Create Headlines To Entice Readers

Create Headlines With The Reader In Mind

Recently I found myself stopping and staring into the windows of the local bakery. I marveled at the hand woven baskets overflowing with fresh baked bread, rolls and croissants, but it was the cakes that caught my attention on a deeper level. There must have been a dozen assorted sized cakes each sitting on it’s own crystal pedestal and each cake had a different type of frosting layered on so thickly I imagined sledding down the sweet mountains and peaks of frosting delight.

My first reaction to seeing those cakes was to stop and stare, my second reaction was an emotional one of wanting to know more about not just the wonderful cakes but also know more about who created them, a connection was developing before I even opened the bakery’s door. I was hooked by the blueberry and raspberry swirls mesmerized by many colored stripes and shapes embedded in chocolate, coffee, vanilla, marbled and lemon frosting.

No two cakes in those welcoming windows had the same frosting, I reached out for the door handle and went in, and I’m not sure I’ll ever leave, at least in my mind that is. 🙂

Connecting: Creating Headlines With Frosting A Cake

The Frosting on a cake does many jobs but it’s first and arguably its most important job is to entice people into eating the cake, the job of a headline is to entice people into reading, watching or listening to your content. Just like the cakes in the window I wrote about above, if a headline is doing its job it will engage you into consuming more of the media being presented. Remember, 8 out of 10 people will read the headline but only 2 out of 10 will read, watch or listen to what you are offering to them.

If you want someone to rush to buy and eat your cake you need to be creative with your frosting technique and if you want to up the number of people interacting with your content you need to be creative with your headline writing, it needs to pop.

The Purpose of a Great Headline is the Same As Frosting on a Cake - Enticing Someone Click To Tweet

Start Here

(1 Always create the headline before you create your blog, video or podcast. Creating the headline gives you a touchstone to guide you and something you can refer to as you create your great content. Having the headline front and center helps you stay on course and not wander off the subject.

When someone reads your headline and decides (in under 2 seconds) to delve deeper into what you’ve created they expect it to be about what the headline promises, they expect in return for their time you’ll deliver content that is unique, useful and to the point. If instead you deliver something other than what the headline promises trust is lost and they’ll not return.

Write your headline first and stick to it from start to finish.