Erica Holthausen

Your headline is the first thing a reader sees. In most cases, it is the only thing a reader sees. A frequently shared piece of marketing lore holds that eight out of 10 people stop reading an article after viewing the headline.

That statistic is often used to scare people into believing that headlines are damn near impossible to write. In fact, in an article published by the Content Marketing Institute, the author references the above statistic and then writes: “So, headlines don’t just matter. They act as the life or death determiner of your content [emphasis added].”

That kind of statement is not helpful. It is likely to either paralyze you every time you try to write a headline or push you to write an emotionally manipulative headline that succeeds in getting more clicks but turns off the people you are trying to reach.

The amount of online content has exploded over the last twenty years. And we’ve been optimizing our headlines to get more clicks since headline analyzers first came on the scene more than a decade ago. And yet, that 8 out of 10 statistic still holds true.

It’s the 80/20 rule in action.

When you’re writing articles for your blog or a high-visibility publication, you aren’t writing for everyone who might see your piece. You’re writing for the 20% who are interested in the topic. They are the people who deserve your time and attention.

What is an effective headline?

The effectiveness of a headline depends on the purpose of the piece. For outlets like BuzzFeed and Upworthy, the purpose of each published article is to drive advertising revenue by attracting website traffic. The effectiveness of a headline is thus measured in large part by the click-through rate, which is the percentage of viewers who click on a headline to read the article. It’s an easy metric to measure and an easy metric to manipulate.

To improve click-through rates, the writers and editors on these platforms have refined the art of writing clickbait headlines. These headlines use manipulative, sensationalized, or misleading language to grab people’s attention and entice them to click through to read the article. The accompanying article is typically much less interesting than the headline might suggest, and what sparse relevant content appears is buried under a barrage of nonsense.

Clickbait is a tool of tabloid journalism.

The articles you write have a different purpose. Instead of driving advertising revenue, the articles you write are intended to build your authority and help your readers get to know, like, and trust you. The articles are a form of service. The headlines of these articles are effective if they inspire the right people to click through to read the article. You aren’t trying to trick anyone into clicking through to read your article; you are trying to help those who are interested in the topic see your article as one worth exploring further.

How do you craft an effective headline?

To craft an effective headline, follow the ABCs of journalism:

• Accurate. An effective headline identifies the topic of the article and lets the reader know what they can expect when they click through to read the piece.

• Brief. An effective headline is short and to the point.

• Clear. An effective headline is easy to understand; it is clear instead of clever. It speaks directly to the relevant audience in the language they use.

Your headline works with the article to establish trust with your readers. The headline is your promise to the reader. The accompanying article delivers on that promise. Effective headlines don’t need to be catchy or clever. Headlines that ask the same questions your readers are grappling with are reliable workhorses that get the job done.

And that’s all that matters.

How can you improve the effectiveness of your headlines?

Once you have a solid foundation in place and can confidently write an effective headline, look into ways to improve. To get started, take a look at the headlines appearing on the homepage and section landing pages of industry publications. Study the headlines to understand the structure and identify the ones you find most compelling. Consider adopting that same structure for pieces you write for your blog.

Many publications use a headline and a deck (a subtitle). If you decide to adopt this structure for your blog, or if you are writing for a high-visibility publication that uses this structure, study how those two elements work together. It might be helpful to keep a swipe file — a collection of sample headlines — to use for inspiration.

When you’re writing for a high-visibility publication, take the time to familiarize yourself with the publication’s style so you can mimic it easily. By mimicking the publication’s style in your articles, you please your editor and appease the algorithms. You might also capture the attention of the homepage editor or social media editor, who might promote your article to a broader audience. While the percentage of people who read your article won’t change, a broader audience results in a larger number of readers.

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We’ve been trying to optimize our headlines to outsmart the 80/20 rule for over a decade. And yet, unless you’re writing a piece for your newsletter, where the readers subscribed to your newsletter to make sure they heard from you, the majority of people who see one of your articles won’t get past the headline.

That’s okay. You aren’t writing for everyone; you’re writing for the people who will find value in what you have to say.

You are writing articles to build your authority and help those who read what you write get to know, like, and trust you. You aren’t writing for the clicks, the likes, and other vanity metrics. So, take a few minutes and write an accurate, brief, and clear headline. Then publish that article.

Don’t let the quest for a perfect headline keep you from sharing your work.

“Writing is rewriting.”

I’ve read that phrase in just about every book on writing. I’ve heard that wisdom at just about every writing workshop. I’ve even said it in my Writing Practice community.

But what does it actually mean?

Think back to how you were taught to write in school. If your experience was anything like mine, it may have felt like you just sat down at your desk and, well, wrote. Maybe you did an outline, but it probably felt like a bit of a make-work project — something you did to check the box and get the grade.

I was a young freelance writer when a mentor taught me that writing is a process with four distinct stages: thinking, writing, rewriting, and editing. And that if I could break the habit of editing as I wrote, my writing would not only improve, but I could turn assignments around faster, and I would enjoy it a lot more. To break that habit, I needed to understand the differences between each stage of the writing process.

