriptive sentence in your article. Here are some important headline lengths to remember for different platforms and posts:

• Google+ headlines should contain 60 characters or less.
• Headlines, in general, should contain about 6 words.
• Email subject lines should have 28 – 37 characters.
• The title tags should have about 55 characters.
• Facebook headlines do well with about 40 characters.
• LinkedIn headlines should usually have 80-120 characters.
• Headlines on Twitter should contain 70-100 characters.

Take a look at your current headlines and see which ones are not getting clicks. Consider changing the headline’s length, as this can be the culprit. However, you still have to consider other factors listed in this article.

Consider Asking a Question

Turning your headline into a question can help pique your customers’ interests. You are encouraging your audience to think about the answer, and most likely, they will click on the entire article to find out.

Come up with a question that your readers could not answer easily. They should be curious enough to want to know the answer to the question, which will lead them to click on the article. Additionally, you should also avoid using questions that are answerable by a yes or no. These types of questions are easy to answer, and might not encourage your target market to read further.

Know what your customers are searching for and what they need answers to. Read blog and video comments, both on your own posts and your competitors’. See what they are asking and create content based on that. Take relevant and high-performing keywords and use those to create powerful headlines.

Test and Analyze Your Titles

Testing your titles is a surefire way to know that your titles will generate clicks and eventually increase conversions. Conducting separate tests for each headline that you are using on different platforms is a must.

Here are some tools that you can use to make testing faster and easier for you:

• A lot of email marketing software has built-in A/B testing. By doing this, you can compare which headlines will get better click-through and open rates. Here are some tools that you can use to test email subject lines.
• Some WordPress plugins allow users to test headlines. You can search for some free or paid WP plugins that you can use to test your headlines.
• Buffer’s built-in analytics allows its users to check how their social media posts performed. Focus on the click and see which ones have caught people’s attention.

Your Headline Should Match Your Advertisements

Your headline should not only match your content, but it should also relate to your advertisements. You are using your titles to increase your conversions and thus, earning your customer’s trust is a vital part of this process. Do not use a misleading headline just for the sake of increasing your conversion rate.

Additionally, your ads should be directly linked to a landing page, complete with a headline that is specifically tailored to the advertisement.

Offer a Solution to Their Problem

Most of your readers are looking for answers to their questions and issues regarding the industry that you are in. Encourage them to click on the blog post by offering a solution to their worries early on.

Find your customers’ pain points and focus on providing a solution. However, the headline should contain just a snippet of the solution and not the entirety of it. Here are a few examples of this headline formula:

1. “Get Rid of Annoying Pop-Ups by Following These Things”
2. “Adapt These Practices to Avoid Procrastinating”
3. “Apply These Tips to Get Rid of Insomnia”

This helps them realize that you acknowledge their concerns and that you are willing to solve them. Tell people what they want to hear in a straightforward manner. Sometimes, all it takes is a simple and honest headline to get people to click.

Conclusion

Understanding your audience and applying best practices is the key to writing headlines that help increase conversions. You can’t force people to click on your posts, but you can entice them to do so by just applying these pointers to your routine.