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Blogging 101: Secrets to Crafting a Compelling Headline · The Daily Writer

0:01
SPEAKER_00: Tell me if you've ever faced this situation.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: You've written an amazing blog post or article, but when it comes to the title, you get a little bit stuck.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: How can you craft a compelling headline that will grab someone's attention and keep them reading?
0:15
SPEAKER_00: That's the question we're going to explore today.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks so much for joining me on this episode of the Smart Business Writing Podcast.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: My name is Kent Sanders, and I'm a ghostwriter and professor of communications.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: This is the show that helps you write amazing content so you can save time, stand out from the competition, and get more leads that turn into customers or clients.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: Well, this is part two of a series that I'm doing here on the podcast called Blogging 101.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: In the first episode, we looked at seven ways that blogging improves your writing and your business.
0:47
SPEAKER_00: And in this episode, we'll begin to dive into the nitty-gritty of the elements of a blog post.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: And this is the stuff that I really love because I want to show you that blogging is really all about following proven techniques for structuring content and ideas.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: Now, a lot of the stuff that we're talking about in this series also applies to things like writing books, uh, it applies to writing emails, social media content, and other kinds of marketing stuff.
1:14
SPEAKER_00: But specifically, we're talking about blogging because if you listen to the last episode, you were you'll remember that I mentioned how blog posts are kind of the hub for a lot of other things.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: I think blog posts are they're great because they're not too short, they're not too long, and you can expand those or condense those according to whatever else, whatever else it is that you're writing.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: So I really, really love blog posts.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: And if you haven't listened to part one, go back and listen to that because that forms kind of the foundation of everything else that we're gonna be talking about in this blogging 101 series.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: Well, today we're gonna be diving into one of my very favorite topics when it comes to blogging, which is the topic of headlines.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: Now, headlines are also called titles, but I'm gonna use the term headlines here because really what we're talking about is are some copywriting principles.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: And when it comes to copywriting, headlines is the preferred term that you're gonna hear in the copywriting world.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: Now, copywriting is all about persuasion and trying to move the reader to take action.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, that's what we're trying to do with our writing.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to persuade the reader to take action.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: I mean, is there really any other reason to be writing if we don't want to persuade people?
2:27
SPEAKER_00: Even if we're writing just to inform someone of a topic, we still want them to do something with that information.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: So ultimately, all writing and all communication is about persuasion.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: It's about trying to change something or affect some kind of situation.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: Or in our case, we're doing it because we want our reader to take action on something, even if it's just giving them something to think about or changing their mind about an issue.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: Uh it still really comes down to persuasion.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: So let's dive into this topic of headlines because this is this is kind of where the rubber meets the road with copywriting and content.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: And I gotta be honest with you, I really geek out about this kind of stuff.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: So hopefully you're along with me for this ride.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: So let's go.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: Headlines are one of the most important elements of any blog post or article.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: And some people might say that they're the most important thing.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: And the reason they say that is because if you don't grab the reader's attention from the beginning, they're not gonna keep reading.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: So a headline is critical.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: It's vital in the sense of if you don't have a good headline, they're not gonna read the rest of what you write.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: So that's why when it comes to like book titles, you know, the title is so critical when it comes to movie titles.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: The title is so critical.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: And it's the same thing with blog posts and frankly anything else that we write, including email headlines.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: Those headlines, those titles are critical because that's what gets the reader or the watcher or the listener in the door.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: Now, the flip side of that is that headlines are also one of the most mysterious elements of copywriting.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: What makes a good headline and how do you grab a reader's attention?
4:03
SPEAKER_00: Those are questions that we really have to explore because those are so critical.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: Well, the good news is that it doesn't have to stay a mystery.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: Being able to grab a reader's attention is not necessarily some voodoo or witchcraft copywriting stuff that's out there.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: It's very much a learned skill that you can reverse engineer.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: Now, one thing to understand, and this is where I geek out a little bit about this, is that there is a whole industry devoted to this kind of thing.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: And this is really just called the copywriting world.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: As I and I already have referenced copywriting a couple times.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: There's a vast number of workshops, books, courses, and training programs that you can go through that will help you to understand reader psychology and how to persuade people with words.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: So understand that there's a whole science and industry devoted to this stuff.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: And obviously, we're not going to cover all that on this brief episode here today.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: So, what I'm going to do is give you the Cliff's Notes version of writing headlines.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: And this is kind of the way that I see writing headlines.
