Content marketing is here to stay, with 86% of B2C marketers and 91% of B2B marketers implementing it in their overall marketing strategy. But many companies still don’t have a solid strategy in place for their content marketing, partially because they don’t have the time or knowledge to leverage this powerful growth opportunity for their benefit. Other companies aren’t sure how to make their content go viral. One of the easiest ways to improve your content marketing outcomes is by using effective headlines to improve engagement and sharing of your content. Here’s how to rock your headlines to get more out of your content marketing budget.
Use Engagement-Driving Phrases
Using phrases that peak the reader’s interest drives engagement. This includes phrases like, “will make you,” “can you guess,” “this is why,” or “only # in,” which drive people to discover what’s pushing these results. People are comparative by nature. They want to find out if your content actually will make them do something and whether they know what you know.
Speak to the Reader’s Curiosity
One of the best ways to drive engagement is to engage curiosity. Lists are popular because people want to know if it’s the same list they have in their head. Asking questions makes them wonder whether you have the same answers that they do. Ask questions, make lists and give readers the opportunity to compare their results to yours to keep them clicking on your headlines.
Count Lists by Fives
Maybe it’s because we have five fingers or five toes on each hand or foot. Maybe it’s because a lot of our money is counted by increments of five. Whatever the reason, lists that are multiples of five are the most likely to be clicked, with ten being the magic number that tops the charts, followed by five, fifteen and twenty rounding out the top five. The only non-five multiple in the top five? Lucky seven.
Use Spicy Words
You don’t want to read another boring article about how a diet high in fruits and vegetables and low in calories helps you lose weight, right? But if the headline is discussing exotic tropical fruits that help you drop that post-college desk-career weight gain, it’s a lot more interesting, right? Take the time to consider your word choice and add some sparkle to your terminology to entice more clicks.
Keep it Under 70
Generally speaking, Google starts cutting off your character count at about 70 characters, even though the most clickable Facebook headlines are between 65-95 characters. Combined with an average word count of 12-18 words, you’re going to need to pack a lot of words into a very small space. Dig out your thesaurus to find shorter words that still convey your meaning effectively.
By keeping these simple tips in mind, you can quickly turn your underperforming content into platform-busting rock stars. But don’t go it alone! Outsourcing is becoming a popular way for companies to focus on what they do best, with 56% of B2B and 62% of B2C companies outsourcing some portion of their content creation and marketing process. WriterAccess can help. Please feel free to contact us today to get started.
Cathleen V is a multi-talented writer with extensive knowledge in a wide variety of areas. As a top 1% content writer out of over 22,000 on another site she writes on and with excellent feedback on Writer Access, she has a finger on the pulse of what’s trending on SEO and the internet today; as a reliable, intelligent, creative writer, she can fulfill your needs now and in the future!
