“Attention” simply means mental focus and serious concentration on a given task. Every headline should call for attention. The purpose of the headline is to get your viewer to read the first sentence. 4 Headline Writing Tips to Make Your Titles Soar.6 Insights to the Future of Search Engine Optimization.17 Facts About Content Marketing That You Didn’t Know.8 Principles for Designing a Perfect Landing Page.15 Lessons I Learned the Hard Way as a 3-Year-Old Blogger.5 Tips to Write Blog Introductions Like a Pro.Here are some examples of our rationale in action: Some of the rationales that you can include in your headlines are:
Businesses that have a blog experience twice as much email traffic as businesses who don’t. To avoid wasting time on content, give people a strong reason why they should click, read and above all: share your content. With 59% of people sharing content without reading it first, we need to make sure our headlines appeal to people who will. The word “rationale” simply means “an underlying reason why something should be done.” If you want people to read your content, do you have a good reason why they should? I’ve used unique rationales to write great headlines (if I say so myself) that went viral. However, if you’re writing about tools or different ways to do a thing, there is no limit to the number you can use. If you’re writing a step-by-step guide, don’t include more than nine steps, because the human brain typically finds it difficult to process more than nine items at a time. Meaning instead of writing “Seven Steps To Start A Home Business,” use “7 Steps To Start a Home-Based Business” to appeal to the number-craving side of our minds. We’ve also found that instead of using the word “seven,” you should always replace it with the numeral “7” in headlines.
What’s more, when they tested their hypothesis and tweaked their headline to include the number 7, click-through rates increased by 20%. Odd numbers help people digest and recall information more easily. According to the Content Marketing Institute, the brain seems to believe odd numbers more than even numbers.