5:06
SPEAKER_00: If you talk to other marketing people, writing people, copywriting people, they're probably going to give you different formulas and different ways of doing this.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: And that's all okay.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I encourage you to do that.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: I absolutely encourage you to get some good copywriting books and study the craft of writing and persuasion through words because it will absolutely pay off.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the best investments of time that you can honestly make is learning to persuade people with your words.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: But on this on this short episode, I want to just give you a very brief uh template that you can use and some very strategic and simple tips that you can use to start putting this into practice right away.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: And what we're going to do is look at three key elements of a great headline.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: And those key elements are the goal of the headline, the type of headline, and the hooks that you're using in the headline.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: So let's start out with key element number one, which is the goal of the headline.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: And here we're we're asking the question: what are you trying to accomplish with your headline?
6:08
SPEAKER_00: What is it that you want to do?
6:09
SPEAKER_00: What's the purpose of your headline?
6:12
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a very simple answer because you only really have two options for the goal of your headline.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: And these two options come from the only two motivations that we have as human beings avoiding pain and seeking pleasure.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: So in your headline, are you trying to eliminate a pain point or a problem for the reader?
6:36
SPEAKER_00: Or are you trying to give the reader pleasure or happiness on some level?
6:41
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you want a bunch of great examples of this, just look at any magazine on a newsstand or in the grocery store or Walmart or Target, wherever it is that you see your magazines.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: Every single headline on those magazines, on the on the cover of the magazine, they're trying to do one of those two things.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: They're trying to help you, they're they're trying to give you some kind of pleasure or happiness, or they're trying to help you avoid pain or solve a problem of some kind.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: So anytime that you see a magazine from, let's say, Oprah magazine, good housekeeping, readers digest, men's health, cosmopolitan, vanity fair, people, us, whatever magazine you see, those are all created by professionals who are very, very good at their jobs and they know how to persuade people.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: So every single headline that you see on those magazine covers is going to be designed to help you avoid pain or give you pleasure of some kind.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: Let's dive into this element of these elements of pain and pleasure a little bit deeper because this is really, really fascinating.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: And I think once you see this principle at work in everyday life, you can't unsee it.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like, you know, like the matrix a little bit.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: Like once you see what's actually there, then you can't unsee it, and you begin to see everything through this lens, especially anything to do with marketing or advertising.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: And the cool thing is that you can begin to use this in your own communication, which is even better.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: Let's dive into this element of helping people avoid pain.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: Most blog posts or articles that you will write, I think will fall into this category because most nonfiction is all about trying to help the readers solve a problem or or do away with the pain point they have in their life.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: Okay, for example, uh, here are some headlines from the covers of several men's health magazines.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to give a little disclaimer here.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I used to subscribe to Men's Health magazine uh probably eight or ten years ago.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: For a couple years, I subscribed to it.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: Now, nobody would accuse me of being a reader and practicer of Men's Health magazine.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: Like they would look at me and go, Kent Sanders, I would never peg you as a subscriber to men's health.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: And that's totally true because there's there's no correlation between me and the guys you see in men's health.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: They're like all buff and fit and you know, lifting these huge weights and all that stuff.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: That's that's not me.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: It should be me.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: But um that's probably in another fantasy movie or something.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I'd I'm giving you this example of men's health magazine because it's just what came to mind off the top of my head.
9:16
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm not like a big men's health buff or anything.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, here are some examples of headlines.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: I just Googled Men's Health magazine just a bit ago, and uh here are three or four headlines from Men's Health.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: Fit at any age, burn fat fast, gym-free abs, build big arms fast.
