How to get your content marketing noticed and clicked (almost) every time

Anthony D. Coppedge | Certified Agile Marketing Trainer ICP-ACC, ICP-MKG, CAL-1

The marketing trend of overpromised or so-called ‘click bait’ headlines has ethical marketers looking for better ways to craft compelling headlines for content and subject lines for email campaigns. One way to avoid both the negative sentiment of many readers and to generate on-point headlines is to not stop at the first good headline idea. In fact, if marketers will discipline themselves to write 10 versions of the same headline, quite often the ‘bad ideas’ lead to some of the best ideas to grab attention and accurately depict the value of content for the reader.

CONTENT MARKETING NEEDS HELP

The time-honored practice of diligent copywriting is often rushed due to the increased demand for more content than ever, as 60% of marketers create at least one piece of content each day (Source: eMarketer). Taking the time to write (and rewrite) not only leads to better copy, but helps to highlight content in ways that benefit click-through rates, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and new leads (Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about 3 times as many leads. Source: DemandMetric). When one or even two marketers take the time to craft 10 versions of the same headline, the mashup of ideas reveals the best combination of words and phrases to position the content itself.

How much time goes into creating the standard email or blog post? A recent survey found that about 50% of marketers spend between one and three hours creating a content length around 500 to 1,000 words and the other 50% of marketers spend between three and six hours for the same amount of content. Interestingly, there is evidence that reveals marketers who take more time to develop content report a much higher value in the outcome of the content. What could result from taking the time to write out 10 versions of the same headline or subject line of content marketing?

AIN’T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT

Writing 10 versions of the same headline/subject line is harder than it may sound. At first, writing two or three headlines may seem sufficient, but marketing copywriters will find that coming up with the fourth through seventh versions to be far more difficult. The last few options quite often end up being amalgamations of the previous versions, but what’s most helpful is how the seemingly ‘bad ideas’ spur the imagination to craft even better options.

Write 10 versions of the same headline. Quite often the ‘bad ideas’ lead to some of the best ideas to grab attention and accurately depict the value of content for the reader. — Anthony Coppedge

There’s actually a method called The Worst Possible Idea, by author Bryan Mattimore which is explored in his book Idea Stormers. His technique provides disruptive insight within the ideation process where the worst ideas often spur imagination to lead to the best ideas.

The pushback is that marketers feel they do not have the time to go through this exercise each and every time they create new content or repurpose content across different channels and mediums. In fact, almost 60% of marketers reuse content two to five times to generate ‘snackable’ content based on assets. (Source: LookBookHQ).

If a marketer is already feeling overwhelmed by the volume of work, does taking even more time away from new content add to their perceived burden? In the short run, it does add a little more time to the process of publishing content. However, developing compelling content is a significant investment in effort from the marketing team, including copywriting, design, copyediting and publishing, so the long-tail return on that investment is better-performing content. After all, if taking 10 minutes to come up with 10 versions of the most important part of the content — the title/headline/subject line — yields better results, the time investment pays handsome dividends.

Some helpful tips about writing truly outstanding headline copy include:

• Keep it Short — 11–13 words seems to be ideal, though shorter often works best
• Use 1st Person or 2nd person and A/B test the results to check performance with your audience
• Create urgency only when it clearly makes sense (false deadlines are often viewed as pushy or even underhanded)
• Use active verbs instead of passive verbs
• Be specific with action verbs and pronouns
• Be memorable to help people associate your brand with compelling content

SEE FOR YOURSELF

As content marketing continues to rise in prominence for marketers, the need to maximize the content for optimal performance also increases as marketers report feeling overwhelmed by the volume of content they must create. As such, writing 10 versions of the headline or subject line represents a commitment to crafting compelling content. As demand continues to increase for more versions of content across multiple platforms, channels, and mediums, the art and science of writing headlines will position marketers for higher conversion rates. A/B testing headlines continue to be a best practice, so it is easy for marketers to put this practice to the test immediately.

This article went through the same 10 version process to arrive at the headline “How to get your content marketing noticed and clicked (almost) every time.” Would you have chosen it out of the list below?

10 TITLE OPTIONS

1. Why Marketers Should Write 10 Headlines
2. Marketers Take Note: You Need 10 Attention-Grabbing Headlines Right Now
3. I know it and you know it: content marketers need to rewrite their headlines
4. Why Your Content Marketing Stats Suck
5. Your Marketing team needs better leads, so learn to write better headlines
6. Re-write every headline to massively increase the value of your content marketing
7. Don’t publish content marketing without rewriting your headline 10 times
8. Are you not entertained?! The 10x rule for writing compelling headlines
9. I’ll see your content marketing, and raise you 10 headlines
10. How to get your content marketing noticed and clicked (almost) every time

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