Give Me 5 Minutes And I Will Get Readers To Your Blog
By Rob Wright, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader
Follow Me On Twitter @RfwrightLSL
By Rob Wright
If you want readers to show up and read your life science executive blog, you need a good title, what publishers refer to as a “headline.” Even I have managed to screw this up, having taken the time to write something compelling, but not creating a headline which grabs folk’s attention. For example, I once created a podcast series and I titled it, Company Name, Podcast Series. Nice, huh? Grabbed you, I bet. Listen, the headline has a single primary goal: To get the reader to read the first line of your post. Generally speaking, 8 of 10 people will read an article headline. But, only 2 of 10 people will then start to read the article.
You could have written the best blog ever – EVER – but few people will even start reading it if your headline is lackluster. Here’s an extremely common scenario: You have a great idea for a blog post. You spend significant time writing and polishing it. You couldn’t be more proud. And, then you spend five minutes – max – slapping together a headline. With a half-hearted headline choice, no one is going to even read it. Here’s a tip kids, instead of writing your blog post and then creating the headline, do the opposite. Start with your headline and then write your blog post. Your writing will be more focused and deliver on what the headline promises.
Actions Of Successful Headlines
There are not an infinite number of successful headline types. There are, in fact, a handful of time-tested headline styles and formulas that work. All successful headlines do one of the following actions:
- Say it simply and directly
- State the big benefit
- Announce exciting news
- Appeal to the “How-to” instinct
- Pose a provocative question
- Bark a command
- Offer useful information – “List”
- Relay an honest, enthusiastic testimonial
Using these eight styles, you can construct a series of headline templates that can be used when developing headlines for your blog. Two of the most popular headline templates are “How To” “List.” There are a variety of other examples, but consider the following sage advice - IF YOU’RE NOT GOING TO TAKE THE TIME TO WRITE A GOOD HEADLINE, THEN DON’T EVEN WRITE THE BLOG POST!