9:39
SPEAKER_00: Okay, those are all headlines that are solving a problem and they're making a promise that you'll get something.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: For example, uh, if you're a guy my age, okay, I'm 46.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: If I read that headline, fit at any age, I would go, oh, hey, I can be fit at 46.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: And I think of my dad who's in his 70s, and I go, hey, my dad could be fit in his 70s.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: Of course, the headline burn fat fast is great because that's solving a problem that we all feel, which is, hey, I'd like to burn more fat.
10:08
SPEAKER_00: How can I do it faster?
10:10
SPEAKER_00: So you kind of see how this works.
10:12
SPEAKER_00: It's actually very simple.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: It's solving a problem that people have.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the title of this podcast episode is very much trying to solve a pain point.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: Um, the title of this podcast episode is Secrets to Crafting a Compelling Headline.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to solve the problem that you have as a writer of crafting a good headline.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: So even the very most in fact, most of the titles that I have for my podcast episodes are dealing with a pain of some kind.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: That's what that's what most nonfiction does.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: It's trying to help people solve a problem of some kind.
10:45
SPEAKER_00: So that's the pain element.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at the flip side of that, which is the pleasure element.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: Gossip magazines like People, Us Weekly, and those kinds of magazines, they're built on this because they use headlines that ask a question or they provoke your curiosity.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: And in that sense, whenever people, you know, the whole kind of sensationalist side of journalism, that's very much built on giving people pleasure because they think they're getting an inside scoop on something.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: You know, people love gossip, people love to talk about other people, they love celebrity gossip, and those headlines are designed to entice the reader and to provoke their curiosity and give them pleasure in that sense because they feel like they're they're getting the inside scoop on, you know, will Brad and Jennifer stay together.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's probably a super dated reference, but anyway, that's what came to mind just now.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: So now the most obvious headline, and I I can't avoid this because it's such an obvious one.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the most obvious headline and one that always works with human psychology is a headline about, you guessed it, sex.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: Just Google any Cosmo cover, Cosmo meaning cosmopolitan.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: You can Google any cosmopolitan cover and you'll see what I mean.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: Those kinds of headlines are promising a pleasure or happiness of some kind.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: Now, before we move on to key element number two, I want to dive into a concept.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: I want to throw something out there just to give you some food for thought, um, breaking down this concept of pain and pleasure just a little bit more.
12:15
SPEAKER_00: And this is the concept that I call the five primal urges.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: This is not original with me by any stretch, uh, but these are these are things that drive our human behavior.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: Anything that we do as humans can probably be traced back to these five primal urges.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: And I call them primal urges because they're they're baked into our psychology.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: They're hardwired into why we do what we do as human beings, okay?
12:40
SPEAKER_00: And this is important because once we get a grip on why people do what they do, then we can write headlines that appeal to those urges, thereby hooking the reader and enticing them to read what we're writing.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
12:52
SPEAKER_00: Here are the five primal urges: they are survival, hunger, sex, protection of loved ones, and the fear of death.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: Everything that we do as humans really comes down to those five things.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: Now, let's take, for example, the headline from uh men's health that I mentioned a couple minutes ago, which is build big arms fast.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: Okay, if you see that headline, build big arms fast, how does that relate to those primal urges?
13:21
SPEAKER_00: Well, big arms, okay, now remember men's health is appealing to generally that's appealing to alpha males or males who want to be an alpha male.
13:30
SPEAKER_00: Big arms are a status thing, so that's appealing to guys who want to have the status of the alpha male within the tribe.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we're, you know, we we have social media, we're all hyper connected today, but remember that we still have kind of a tribal mentality as humans.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: Uh, big arms relates to status, it relates to sex appeal, it relates to having longer life because it gives the appearance of being healthier.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: Uh if you're strong, that relates to the protection of loved ones and you know, staving off death because you're stronger than wild animals, those kinds of things.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: So, in that sense, you know, build big arms fast really relates to several primal urges that a man would have.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: Now, you might think that, okay, a headline about build big arms fast is kind of unsophisticated.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: You know, many of us writers, we kind of like sophistication, and we would look at that and go, what kind of a dumb guy would buy a magazine because they want to get bigger arms?
