lazy blog headlines

I got lazy with one of my recent blog posts. The headline was pure crap and my brother-in-law subtly and whitily called me out on it. It was a valuable lesson that I shared with my subscribers this week.

Tip Jar: The Price of a Free Lunch

[nonmember]The Inbound Marketing Inquirer is free to view for members. Create a free account:

[register_inquirers (free)][/nonmember]

[ismember]

The Tip Jar is a mea culpa about my own laziness. No, not laziness because I took a week off for Easter weekend. This was headline laziness and my brother-in-law called me out on it!

I wrote a blog post titled Inbound Marketing Is a Marathon, Not a Sprint. When I posted it to my Facebook wall, here’s the response I saw:

headline_cliche

I immediately hanged my head in shame. I got lazy with my headline. But it’s worse than getting lazy. I relied on a cliché! So I figured this would be a good opportunity to revisit the purpose of a headline how to craft an effective one.

The Purpose

It may seem silly to talk about the purpose of a headline. We all know what the purpose of a headline is, right? I mean, what kind of a blog-challenged marketer would either not know or forget that the purpose of a headline is to create curiosity?

That would be me.

My lazy headline made a statement. It didn’t ask a question. But worse than that, it relied on an overused cliché to make its point. People probably read it and either didn’t think much of it or said to themselves, “Yup. I completely agree.” Yawn. No curiosity. No reason to click through.

The Consequences

The metrics don’t lie. Let’s compare the numbers between two blog posts. Two weeks ago, I published Social Media Just Took a Body Blow. The article had over 200 reads in a couple of days and lots of social “pin action.” My lazy headline post had 9.

The 80/20 rule of headlines tells us that we’re already fighting an uphill battle when it comes to blogging. 80 percent of readers will only read the headline(s) and not the copy. When your headline stinks, that number is going to be even lower.

The Lessons

Let’s get back to basics for a minute and see if we can craft a better version. The copywriting trainers at American Writers & Artists teach The Four U’s approach to writing headlines:

Headlines, subheads and bullets should:

  1. Be USEFUL to the reader,
  2. Provide him with a sense of URGENCY,
  3. Convey the idea that the main benefit is somehow UNIQUE; and
  4. Do all of the above in an ULTRA-SPECIFIC way.

Was the headline useful? I would argue that clichés are rarely useful because they have such low impact. Was it urgent? Certainly not. Was it unique? Again, the very definition of cliché means it is not unique. And was it ultra-specific? Nope.

So now, if I were to rewrite the headline taking these into consideration, I would do something like this:

  1. Useful: I would offer something in the headline so the reader gets a hint at a payoff. “The Benefits of Patience in Inbound Marketing”
  2. Urgency: This means utilizing a deadline or instilling a sense of fear. We can build on the previous version by flipping it around. “Impatience and Inbound Marketing Don’t Mix”
  3. Uniqueness: One of the retweets for my blog article included the statement, “like all marketing.” That was an indictment of its commonness. We can make it more unique by creating some mystery and intrigue. “Impatience: The Saboteur of Inbound Marketing”
  4. Ultra-specific: One trick for making things specific is to personalize them. How can you get any more unique than that? “Are You Sabotaging Your Inbound Marketing With Impatience?”

The Verdict

Which of these would be more likely to cause you to click through?

  • Inbound marketing is a marathon, not a sprint.
  • Are you sabotaging your inbound marketing with impatience?

The prosecution rests. [/ismember]

Reading List

Inbound Marketing is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Being successful with inbound marketing requires setting proper expectations. Good things come to those who wait!

Read more…

James Altucher and Why You Should Quit Your Job

Chris Brogan interviews one of my favorite bloggers, James Altucher. He is the Woody Allen of Wall Street – brilliant, neurotic, vulnerable. James has some very unique views on the world and I believe he has an important message for everyone about the direction that corporations and the economy are headed.

Read more…

Why the Blog Post Is the New Ad Unit

With some disillusionment starting to set in with social media as an advertising platform, businesses are turning their eye back to the blog. This has renewed interest in blogging and the development of content as a form of advertising and marketing

Read more…