You spent hours researching and writing your blog post… it’s a great read. It’s chock-full of useful information, and your readers (potential customers) would benefit greatly if they read it.

Awesome!

So you hit publish and wait for the likes, comments, shares… and nothing.

NOTHING!

You review your stats and they’re showing a flat line. Your post is dead in the water.

Why?

Maybe it’s your headline.

If the post is as good as you say it is, people should be in a clicking frenzy after they’ve read it, right? But no matter how good the body of the post is, it won’t get clicked on, read or shared if you can’t grab their attention and get them to read the next sentence, and the next, and so on.

According to copyblogger.com, “On average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest. This is the secret to the power of your title, and why it so highly determines the effectiveness of the entire piece.”

But writing headlines can be a challenge… and it doesn’t have to be.

Ever tried the 4 U’s Formula?

If you’ve been writing for a while, you might have heard of the 4 U’s Formula. It goes a little suppen like this:

• Your headline should be USEFUL

• It should be UNIQUE

• Make it ULTRA-SPECIFIC

• It should appear URGENT

You probably won’t have all four components in all of your headlines, but not to worry… you don’t have to. If you have at least 2 or 3, you are on the right track.

What do people want (to know, see, hear, feel)?

This might be the single most important question you can ask yourself before you set your pen to paper... ahem... before you start tapping at the keyboard.

Doing it this way lets you identify a problem people have, a solution they may be looking for, and how you can tailor your headline to deliver the goods. Sound simple enough? Okay.

Let’s say you’re a tax preparer. What are the biggest complaints that clients have? Is it that they are leaving money on the table? Is that they simply don’t understand what they should be claiming for? Is it that the tax code is so complex and they don't want to make a mistake with the IRS?

And you should know. Because you're a tax preparer.

So maybe POPSUGAR isn't a blog, but you can't just pass by this headline:

Everyone has to file their taxes, right? And, no one wants to leave money on the table. Would I want to know what the 23 most overlooked tax deductions are? HELL YEAH!

Even if I don’t do my own taxes, I will want to click on this baby -- just to make sure my tax guy is claiming for everything allowed.

So let’s break it down:

Is it useful? YES! Remember these aren’t just deductions, they are the most overlooked ones. Wouldn’t you want to know if you’ve been overlooking them too?

Is it urgent? The use of “don’t miss out” gives it a sense of urgency. I want to click on it NOW, because I actually don’t want to miss out, especially since we’re in tax season, and I might not have filed yet. But here's the thing, even if I filed already, I'd still want to know.

Ultra-specific? Definitely. Using numbers gives your audience specificity. I’ll know what to expect: 23 tax deductions I might be overlooking.

But is it unique? It certainly is. Just type it into your Google search in quotes and see the results... it's the only one of its kind (except for the shares on Pinterest). 

Now, go check out your website or blog, examine your headlines, taglines and subheadings. Are they doing what you want them to do? Time to put these tips to work!

And look out for my next blog post where I will show you some time-tested headline templates, so you won't have to recreate the wheel!
 

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Is there something preventing you from writing a web page and blog headlines that work? I'd like to help. Share your biggest challenge in the comments section.