14:28
SPEAKER_00: Well, the answer is a lot of guys, because that's just the point is that we don't have to be sophisticated whenever we're writing these headlines and whenever we're trying to persuade others.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: Remember that everything you write needs to appeal to at least one of those primal urges that we have as human beings.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: Again, it goes back to survival, hunger, sex, protection of loved ones, and fear of death.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's really what it really comes down to.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: So don't overcomplicate this thing.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: People are basically very, very simple.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: We just want those five things.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: We want to survive, we want to eat, um, we want sex.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: You know, I get that's not a topic I talk about in this podcast, but I mean, let's face it, that's a human urge that we have.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: It's a human desire.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: That's why industries related to that are so massive.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: We want to protect our loved ones and we want to avoid death and the pain associated with death.
15:21
SPEAKER_00: So think about the goal of your headline.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: What are you trying to accomplish?
15:24
SPEAKER_00: Are you trying to help people avoid pain or seek pleasure?
15:27
SPEAKER_00: And how does your headline relate to those five primal urges that we talked about?
15:33
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's dive into element number two, which is the type of headline.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about the goal of your headline.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: What's the type of headline?
15:40
SPEAKER_00: Now, again, there's a whole science devoted to psychology and copy editing, but let me give you four very reliable types of headlines.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and this is actually what I do.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: So this is what I do in practice, to be honest with you.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just kind of giving you the goods here, what I what I use whenever I write stuff.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: Okay, there's four types of headlines, and your headline is going to be at least one of these.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it can be two of these if if you do a mix of these, but it's going to be one of these four, probably.
16:10
SPEAKER_00: Number one is a provocative question.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: And this is what gossip magazines use a lot.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: For example, will William and Kate leave the royal family?
16:19
SPEAKER_00: I guess it wasn't William and Kate, it was um Megan and Harry.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, I don't know a lot about the royal family stuff, but you know, a headline would be, will Megan and Harry leave the royal the royal family.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: I can't say royal.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: Are they gonna leave?
16:31
SPEAKER_00: Are they going to leave the UK and move to the US and make Netflix movies?
16:36
SPEAKER_00: Um, will we survive the pandemic?
16:39
SPEAKER_00: Will Brad and Jennifer stay together?
16:41
SPEAKER_00: Those kinds of headlines.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: Those are asking a provocative question.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: And again, going back to human psychology, understand that whenever you ask a question, that automatically plants a seed in people's minds, regardless of whether or not the person actually did anything.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: Okay, if you go to any news site, if you go to any clickbait article, um they're using this all the time.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: It's constant that they're using this stuff.
17:07
SPEAKER_00: Simply asking a question plants a seed of doubt within people's minds.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: It raises their curio curiosity and they want to keep reading and exploring.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: Now, one thing that you could could do, let's say if you want to use this with writers, I would ask a provocative question like, What if everybody wrote a book?
17:24
SPEAKER_00: Or why don't more people write books?
17:27
SPEAKER_00: Or um what if the movie industry doesn't return?
17:32
SPEAKER_00: What if theaters go broke?
17:34
SPEAKER_00: What if everything goes to streaming?
17:38
SPEAKER_00: And those are just off the top of my head.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: But this this provocative question type of headline can really be helpful because again, it makes their reader curious.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: So type of headline number one, provocative question.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: Number two is a list.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: This is very simple and very common.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: Nine ways to do this, five ways to do that, seven secrets to this or that.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: Don't underestimate the power of the list.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: People love lists because we can get through the information really quickly.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: People also love lists of top things or rankings of different things.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: For example, there are there is an untold number of articles and videos on YouTube that rank the Star Wars movies.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: Why is this?
18:20
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's because of people like me who really get into this stuff and and I love to see, hey, did they place Attack of the Clones or the Phantom Menace as the very worst Star Wars movie?
18:30
SPEAKER_00: Um, and of course, it's never a secret what's going to be the best one.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: It's always going to be the Empire Strikes Back.
