7 Blog Title Tips to Make People Tick (and Click)

Blogging on your ecommerce store comes with a wealth of benefits. First of all, a blog is a great platform for telling your brand’s story and building a loyal following of engaged customers. It’s also an effective way to drive traffic to your products and help increase sales.

Before you can enjoy the benefits a blog can deliver though, you need to make sure your content actually gets read. This is where a compelling blog title comes in. It needs to evoke enough curiosity to earn you that all-important click.

Why is a blog title so important?

A title can make or break your content. This may sound dramatic, but we can’t emphasise the importance of a great blog title enough.

It can be the difference between someone clicking on your post to read more, or scrolling on by in search of an alternative. If your post is lacking a compelling headline, it doesn’t matter how good the content inside is, or how many hours you’ve spent slaving over your keyboard. Indeed, a punchy blog title is your entry into your customer’s world – and the beginning of a potential purchasing journey.

Not only does a blog title form the basis of potential customers’ all-important first impressions, but it represents a piece of content all across the web. Whether it’s in search engine results, emails, or social media shares, a title is visible everywhere. It’s got to immediately pack a punch and stop readers in their tracks.

Despite the importance of titles, all too often they are considered as a quick afterthought. In many cases, they are hurriedly pieced together in a rush to click the publish button, without the research and attention required.

With so much riding on one all important phrase, it can be pretty daunting trying to craft the perfect punchy titles for your ecommerce blog.

Fear not though, for we’ve rounded up seven quick tricks for writing catchy blog titles that capture attention and compel customers to read your content. With these tips under your belt, you’ll be writing consistently great headlines in no time!

#1 Be specific

A vague blog title that could apply to all sorts of content isn’t going to generate much interest. People want to know what they’re getting if they click on your post. With a general headline, you risk confusing the audience and sending them off in search of something more obvious.

A clear and specific title, on the other hand, is more likely to command attention. It tells users exactly what they’ll get from that post.

Furthermore, the more precise your blog title is, the more authority you’ll amass on a subject matter. This helps your ecommerce brand establish a sense of credibility, in turn making it easier to build strong relationships with customers.

Try and provide enough information so that your audience aren’t left guessing what your blog post is actually about. Here are some examples of specific titles taken from Shopify’s blog:

Source: Shopify Blog

These titles are ultra-specific. They make it clear exactly what the content entails and who it is useful for. As a result, the audience are more likely to click through and uncover the expert knowledge that Shopify are advertising in their titles. Take inspiration from this, and showcase your industry and product expertise within your ecommerce blog titles.

#2 Communicate value to your readers

Think about what solution you’re offering to your reader within your content. What are they gaining from your content that will make their life better or easier? Your blog title should focus on this need that you’re satisfying within your article. Try to include the most important benefit in your headline. This will grab people’s attention and offer them hope that their problem is about to be solved. This exciting prospect will entice them to click through and read your content.

Promising value in your title is a good way to encourage social shares too. This is great for increasing traffic to your content and raising brand awareness.

Here a few examples of benefit-driven titles from Swanky’s very own blog:

• How To Improve Your Shopify Store’s SEO with SEO Manager
• How To Make Your Ecommerce Brand Stand Out in a Crowded Market
• Conversion Rate Optimisation: How To Know Your Expert is the Real Deal

These titles act as effective ads for the content within each post. Each one communicates the value on offer to the reader if they click through, promising a solution to a common problem. Whether your content piece focuses on a new product, or an issue your customers commonly contend with, be sure to convey the benefits in your blog title.

#3 Use numbers in your titles

Including numbers and statistics in your blog post titles is a simple and effective way to make them more enticing to readers. In fact, studies suggest that headlines with numbers tend to generate 73% more social shares and engagement!

People are inherently attracted to numbers and lists. Their predictability means that they are easy for our organisational brains to process. Seeing them in a title signals to the audience that the format is going to be quick and easy to digest.

Be sure to use digits rather than words, as they make content easier to scan.

Global teatox ecommerce brand SkinnyMe Tea are a great example of how to use numbers in blog titles. Their audience will be attracted to the simplicity and organisation of the promised content, and will therefore be compelled to click through.

Source: SkinnyMe Tea Health Club blog

The odds are in your favour

And when it comes to the specific numbers you should use, go for odd digits where you can. Studies have shown that odd numbers are more effective at enticing visitors to click on a blog title and visit an article.

Firstly, odd numbers are perceived as more authentic and trustworthy than even numbers. With an odd numbered list, readers assume that there’s less chance of material being thrown in to create a nice round number of points. We’re less trusting of even numbers, as we can’t help but think that something has been added or omitted for balance.

Odd numbers have also been shown to aid the digestion and recall of information. This is because they create interest and are easier to remember than even numbers, which create symmetry.

#4 Create a sense of urgency

Urgency is one of the most powerful aspects of human psychology. Urgent situations make us suspend deliberate thought and act quickly.

You can harness the power of urgency when writing titles for your ecommerce blog posts. You want your readers to click through now, rather than putting off reading your content. Urgency-based titles will grab attention and spur action right away.

