Does your content live up to your headline?

Ever clicked on a headline only to be sorely disappointed when the content didn’t live up to your expectations? It’s kind of like connecting with someone online, then being jarred into the horrible realization that they’re a Photoshop ninja upon the first date.

Yes, intriguing headlines are highly effective. And since the average attention span is only eight seconds, what’s the big deal if you lose momentum after your blog post is clicked? If open rates were the end game, you’d be golden. But you’re trying to build credibility that leads to a relationship with your readers. Here’s how to skip the bait-and-snooze while knocking your headlines out of the park:

Start with a topic that resonates. It all begins with knowing your audience — their daily challenges, inter-office obstacles and biggest needs. A persona for each segment is a must. With personas in place:

• Bribe your sales team with food and pick their brains on customer comments and questions

• Stay current with industry trends, then provide posts that help your readers keep up

• Creep on your competitors’ blogs and see what types of questions their customers are asking

Write remarkable content. Step inside your readers’ dress shoes (or slippers, depending on your target). How could what you compose rock their world?

• Give actionable advice on improving how they do things now — it doesn’t have to be drastic, like increasing ROI by 1000 percent — just relevant

• Organize your content in a way that the key takeaways are obvious and memorable

• Think about sentence structure, cadence and humor. Your main target reader should be human, not Googlebot.

Craft a headline that dares readers not to click it. Here are a few tools for your writing arsenal. Be advised they should be used sparingly, as not to create a boring, predictable format for all of your posts.

If you are looking for essay writing tips, here they are: choose a question that is challenging, gather relevant materials, consider all the pros and cons, decide on your standpoint and present it on paper. And do not forget that successful essay writing depends on the topic you choose. If you need more detailed essay writing tips, you are welcome to find them on our writing blog.

• Pose a question, which according to Copyblogger can be eight times as effective, given it’s specific, unique and useful

• Include numbered lists, tips, tricks, or some other numerical value prop

• Instruct your readers — ways to improve their lives are difficult to resist

To learn more about crafting compelling blog titles and paying them off with remarkable content, contact me at heather@rep-ink.com.