18:35
SPEAKER_00: Anybody who says otherwise doesn't know anything about Star Wars, I'm just going to put that out there.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: Um it is interesting, it is interesting though.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: Some people will put Rogue One toward the middle of the pack, some people will put it really high.
18:46
SPEAKER_00: I'm interested in that kind of stuff, so I love these endless rankings and lists of Star Wars movies.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: And it's because those posts, those articles, those videos, they're organizing information and talking about information that I care about and that appeals to me.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: And you can do the same thing with whatever topics you're writing about.
19:05
SPEAKER_00: A simple list articles, nine ways, five reasons, seven secrets, whatever it is.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: Um headline, type of headline number three is a how-to headline.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: Again, this is very common, it's very simple, and you can make a how-to headline very powerful by defining who, what, when, or where.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: For example, um if I'm a college professor at my day job, if I wanted to write an article, a how-to article for for professors, I might say how-to grade papers in half the time, or how college professors can grade papers in half the time.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: So that's directed toward a specific audience and it's appealing to a pain point that they have, which is grading takes a lot of time.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: So again, this is not complicated.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: This is not rocket science.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: You're just using these principles to develop these headlines.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: And then headline type number four is story-based.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: Okay, for example, if you had an article titled The Day My Son Came Home from Afghanistan, okay, that would be a great title because it's telling a story of how someone came home.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: People love stories.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: People love a beginning, a middle, and a resolution, an end to a story.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: For some reason, I love watching those YouTube videos where somebody coming home from the military surprises their mother or their wife or their kids.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: Those are addictive.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: And the reason is because we love stories.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: We love to be moved by emotions.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: So you can use those story-based headlines to grab the reader in, but make sure that you're delivering on the promise because if you have a headline that's promising something and you don't deliver, that's really going to tick the reader off.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: So make sure you use the right type of headline and deliver on what you promised in the headline.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: Okay, element number one is uh the goal of your headline.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: Element number two is the type of headline.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: Let's go on to element number three briefly, and that is the headline hooks.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: These are hooks that you can add to your headline to really pull in the reader.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: And there are three specific ones that I like to use.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: Number one is emotional words.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: These are words that evoke an intense pain or pleasure.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: Uh words like crazy, stunning, easy, free, simple, unbelievable, awesome, secret.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: And the list goes on and on and on.
21:29
SPEAKER_00: But use those emotional words to to evoke some kind of intense pain or pleasure within the reader.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: The second hook that you can use is numbers.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: And these are helpful because numbers add specificity to a list.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: And if you can, try to shoot for an odd number.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: And the reason that odd numbers work in lists is because even numbers make us feel subtled, they make us feel complete.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: And odd numbers tend to make us feel unsettled.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: And you want the reader to To feel a little bit unsettled in that title.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: You want them to be more curious.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: You want to provoke them a little bit so that they go, okay, it's 13, it's 5, it's 7, it's 19, whatever it is.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: Now, there are some exceptions to this though, like for example, a top 10 list.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: Or a couple of podcast episodes ago, I had an episode called 20 Lessons I Learned from 200 Podcast Episodes.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: So don't overthink this, but when in doubt, try to go with an odd number in your headline or your title.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: Then the third hook is a time element.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: For example, if you had the headline, lose 10 pounds this month, or if you uh, for example, the title of Tim Ferris's book, The Four-Hour Work Week, that's adding a time element.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: Remember that people are, you know, again, we're going back to human nature and psychology.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: People are fundamentally lazy, and we always want to look for shortcuts and things that are free, cheap, easy, simple.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: They don't require any effort.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: You know, we all want something for nothing.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: That's what our human psychology is at its worst.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: So all things being equal, try to appeal to those things.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: Don't fight human nature, just go with it.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: You know, we all think that we're better than we probably are.
