Get into your target audience’s head to produce effective titles

Many websites like Upworthy.com get a lot of likes from Facebook because their editors spent a lot of time writing attention grabbing headlines. There are a lot of books you can read online regarding how to write hot headlines. There are all sorts of blog posts that claim to have the secret pass to really powerful headlines. It’s’ very easy to get tempted into thinking that there is some sort of magic arcane language that produces powerful headlines. The truth is, if you don’t listen to your target audience, you will not have a clue as to the headlines that get their attention.

Headlines really measure how well you know your audience. If you find your click rates lacking or if your analytic say that your click to rates have a lot of room for improvement, use this as an opportunity to get inside the head of your target audience members. You have to remember that headlines work because they speak to emotional needs of their target readers. Your target readers aren’t just going to click just because you put out a headline. They are going to click certain headlines and they’re going to ignore others. At the very least, you should pay attention in to their click through patterns so you can see what kind of elements are present in certain headlines which are absent in others. By zeroing in on this emotional triggers you can increase your chances of producing headlines that get a maximum number of clicks each and every time.

Do you have a special tactic/way/ method to write your headlines?

 

I am actually not impressed with their titles at all. Yeah, it's probably a busy cousin of the Onion, but if you're honest with yourself you will see that the vast majority of their titles are racially, sexually and overall emotionally and antagonistically charged. Who are they trying to draw? A low information crowd? Bleh. Not impressed.

 

I didn't get that impression at all. However, it might depend on the post. I think they actually raise awareness about class, race and so on rather than downgrade people. The post on Down's Syndrome provides hope for people, especially since tomorrow (March 21) is DS Day. Also, I see an economic posts that shows us where the U.S. wealth is distributed. I think this site does an awesome job in keeping people interested. They have over a FB million likes, btw.

 

Here are two articles I'd recommend to at least skim over:

http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/0...-to-lowest-of-low-information-young-liberals/

and

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/will-newman/upworthy-takes-ideas-i-be_b_3646037.html

PS. By the way I am neither republican nor democrat. I am just a thinking person. To me Upworthy is what the left-wing propaganda is all about. Like I said, they only excite the low information crowd. For anyone who likes to think for himself/herself they shouldn't be of any or little interest. But to each his/her own, as they say.

 

I'll have to take a closer look. Most of the Web is like that, though. It's about grabbing someone's interest in the least amount of time. That's the wave of the mobile future.

 

I've got a bit away from the original poster's theme. If I could contribute to it in a more meaningful way, I'd say yes emotionally charged titles is what will be driving the click through rate - no doubt about that. But... it is also paramount to have truthful titles. If the title screams: "Every house has them and they may be killing you!" And then the rest of article talks about unused paints and cleaning solutions that are just sitting there producing fumes... blah... blah... blah. Then I'd say that article is nothing but a silly sensationalism that shouldn't be taken seriously. So my method would include: An emotionally charged title with a good doze of realism and truthfulness.

 

Unfortunately is it like that today you don't have enough time to roll out a whole story in your headline you need something what grabs your visitor the first time.

 

I didn't give the example to upset anybody here nor do I vote for every article on the site but the point is they reach the readers with their titles. It's more to show how it can work. People can take some impressions from it and model their own headlines after it. Of course they should write an headline without to much sensationalism and the same meaning like in the following article but that's up to their self.