Why do other people’s posts get clicks in the hundreds while your excellent innovative studies stay persistently underrated? You may be missing one of the most powerful user attractions of all – an engaging headline.
In this article, you’ll find 8 elements that will make your headlines winners, and you’ll learn exactly why they are such effective tricks in terms of human psychology.
Here we go!
The best questions are about something readers can relate to or want to know about.
It’s possible to provoke that feeling by providing just a bit of information. Once a person knows a little, they will want to find out more and fill in the missing information so they can feel better. With this in mind, try to “prime the pump” by giving readers some intriguing (though incomplete) information in your headline, telling them enough to spark their curiosity but not so much that you give your story away.
Besides, negatives are powerful for tapping into people’s insecurities. Using words like “don’t,” “stop,” and “avoid” often work well since everyone wants to know if there’s anything they should stop doing.
At the same time, people don’t really want information. What they really want is some sense of predictability and order in their lives. Everyone wants control over their world. That’s why they seek out secrets, tips, rules, hints, laws, and systems that promise to provide order and make better sense of things.
Numbers
The first reason numbers work in headlines is that people like predictability and don’t like uncertainty. Numbers help readers by providing them with expectation management so that they know exactly what they are getting into. Additionally, it seems that the larger the number in the headline, the better the post spreads.
Audience Reference
Basically, referencing your audience means using “you” in your headline. Seeing such a headline, the reader immediately feels known and named. The construction gains attention because our brains are focused on solving problems. Actively searching for solutions to problems is part of our survival instinct. That’s why when a reader is in the precise target audience of some headline, he thinks, “That’s for me!”
This tip also feeds into people’s self-interest. In other words, when you speak to your readers’ needs, desires, and emotions, you answer the main question in their minds: “What’s in it for me?”
Also, when you are specific, it provides clarity and assurance to readers about what they will be getting into if they click.