Business BlogHeadlines to Turn Heads

Possibly, there is one area in which your content is letting you down, suggests fellow blogger Chris Garrett of socialmediaexaminer.com, referring to the need to make business blog headlines more compelling.

The standard headline, Garrett explains, tends to fall into one of five categories:

• News
• Goals
• Problems
• How-to’s
• Pure entertainment

But, to really get readers to stick around and read the blog post itself, he says, we need to hit readers’ emotional hot buttons.

That’s good advice, I believe, for both business owners and for us Indianapolis blog content writers. It’s passion, I’ve found, that cements the connection between our Say It For You clients and their potential clients and customers.

What techniques can be used for tugging at heartstrings?  Truth be told, some of copyblogger.com’s Brian Clark’s headline templates are a tad too “sales-ey” for my taste:

• The “Give Me (short time period) and I’ll Give You (blank)” promises a strong benefit to be had by readers within a very short period.
• The “If You Don’t (blank) Now, You’ll Hate Yourself Later” plays on the fact that readers don’t like feeling excluded..:

Two others on Clark’s list of headline suggestions are more to my liking:   

• Do You Recognize the (number) Early Warning Signs of (blank)?
• Do You Make These Mistakes?

Putting things readers care about in jeopardy in an SEO marketing blog gives you the chance to demonstrate that you have the solution. By assuring searchers they’re not the only ones to find themselves in this predicament, you can show them you've solved these precise problems for customers and clients many times before.

Are headlines one area in which your content is letting you down?