How to Write Headlines Your Audience Will Drool Over

All in 4 crucial steps.

Headlines are the gateway to your content

A reader clicks and reads your headline.

Or they glance and scroll past.

All in a matter of seconds.

That’s how crucial headlines are to grab attention. The right headlines grab attention, sparks curiosity, and pulls readers into your world like a magnet.

If you’ve ever struggled to craft that perfect hook, read this guest post from

Khadejah J

whose headlines simply suck you in.

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How to Write Headlines Your Audience Will Drool Over

Ugh…headlines.

I know this HAS to be your favorite part of writing online (not). I almost puke every time I do a headline lesson, but to be honest, it’s the most crucial part of online writing. Plus, I learn something new myself the more I think about it.

You know headlines are important.

I don’t have to go over the consequences of a crappy headline, right?

Crappy headline = Crappy engagement no matter how good your article is. Full stop. Trust me, I’ve written 1,000 articles online and it always rings true.

Now that we got this out of the way, let’s talk about what makes a juicy headline.

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#1. Always Pull The Trigger

Not literally.

Sheesh…we just started the lesson.

I mean trigger words.

What’s a trigger word? A trigger word is a word you use in your headline that’s designed to evoke some sort of emotion within the reader.

Common examples of trigger words are:

• Hate

• Crazy

• Destructive

• Hurtful

• Chilling

• Cheerful

• Thrilling

• Ecstatic

You get the point. These words will be used as adjectives somewhere within your headline.

For example:

“3 Crazy Tools That Online Marketers Use to Get 1 Million Views on Their Content”

The trigger word here is “crazy”. Doesn’t that word evoke some sort of emotional response in your brain? It does to me after seeing it.

Like, what’s so crazy about those tools? Are they well-known? Are they legal?

Those sorts of curious questions prompt the reader to click. The more you expand their curiosity with the headline using a particular trigger word, the better it gets.

But BEWARE: You don’t want to use complicated trigger words that most people don’t understand the meaning of like “jovial” or something. That makes the headline more of a turn-off.

Action Step: Use an online thesaurus to find more examples of trigger words. When you look for synonyms of the word “happy” or “sad”, you can find some good emotional ones.

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#2. EVERYONE Wants Listicles

Every human on planet Earth prefers lists over EVERYTHING.

Heck, if you do a survey of 500 people and ask how they would like to receive their information, 450 of them would prefer a list. That’s how we consume content.

Lists make it easier on your brain. Less fluff and is straight to the point.

That’s why listicles NEVER go out of style for online writing.

But Beware: This doesn’t mean EVERYTHING you write has to be a listicle. Some of my most viral articles weren’t listicles. But you have a better chance of people reading all the way through your article with listicles.

You always need to master the fundamentals first.

A common example of a listicle:

“10 Steps to Create a Mouth-Watering Home Page For Your Website”

Action Step: ALWAYS USE NUMBERS

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#3. Make it Weird by Niche-Mixing

This is after you’ve mastered the fundamentals of headlines and you become more advanced.

You get to mix things together that people would have never thought of before. I like to call this phenomenon, niche-mixing.

Niche-mixing is about taking 2 completely different subjects (e.g. Money and Trending topics in pop culture) and putting them together to create one weird, yet super interesting, headline.

Take those 2 subjects I mentioned previously.

I remember scrolling on my feed on social media and saw an article titled:

“I Made $10,000 From The Will Smith Slap”

It was brilliant because it combines 2 things. Money—which people love to read about—and the infamous slap Will Smith gave to Chris Rock at the Oscars.

I wanted to click on it so badly but was too busy at the time.

That’s how you get attention!

Combine 2 different subjects to make your headline into a big mess of weirdness that people can’t help but click on.

But BEWARE: You don’t want to do this when you first start out. It takes a while to master the art of headlines first. So focus on that and mix it up later when you understand what your audience likes.

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#4. Use a Headline Analyzer

This is a nifty tool I used back in the day when I was a beginner.

It’s called a headline analyzer courtesy of the Advanced Marketing Institute. A prominent writer online I still follow today recommended this in an article I read of his. So I used it and it helped me get the hang of headlines quicker.

Here’s the link to it below:

https://www.aminstitute.com/headline/

It basically tests the emotional marketing value of your headline. This means it tests how “triggering” your headline is.

You want to get your headline at 30% emotional marketing value or greater.

I don’t use it anymore because I’ve written online so much that I already know the structure of headlines that do well, but for beginners, it’s still one of the best tools out there.

But Beware: You don’t want to put too much stock into this analyzer because I’ve had some headlines that didn’t get good scores on it, but still did well in the end. Use it as a guide rather than an end-all-be-all.

Action Step: Copy and paste your headline into the analyzer and watch the magic happen!

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To Recap

Here are 4 crucial steps to write a headline that your readers will drool over:

1. Always pull the trigger

2. Everyone wants listicles

3. Make your headline weird by niche-mixing

4. Use a headline analyzer

Headlines can be a pain in the butt sometimes, but if you know how to structure them, they can become super fun.

So what are you waiting for?

Get in the lab and write your mouth-watering headline now!

Khadejah J

Thanks for reading.

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Dare to fail so you dare to win - Moon Arica

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Expand your comfort zone here, tell me your thoughts:

1. Do you struggle with writing great headlines?

2. What’s the most eyeball-catching headline you’ve ever written?

Up your writing game this month by participating in this writing challenge:

Introducing: The Kaleidoscope Project Monthly Challenge