The thinking stage is when you research your idea. It’s when you conduct interviews, review work from others in your field, identify the angle, and plan your article. In my writing workshops, we start with thinking. Participants complete a SOAR analysis, write a working title, and draft a simple outline. The SOAR analysis makes the point of your article clear. The working title reminds you of that point and keeps you from getting caught up in trying to craft the perfect title before you’ve written the article. The outline provides a container that helps make writing your article easier.

Once your SOAR analysis is completed and you have a working title and outline, it’s time to start writing. The writing stage takes the least amount of time. Its entire purpose is to get your ideas out of your head and onto the page. In my writing workshops, participants have 20 minutes to write a shitty first draft, relying on nothing other than their SOAR analysis, outline, and expertise.

If you can’t remember an important research study, quote, or illustrative example while you’re writing, simply make a note to yourself in brackets and keep going. To write a shitty first draft quickly, which allows you to enter a flow state, you cannot allow the details to derail your writing. One significant benefit of adopting this approach is that 20 minutes of effort will let you know where you need to think about your topic more deeply.

And that’s the point of the rewriting stage. Rewriting is when you fill in the details and add nuance and depth to your article. This is the stage of the process that often takes the most time. Once you’ve captured everything you want to share with your reader, turn your attention to editing your article.

While editing your article, you may discover that you need to revisit the rewriting stage. Though it’s rarely discussed, revising the rewriting stage is a completely normal part of the writing process. This, I suspect, is why the phrase “writing is rewriting” is so prevalent. Rewriting is where you do the heavy lifting of writing. But rewriting doesn’t have to be a slog. With the right approach, it can even be enjoyable. (Indeed, it’s my favorite part of the writing process.) Here’s how I approach the rewriting stage:

Finish writing your shitty first draft first.

You can’t rewrite what hasn’t been written yet.

Before you start the rewriting process, you have to finish writing the shitty first draft. If you wrote the first draft under a time constraint, a practice I highly recommend, you may have written part of it as bullet points, or you may have run out of time and never quite finished the piece.

Write that which hasn’t been written first.

It sounds simple, but it can be very difficult to read what you’ve already written without revising it. But if you start to revise the piece before you’ve finished the shitty first draft, you’ll end up making a lot more work for yourself, and you’ll slow the process down.

I give myself 10 minutes to finish writing the shitty first draft. Without that time limit, it’s too easy for me to stay in the writing process much longer than I should and to start combining the writing stage with the rewriting and editing stage, perfecting each line as I make my way through the article.

Start rewriting by filling in the blanks.

Once your shitty first draft is done, review the entire thing looking for gaps in your thinking, notes you wrote to yourself, and areas where you need to add a bit more context, do a bit more research, or share an illustrative example.

A part of the rewriting process is filling in those gaps. Review your research and any notes you made during the thinking phase and incorporate those into your article. If your shitty first draft introduced ideas you hadn’t thought about before you started writing, now is the time to research those ideas.

As you fill in the gaps, your piece will start to take shape. That’s when you invite your audience into the rewriting process.

Keep your audience in mind.

A good article answers one (and only one) question. Structure your article in such a way that the central question — and your answer to that question — are clear to the reader.

Writing is like a puzzle that can be put together in several ways. The best way is the way that best conveys your idea and perspective to your reader.

At this stage, you may want to print out your article. Printing the article allows you to see the whole piece at once, which makes it easier to see where it might need to be reorganized. In some cases, it might be helpful to grab a pair of scissors and cut up the article so you can figure out the best way to put it back together.

The change in format from the screen to the page offers other benefits as well. That change in format allows you to read the piece from the perspective of your intended audience. And that shift in perspective helps you see where your thinking is muddy and where you might be confusing the reader.

As you focus on the organization and structure of your article, you may realize a few pieces are missing or that some of the existing pieces don’t belong. Revisit your SOAR analysis. Is the objective of the article you wrote the same as the article you planned to write? If not, does that shift make the article stronger? Did it muddy the waters? Or is it just a different article than you expected? Take the time to align your SOAR analysis with your article, either by modifying your SOAR analysis or by modifying your article.

Once you’ve added in any missing pieces and removed any pieces that don’t belong, read the article aloud while keeping your audience in mind. Once you’re finished adding new ideas to your writing, you’re ready to move on to the editing phase.

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To effectively convey your message to your reader, your writing must be cogent, well-researched, and compelling. And because written material can be read repeatedly and analyzed closely, it must be strong enough to withstand scrutiny.

Writing doesn’t allow you to rely on context, shared knowledge, or body language. The only tool you have available is the written word, and the written word leaves no room for ambiguity.

Rewriting takes time and thought and effort. It requires you to think deeply about your area of expertise and to find ways to convey your ideas clearly and succinctly. It helps you refine your ideas and improve your communication skills.

And that makes you a better consultant.