What You Need To Know To Write Effective Headlines for 4 Major Platforms

Unless you write for an authoritative news site or have a rabid audience, you likely rely on external platforms to attract readers to your blog posts.

Whether readers click through to your site and how they perceive your post when they get to it, both depend on the context of that platform where they first discovered it.

• What mindset were they in on the platform?
• Why did they approach the platform in the first place?
• What else did they encounter on the platform before finding your post?

Consider the common platforms and their context and headlines readers will encounter first on those external platforms as you write blog posts.

1. Social media: Probably the first we think of when we consider platforms for blog post promotion. Social media includes sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram (Stories), and Pinterest. Readers here are easily distracted and encounter a wide variety of content. They aren’t thinking about your site or the topic of your blog post before seeing your headline.
2. Search: Search engine optimization (SEO) is a popular way to craft blog posts that show up in Google search results and attract new readers. Readers here enter a query into the search engine and choose your blog post from among up to 10 related results. They approach the search with a specific question or topic in mind. If your headline promises a good answer and the blog post follows through, they’ll likely be highly engaged with your content.
3. Email: Readers who subscribe to your blog or email newsletter want to see your latest content, so they’re highly engaged and loyal. Your subject line gets them to open the email, and your headlines within the email should entice them to click through to read the articles in full.
4. Your home page: Readers who visit your website looking for something to read are extremely loyal. But you still have to catch their attention and get them to click on the content! Understand your core audience and what they most want from you, and use your home page content and blog post headlines to demonstrate that you can deliver.

 

Dana Sitar has been writing and editing for digital media since 2011, most recently as a copy editor for fintech and personal finance. She trains journalists, writers, and editors on writing for the web through sessions at the annual ACES editors’ conference, Utah Valley University, online courses, and private trainings. Dana has written about work and writing in digital media for publications including the New York Times, HuffPost, a column for Inc. Magazine, and dozens of writing and content marketing blogs. As a branded content editor for The Penny Hoarder, Dana managed a team of writers, editors, and social media experts to create multimedia branded content to help advertisers reach an audience of 12 million across platforms including social media, email, blog, and video.