Believe it or not there’s a formula that you can use every time to increase the amount of traffic your blog posts get. No, I am not trying to sell you a two thousand dollar Internet success package, but maybe I should be. The formula involves the most read part of your post. You know what that is?[read more]
Believe it or not there’s a formula that you can use every time to increase the amount of traffic your blog posts get. No, I am not trying to sell you a two thousand dollar Internet success package, but maybe I should be. The formula involves the most read part of your post. You know what that is? The headline.
On average 8 out of 10 people read the headline, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest of the post. The headline is your chance to leave an impression and make the reader anxious to read more.
The formula, taken from Dane Maxwell, should contain three things:
The End Result the Customer Wants
A Specific Period of Time
Address The Reader’s Objections
1. The End Result the Customer Wants
Marketers constantly discuss the differences between features and benefits. In your headline it’s especially important to note the distinction.
Consider the two following hypothetical ads for a convenience store:
Open until 1 a.m.
Midnight snack cravings? We’re open.
The difference between the two messages is stark. Being open until 1 a.m. is a feature; it simply describes the product or service.
While the second ad hints at the feature (being open late), it also describes the benefit that late service has…mainly that you can pick up a bag of crunchy chips at 12 a.m.
It’s important to craft your headlines around benefits. What key piece of information will the reader glean from the article and how will it affect their lives? How will it help them be more successful business owners, moms, students, & more? If you can answers these questions in your 100 character headline, you are already hitting it out of the ballpark. 2) A Specific Period of Time
If you want to create even more compelling headlines, throw in a deadline.
Hot fresh pizza in 30 minutes or less or it’s free. That is the promise that Domino’s built its multi-billion dollar empire on.
Why does the statement work? Because it hacks away at uncertainty. Have you ever considered ordering pizza but thought, “oh it will take too long to get here”? Domino’s catch phrase removes that doubt by concretely defining how long it will take for the pizza to reach you.
You can increase trust and pique reader interest by acting similarly. Try to incorporate a deadline in your blog post titles. 3) Address The Reader’s Objections
Guess what? The reason you are reading this very sentence was probably because of the headline. I made an outrageous statement. I said you could increase your website traffic in two minutes. Your immediate response was probably a sarcastic, “yeah sure” followed by “maybe if I spent a few thousand on ads first.”
By anticipating your reaction I was able to remove skepticism by adding in the line “without paying a single penny." By addressing reader objections you can increase the number of people who click on your link as it travels through cold Twitter streams.
Following a proven formula will help you consistently create eye-catching headlines. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and blow up your traffic.
The formula involves the most read part of your post. You know what that is? The headline.
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