23:16
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, while it's nice to want to appeal to the best in people, the reality is that most of us want things that are simple, they're fast, they're easy.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: So don't fight human nature, just go with the flow with that.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: And I think you'll have a lot more success with your head with your headlines.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: Now, let's put all this together as we begin to wind down this episode in the next few minutes.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: Let's put all this together and look at a few headlines and see how this works in the real world.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, a while back I did some training for my friend Courtney Wisely, who teaches cleaning business owners how to be more successful.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: And I want to share with you a couple of blog post headlines that I wrote as examples for the people in her community.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: Okay, here's one.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: Three easy steps to manage a smelly litter box.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and the goal here was to eliminate the pain of a smelly litter box.
24:08
SPEAKER_00: The type of headline was it's a how-to post.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I didn't say how-to in the title.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: Three easy steps to manage a smelly litter box.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: I didn't say how to, but it's a how-to article.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: It's how to do something.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: I also used a number in that headline, three easy steps.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and the hooks were easy.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: I used the word smelly litter box because you could say litter box, but when you say smelly litter box, every cat owner goes, Oh yeah, the litter box really does stink.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: And the number three is a hook there as well.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: So that headline, three easy steps to manage a smelly litter box, uh, that hits on a number of things that would appeal to someone who had a cat or the litter box was a problem.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: Okay, here's another one that I wrote for Courtney.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: And it says, No time to clean house.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: These five tips will make it a snap.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: The goal of this headline is to eliminate pain.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: Everybody hates cleaning their house.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: So there's a very simple, very common, it's a universal pain point that we all have.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: We hate cleaning.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we're appealing to that pain and we're promising we're going to help solve that pain point for the reader.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: The type of headline is I would say this is a provocative question headline plus a numbered list.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking the question, no time to clean house.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and when I ask that question, no time to clean house, the reader's gonna go, yes, I'm so busy, I don't have time to clean house.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: So if you can get the reader saying yes right away, if you can get them to agree with you right away, that's really, really good because the more you can get them saying yes, the more likely they are going to be, uh the more likely they're gonna take that journey with you, whatever journey you're taking them on.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: And I used a number in that list as uh used a number in that post as well.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: I referred to five tips that will make cleaning house a snap.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: Now I used a couple of hooks in this headline as well.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: Again, the headline is no time to clean house.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: These five tips will make it a snap.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, the hooks that I used were the words snap, which you know, snap just means very quick and easy.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: And also I appealed to the reader's emotions by asking the question, no time to clean house.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: And people would go, yes, I'm so busy.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's an emotional element.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: And also I use the number five.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: Again, you know, the numbers always seem like a little cheap trick, but I use it because it honestly just works.
26:30
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me give you a couple headlines um from recent podcast episodes that I that I shared just over the past probably month or so.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: Okay, here's three three headlines that I used on my podcast.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: Um here's one how to write 300% faster by using dictation.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: How to write 300% faster by using dictation.
26:53
SPEAKER_00: The goal of this was to eliminate pain.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: Okay, all writers relate to the idea of they they want to write faster, they want to get more done and be more productive.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: So I'm appealing to that pain point by showing them how they can write faster.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: The type of headline was a how to.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: Literally, the headline says how to write faster, how to write 300% faster.
27:15
SPEAKER_00: And the hooks were 300%.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's a very specific number.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: That's a hook that draws the reader in, and also the word faster.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: Every writer wants to be faster.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: So that headline, how to write 300% faster by using dictation, contains a number of elements that will hook the reader and help draw them in.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: Uh, let's do one more quick one here.
27:40
SPEAKER_00: This is one from a few weeks ago called The Introvert's Guide to Networking.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: The Introvert's Guide to Networking.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: The goal of this episode was to eliminate the pain that introverts feel when they try to network.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: It's a very common thing.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: They hate going to networking meetings, they maybe don't feel like they're that good with relationships and all those kinds of things.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: So I'm eliminate I'm eliminating the pain point or I'm addressing it that introverts feel whenever they try to network.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: The type of headline is a how-to headline.
28:11
SPEAKER_00: Again, I didn't use the word how-to in that headline, but that's very much a how-to type of headline.
