How To Become An Expert At Hooking People To Your Content

Have you ever been scrolling on social media, came across something boring and thought: “Nah, this sounds lame. I’ll pass”? It happens every day. 

The first sentence that someone reads or hears when they come across something is called a headline.

What if your headline sucked donkey balls and people just scrolled past it? Not so fun innit?

If you want people to skip past your stuff, go ahead and write a crappy headline.

If you want to steal attention like a professional, I’ll tell you exactly how to do that.

Cut The Nonsense And Get Straight To The Point

For the love of Christ, don’t be tempted to write something vague or dumb just to sound clever. Like it can also be tempting to have the idea that if your headline is short, it means it’s always good.

“mY HeAdLiNe HaS OnLy 4 WoRdS, It’S SoLiD”.

Spoiler alert: It sucks.

Don’t go to the other extreme either, it doesn’t need to be too wordy.

Don’t be vague and get to the point. If your content reaches the right audience, telling them a straight benefit will grab their attention.

For example, if you have a marketing agency and run ads, a good headline would be:

“Get more clients for your [business type] in 30 days or less, guaranteed”. 

By highlighting the benefit (more clients), business owners that you target and are facing this problem will continue to consume your content.

Because <drumroll>

This is for them.

Have An IQ Above 70 aka Don’t Be A Moron

Quick question:

Are you smarter than an 11 year old? I’m guessing that you are. Otherwise, you’re dead. 

We are taught early in school about: basic grammar, punctuation, and how to write. 

If you have bad grammar, spelling errors, no line breaks, and other stuff like this, fix them now. 

Word arrangement and punctuation can affect the meaning of your headline.

Have a basic understanding of grammar, even an 11 year old kid can outperform you if you write like an orangutan. If you don’t have it, you’re dumber than a kid. Congratulations.

Does Practice Make Perfection? 

Yes, it does. Get your brain to work and brainstorm ideas. You can get a lot of inspiration.

Make a list of your best attempts. Read each one out loud to determine which sounds the most straightforward, concise, and compelling.

From there on, you can adjust some things or combine some ideas into a good headline.

Don’t Blend In With The Morons

Avoid puns or cliches. People are sick of this stuff, and a lot of it looks the same.

You see a lot of boring, unoriginal stuff, and copycats. 

You can take some inspiration or even steal some things from other experienced people in your field, but don’t be a copycat of someone, be original.

People like an interesting person, be that guy.

If you’re going to use a play on words, keep it fresh and avoid using puns or repetitions if they don’t suit your publication’s tone.

Talk soon,

Thomas.

P.S: Want to know how I’d write a headline that would get people hooked to my content? Get in touch with my agency today and I’ll tell you how exactly that works.

If we’re a good fit, I’ll personally have a look at your content.

No cost, no obligation, no annoying sales pitch.