Take advantage of customers’ FOMO

We’ve all heard of FOMO (fear of missing out). It’s a real thing, and something to be capitalised on when crafting magnetic titles for your blog. People are more likely to respond quickly to a blog title with a sense of urgency, as they don’t want to miss out. The only way they can find out what’s on the other side of the title is to click through and read.

Trigger loss aversion

As humans, we’re wired to be loss-averse. Our desire not to lose something is greater than our desire to gain something.

Triggering a loss aversion response with your title is another way to increase urgency and encourage immediate action. In other words, by making it seem as though the user is going to lose something by not reading your content, they are more likely to act promptly and click through to your article.

Examples of urgent language

There are plenty of time-related words that you can infuse your titles with to create a sense of urgency. Here are some examples that we’ve come up with:

• 5 Quick Tips to Reduce Cart Abandonment Today
• Black Friday 2019 is Fast-Approaching – Are You Ready?
• Are You Losing Sales Because of Broken Website Links?

Words like ‘today’ and ‘now’ take advantage of the FOMO phenomenon. They create a sense of time-limited content that should be read immediately, thus inspiring quick action. Moreover, asking the audience if they are losing sales in the third example triggers a loss aversion response. This too prompts immediate action.

#5 Use emotive power words

When it comes to creating captivating titles for your ecommerce blog posts, there are certain emotive words that will help you triumph. These ‘power words’ can have a big influence on people and their actions – we simply can’t resist the psychological response triggered by them.

In the case of your content, these words have the power to turn store-browsers into blog-readers. They are a quick and easy way to increase your click-through rates.

Appealing to your customer’s emotions can also boost social shares. In a study by CoSchedule, posts with a higher Emotional Marketing Value get considerably more shares than those with a lower value.

Avoid using monotonous expressions such as ‘great’ and ‘interesting’. Instead, employ power words that really pack a punch. For beginner ecommerce copywriters, this is one of the easiest ways to up your title-writing game.

Take inspiration from our A-Z of power word examples, with these 26 heavyweights of the linguistic world:

• Astonishing
• Breathtaking
• Conquer
• Dominate
• Empower
• Force
• Glorious
• Hack
• Instantly
• Jaw-dropping
• Key
• Legendary
• Master
• New
• Optimal
• Phenomenal
• Quick
• Renewed
• Surprising
• Triumph
• Unique
• Vanquish
• Winning
• X … try as we might, we’re stumped with this one!
• You
• Zap

For more potent power words, check out this handy Optimonster list.

A word of caution when it comes to using power words: use them in moderation. Make sure they read naturally and are useful to the audience. Cramming a blog title with as many power words as possible reduces its emotional impact and can be really off-putting for readers.

#6 Optimise a blog title for SEO and social

This tip can be a tricky one to master. It can take a lot of practice to effectively integrate keywords and make maximum impact amongst your audience.

Every title you write should target a specific keyword with significant search volume. This should be a keyword that you know your audience is already searching for. This ensures that your blog title is optimised to drive targeted traffic through organic or paid search. However, be careful not to make your title sound forced or unnatural by cramming keywords in awkwardly and just hoping for the best.

With a keyword in mind, try to place it as closely as possible to the beginning of your title. This helps to grab attention and indicate relevance to search engines.

A useful tip to consider is to use a colon to separate the search-friendly keyword from the more emotive ‘social’ element of your title. For instance, consider the title below:

‘Best ways to counter cart abandonment: 5 quick wins to vanquish your ecommerce blues’

This title is optimised for search and social. It offers the best of both worlds. The first section prioritises the phrase which is likely to be typed into a search engine. People won’t include power words like ‘vanquish’ and ‘blues’ in their internet searches, so it’s a good idea to keep these in the second half of the title, after the colon. This second section appeals to people’s emotions with the use of power words. It’s a unique, catchy phrase that will pique people’s interest and compel them to click through. It’s also a phrase that will inspire sharing across social channels.

Here are some similar examples taken from the blog of Shopify-based power-brand Bulletproof:

Source: Bulletproof blog

#7 Write and test various titles

This may sound strange, but try to create several title variations for every content piece you publish. Share these with people in your team to get feedback on which one is best. Brainstorming is a really effective way of crafting the best possible titles for your blog posts. This collaborative process enables you to refine titles and explore other angles that might be more suitable.

For a fully optimised headline, you may even choose to A/B test different versions of your blog titles. This will help you determine which one performs better for your given conversion goal, whether this be click-through rate, number of shares, or average session time, for instance. A/B testing is a great way to drive additional value from your existing traffic, learn more about your customers, mitigate risk, and ultimately grow your ecommerce business faster.

In summary

So there you have it – our seven top tips for writing super-swanky blog titles that get your ecommerce content noticed.

When it comes to an ecommerce blog title, you simply can’t afford to get it wrong. A compelling headline will immediately pique people’s interest, inspire click-throughs and give your content the traffic it deserves!

Don’t have time to create compelling content for your ecommerce store? Get in touch with our friendly team of experts to find out more about our blogging and marketing services.