28:19
SPEAKER_00: And then the hooks that I used, I just simply use the word introvert because introverts love reading about introverts.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why that is.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: I think because introverts like to study, we like to analyze and process things, we like to investigate, uh, particularly if you're like an Enneagram 5 type of personality.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's kind of a very meta thing here.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: Introverts love reading about introverts.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: So that's why I included that in the title because if you're an introvert and you read that, you would go, oh man, he knows exactly what I'm going through.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: And that, my friends, is really what it comes down to is that whenever you write these headlines, you want the reader to think that you have gotten into their head, that you know what they're thinking and feeling, and that you can somehow address whatever problem that they're having.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: That's really what it all comes down to is communication.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: That's what good communication is.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: You want to put yourself in the shoes of your reader and imagine what they feel like and then use words, uh, use these techniques that I'm teaching you in this episode to then help them to read so that they can have a better life, or you can help solve their problem.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: This isn't just about hooking people in.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: This is about serving people.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: If you can hook the person and get them to read, then they will experience whatever life change you're throwing at them in your blog post or your book or your podcast or article or your email, whatever it is.
29:41
SPEAKER_00: But you've got to hook them first.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: We're doing this not because we want to be self-serving.
29:46
SPEAKER_00: We're doing this because we care about readers.
29:49
SPEAKER_00: We want the best for them.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: We want them to have, we want them to make more money.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: We want them to be more successful, we want them to have a better life, we want them to be more fulfilled.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: Whatever we're trying to help them do, that's the whole goal of this copywriting stuff.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: Is not to make ourselves some, you know, it's not to try to be some clever psychologist who is like trying to manipulate people.
30:12
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no, no.
30:13
SPEAKER_00: We're not doing that.
30:14
SPEAKER_00: We're doing this because we care about people.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: We love people and we want the best for them.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, you know, to help people, you've got to pull them and you've got to convince them a little bit.
30:25
SPEAKER_00: And that's what this copywriting stuff is ultimately all about.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: Well, those are some examples.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: Uh I could use many, many more examples of headlines, but you get the point of all this.
30:35
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want to encourage you to do because I've given you a lot of, this has been a very dense episode.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: I've given you a lot of stuff here.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: So I encourage you to do a couple things.
30:44
SPEAKER_00: Number one, go back and listen to this episode because there's a lot of stuff here.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: Also, I want to encourage you to write five or ten headlines for every podcast or blog post or article that you create.
30:58
SPEAKER_00: Don't just write one and be done with it.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: Write five or ten and use some of these different techniques that I'm talking about here.
31:06
SPEAKER_00: That will really help you to get more practice.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: You can do this, you can get better at it.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm better at it than I used to be.
31:13
SPEAKER_00: I still have a long way to go.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: But because I've done a lot of this, I have improved over time, and you can as well.
31:19
SPEAKER_00: I also want to encourage you to check out uh magazines and popular blogs and borrow their headline structures.
31:27
SPEAKER_00: There is not a single original headline format that you're going to find anywhere.
31:31
SPEAKER_00: It's because we're all borrowing ideas from each other.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: So take what works and use those for your own stuff.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: Then finally, I want to encourage you to check out a great tool called the Co-Schedule Headline Analyzer.
31:46
SPEAKER_00: That is a tool created by the good folks at Co-Schedule, which is uh like a blog scheduling thing.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: It does a lot more than that.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I will put a link to that in the show notes.
31:58
SPEAKER_00: That is where you can put your headline in and it analyzes like the length of it.
32:01
SPEAKER_00: It tells you how to improve it, it tells you how many common words there are in your headline, how many, what type of posts it is, how many power words it has.
32:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's really, really a helpful tool.
32:12
SPEAKER_00: So look at the show notes for that.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: I will have a link to that.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: All right.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for hanging in there with me on this episode.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: This has been kind of a long one, but man, I get excited about this stuff.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: I love, love, love headlines and reader psychology.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: So I hope this has been helpful.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you listening.
32:28
SPEAKER_00: As always, you can find lots more resources for writers at KentSanders.net.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: And until next time, remember that your writing has the power to change people's lives.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: I'll see you in the next episode.