The B2B SaaS Marketing Blog

Writing Clickable Headlines: An Easy 3-Step Formula

by 

Jennifer Caughey

Last updated: July 28th, 2014

In the world of Content Marketing writing a great headline is equivalent to gold.  First impressions count in everything you do.  Without a great headline, your readers just won’t click!  If your audience doesn’t click, there goes your online presence down the drain.  This is why writing timeless clickable headlines is the only first impression you would want to make!

Successful content is what drives a businesses success, so this is a must read article!  By the time you finish reading this article you will be able to apply this fail-safe formula to every piece of content you write and bathe in the end results.

The headline of an article is what captures a readers attention.  If they are intrigued they will click on the headline and if they click the headline they may even read your whole article.  Hey, maybe they will even “Like” it and “Share” it if your lucky!

Every successful headline should get an 80 % click-rate, now isn’t this an interesting factoid? There is only one catch, every successful strategy needs a successful, timeless formula.

3-Step Formula for Writing Headlines

Writing a great headline takes critical skill.  With this timeless 3-step formula, novice and advanced writers can create captivating headlines:

• Write your headline first, then your content last
• Include names and keyword in your headline
• Find fresh angles and think outside the box, but be as specific as possible

This is the fail-safe plan and in my opinion everyone who uses this is a superstar!

Step 1:  Write Your Headline First

If you chose to write your content and develop your headline after you are done writing your article, I don’t recommend this.  This can create to too many ideas and concepts.  Whatever you do, don’t forget to wrap your headline in H1 tags.  This can open up a whole other can of worms and we don’t want to go there! By developing your headline first this will:

• Give you a great base concept of what you are going to write about
• Make it easier to pull your thoughts together
• Make your content flow freely and smoothly
• Optimize your headline and make your content “Pop”

These are 4 great reasons why your headline should be on the top of your content writing to-do list.

Step 2:  Including Names & Keywords

Including names and keywords is definitely an important part of this 3-step formula.  Using your keywords properly also plays an important role in this process. It’s simple, if you are writing about a person, include their name.  If you are writing about a business, include the business and maybe even the brand.

For a specific topic, such as “Content Marketing” you would include this too, especially if this is a keyword you want to rank for. Keywords should always be used once in your headline and at least twice more in your article.  This is how you will be found, by optimizing the use of your keywords.

It must be a thing of curiosity, most people become curious about the success behind Content Marketing and SEO and the things that actually work within this industry.

Step 3:  Find Fresh Angles & Think Outside the Box

The worse thing any writer can do is write about a popular topic taking the same approach as hundreds of others, who wrote about the same topic.  You want to make your headline unique and view the topic like “Star Trek – where no man has gone before”.  When all else fails you can always check out my favorite tools and resources:

1. Authority Blogger: 102 Headline Writing Formulas
2. Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer
3. Inbound Writer

Creating a optimized headline is not as easy as it looks.  You have the chance to create golden opportunities and be the driving force behind the success of your business.  So make yourself be found.  You can easily become the most-clicked author on the web, simply because of your amazing ability to write a stellar headline.  Which will definitely not hurt your business, that’s for sure!

If applying my 3-step formula and using some of these great tools and resources doesn’t help you, maybe only the experts can.  If you still aren’t getting the results you so desire, you can contact us for a free 25-minute marketing assessment. This is something you may just have to let the pros handle for you.