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11) Headlining and Sub-Headlining Effective Content Pieces

SoulfullyAButterfly January 31st, 2021

Article titles (headlines), as well as subheadlines, are one of the first things a reader reads.

In this discussion, we will understand effective strategies to write headline titles as well as subheadlines to these titles.

Some general tips include:

  • Avoid long article titles: try to fit the title within 62 characters or limit it to 5-7 words.

  • Consider using “What”, “Why”, “How”, or “When” as these are catchy and add to curiosity.

  • Use Numbers - numbers ensure the availability of organized information, and are generally liked: using Odd Numbers in the title has helped in terms of SEO. Remember to write the number itself (5 instead of five).

  • To add specificity, consider using “the” before the number.

  • Provide an answer to why people should click and read your content: words like “tips”, “strategies”, “facts”, “reasons” all help provide a rationale.

  • Include the word “Guide” where applicable.

  • Consider using emotional adjectives that describe the topic. For example, “essential”, “free” etc.

  • Consider outlining Negative aspects - spin this to meet mental health content goals. For example, The 5 Essential Things You Did Not Know About Depression.

  • Use common words to ensure people understand and grasp the topic while finding the title simple

  • Consider using a “Things I Wish I Had Known” approach to content if applicable.

How to test your headline as being unique:

Copy and paste your headline with quotation marks into the Google search bar. (e.g. “The 5 Essential Things You Did Not Know About Depression”) - if the results come back as “no results found”, your headline is unique!

Helpful Resource: Useful Title Capitalization Tool

Note: The bottom line to success in terms of marketing and content is to ensure that your content body reflects the great headline/title. It might be worth considering to write final titles after the content body.

Subheadlines: Effective subheadlines summarize the content body while also linking it to the title.

Activity

Using the knowledge attained through this discussion, propose a new article title as well as a subheadline for this published article at 7 Cups.

Reply to at least one other student’s response and share your feedback with them

(Edited by @SoulfullyAButterfly: 12/2/2021 to clarify "subheadline" instead of subheading)

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This post is brought to you by the Content Development and Marketing Program, find out more information about the program here

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sweetchildbsk September 29th, 2022

@SoulfullyAButterfly

SubHeadline: 6 strategically effective modules

gentleFox20 October 10th, 2022

@SoulfullyAButterfly

Title - 6 Ways to Raise Your Christmas Cheer

Subtitle - Tips to move through feelings of loneliness during the holidays.

1 reply
loyalace9302 October 10th, 2022

@gentleFox20

Innovative title! I really liked it :) It incorporates the title word limit and the subtitle states the content too.

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loyalace9302 October 10th, 2022

@SoulfullyAButterfly

Title: Strategies to deal with loneliness during holidays

Subheadline: 6 ways to cope up with feeling alone as the holiday period approaches during the pandemic

yourbuddy30 December 6th, 2022

@SoulfullyAButterfly The title of that article could be "From Dreary to Vibrancy"

subhead lines-:

Token of Appreciation

Bonding with friends and family

Virtual meet ups

Helping Hand

Experimentation

Let yourself heal

1 reply
guidamaximo December 23rd, 2022

@yourbuddy30

I like the format of your title but I think finding another word for dreary would make it more eye-catching as many people may not immediately understand it.

I think you may have confused the subheading with paragraph titles. What you suggested would be great paragraph ideas!

YourCaringConfidant February 16th, 2023

@yourbuddy30 I love your title! And kudos to you for coming up with not just 1 subheading but 6, wow! My favorite one would have to be token of appreciation. :)

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guidamaximo December 23rd, 2022

@SoulfullyAButterfly

Heading:

Home Alone: coping with loneliness during the holidays (2022)

Subheading:

We may be socially distanced but there are ways of staying emotionally connected,

1 reply
empatheticpie December 29th, 2022

@guidamaximo

I liked your headline, as it made use of familiar pop culture which can make the article more eye-catching. It was concise and made clear what the article was going to be about. While your subheading was good, I think it was a bit long and moved further towards covid-19 than the title did, so I thought some better homogeneity between the two might work better.

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empatheticpie December 29th, 2022

Heading

Ideas For Coping With Holiday Loneliness

Subheading

How to feel less alone this holiday season

1 reply
InvaderStitch January 4th, 2023

@empatheticpie

I like how to-the-point your article title and subtitle are!

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InvaderStitch January 4th, 2023

How to Combat Loneliness this Holiday Season

6 suggestions to prevent loneliness from consuming you during the holidays

1 reply
amybrit10 January 14th, 2023

@InvaderStitch this sounds great! Grabs my attention :)

January 31st, 2023

I really liked how you took a bold approach with wording. Combat is a word I personally would shy away from because I feel like it may trigger some people with PTSD, but with that, it also means my writing may be weaker in some ways.

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amybrit10 January 14th, 2023

@SoulfullyAButterfly

5 effective strategies for reducing loneliness during the holidays

1 reply
Vivikun9 January 14th, 2023

@amybrit10

easy to read and catches my attention

great job :)


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Vivikun9 January 14th, 2023

Coping with Loneliness During the Holidays

6 effective ways to deal with loneliness over the holidays

5 replies
broadfemmelovelive January 18th, 2023

@Vivikun9

Really like this! It wasn’t a huge change but really effective. For a suggestion: I ran the title through the analyzer, and its readability score was low. I was surprised by this. I wonder what would help this, maybe try reworking it from the main content idea of ‘coping’. But I’m also at a loss here.

Either way it's straightforward and inclusive of the content. Great job!


4 replies
Vivikun9 January 18th, 2023

@broadfemmelovelive

Ah I see what you mean. I will try a new headline :3 thank you for the feedback

3 replies
Vivikun9 January 18th, 2023

@Vivikun9

New headline:

The Winter Blues: Handling Loneliness on Hoilday

2 replies
broadfemmelovelive January 18th, 2023

@Vivikun9

Love the new title. How did it fare on the analyser?

1 reply
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broadfemmelovelive January 18th, 2023

@SoulfullyAButterfly

I found this Discussion Activity 11 left undone, thank goodness for my double-checking!


Coping with Loneliness During the Holidays (original)

Change to:

Holidays: How Best to Cope with Loneliness:

A guide to finding some normalcy during the pandemic.


Explanation: I played with a few things here. Eventually landing on the above title I think it encompasses all the discussed factors. And the subtitle has a further explanatory nature feel with a hint of what to expect in the article. I received a 69 overall score on the headline analyzer and an SEO of 64. Mostly I'm proud of the 84 on the Sentimental score. I think that is acceptable. I would read it.



1 reply
Vivikun9 January 18th, 2023

@broadfemmelovelive


I like the new headline and the subhead line. I like how you incorporate the score system to help name a new title. I can't think of improvement atm cause I think it looks really good.
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