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Words can鈥檛 do everything on their own鈥攁 strongly branded blog will entice readers much more than an emphatic headline

Digital channels have grown crowded this year. The events industry is on pause and no small number of businesses have diverted that spend to online media. The resultant battle for clicks is nothing short of epic.

to address new channels. Paid search and social spend both rose more than 25%, says the IAB, and yet , according to The CMO Survey.

The issue has come to a particularly painful head with blogs, where digital content operations were not built to navigate these waters. We鈥檙e coming off of the decade dominated by content marketing where good advice was stripped to its bare essentials and repeated endlessly, often incorrectly. The experts all said 鈥渜uality鈥� but companies heard 鈥渧olume鈥� and now everyone鈥檚 armed for daily, multi-channel content publishing in a world where more is no longer more鈥攊t鈥檚 all just noise.

Amid this maelstrom, I began wondering: How does my team write more enticing headlines? Ones that actually get noticed? What I discovered was that the key has very little do with the writing itself鈥攁 rather tough pill to swallow for many writers. In the inbox or on Google,.

In short, your blog team would do well to focus a lot less on 鈥渆motional鈥� or 鈥渟trong鈥� words in their titles and a lot more on the blog鈥檚 branded appearance, style and tone.

Headline Analyzers Are a False Prophet

Every month, more than an estimated 800,000 writers visit , a web tool designed to 鈥渙ptimize鈥� your headlines. It is incredibly popular. Nearly everyone I spoke to in my informal study had heard of and used it.

The analyzer is built on the assumption that adding more strong, novel or emotional words will increase the rate at which people click. The assumptions here are many. Who decides what word counts as emotional? What constitutes a strong word? Where exactly is this data coming from? You might think such a highly-trafficked tool would be based on some analysis of actual headline success, but it seems not to be.

I ran a test and found that the analyzer seemed to disdain the headlines from articles that were among the most successful from publications like Wired and blogs from companies like Google, Shopify, and Whole Foods. None scored higher than 62%. Instead, the analyzer delighted in lingual rubbish: 鈥淩are ecstatic exploit killing it nematode鈥� earned a 76%.

Below, headlines that were hugely successful everywhere but in the analyzer.

• How a 鈥楧iabolic鈥� Beetle Survives Being Run Over By a Car = 59%

• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Storms Twitch = 29%

• How Brand Discovery Is Changing for Today’s Consumer = 60%

• Building a Niche Board Games Business Through a Million-Dollar Crowdfunding Campaign = 38%

And so on.

If the headline analyzer can鈥檛 confirm real-world success, can it really be predictive? And furthermore, why were some admittedly drab headlines from the publications and blogs I discovered still so successful? For example, 鈥淲hat Our Leaders Can Do Now鈥� and 鈥淢arket Update鈥� were objectively uninteresting, but universally read and shared. It had to be that there was something more I didn鈥檛 yet understand.

Containers, Context and Clicks

, I gathered headlines I both liked and didn鈥檛 like into a spreadsheet for analysis. When the pandemic went into full-force, I abandoned the project, only to return three months later to find that I didn鈥檛 recognize any of the headlines. Some that I鈥檇 ranked highly, such as
鈥淲hat Happened to Lee?鈥� no longer held any interest. It was only upon revisiting the articles themselves, in their natural environment, that I understood.

Below, the deliciously moody thumbnail is what had caught my eye.

This led me to explore the idea of 鈥渃ontainers,鈥� or the context within which all of these headlines lived. Time after time, I found headlines to be far more interesting in their original form. The text, I realized, could not be divorced from all else鈥攖he author, the typography, the image, what鈥檚
happening in the news that makes the headline relevant, and so on.

Each of these elements is part of the whole message鈥攖he entire blog鈥檚 brand. And each matters. The author, for example, can even be their own brand. You may not know what the business Ahrefs does, but if Ann Handley wrote the article they published, and you like her, you鈥檒l read it. At the more extreme end, you may not be an avid reader of The New York Times, but if the morning鈥檚 opinion piece is and he makes you laugh, you may give it a try.

Do you recall the 鈥渙bjectively uninteresting鈥� headlines from earlier? Below, I鈥檝e added the author and context back in, and you can see why they were successful:

鈥淲hat Our Leaders Can Do Now鈥� 鈥� written by Bill Gates in March 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 scare.

鈥淢arket Update鈥� 鈥� written by the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, from the same time period.

Once apprised to the idea that sender matters as much as the subject line鈥攑erhaps even more鈥擨 started to realize this phenomenon everywhere I looked. I click LinkedIn articles because of the person who posted them. Sometimes, I click rather drab titles from otherwise interesting people, assuming they must not know something I don鈥檛. It鈥檚 the same in the inbox,
on social media, and in search.

People click for many reasons鈥攁 clever headline being only one of them. And that鈥檚 led me to the conclusion that the most powerful thing you can do to increase your clicks in a raucous digital publishing environment is not to visit the headline analyzer, but to instead ask, what is our brand communicating that will make people want to click? Then, alter your blog to make that brand clearer.

To Improve Your Blog Branding

I do realize that many readers may not have direct access to their site鈥檚 design. Saying, 鈥淛ust update the blog鈥� may come across a bit like telling someone who鈥檚 hungry to start a bakery. It is difficult. But it is, I promise, the most effective thing you can do long term. If you don鈥檛 hold the keys to the site, appeal to those who do. Publishing is only growing more crowded and this will only grow more important.

The good news for some is that you don鈥檛 need permission from the entire business to revamp your content鈥檚 brand. Lots of content teams take an 鈥渁sk for forgiveness鈥� approach and only after they鈥檝e proven its success, pitch it to the entire company. You can even experiment by branding specific channels to see how audiences react.

Take Duolingo for instance. The language learning app has a mission that鈥檚 staid and corporate: 鈥淧ersonalized learning.鈥� But : 鈥淭o help you learn and expand your view of the world.鈥� While the app is full of fake-feeling scenarios like 鈥淟et鈥檚 find the library,鈥� the podcast interviews people about their lives and covers tough topics like genocide, kidnapping, and gender rights. I don鈥檛 know who created the podcast, but it has my undying loyalty, and that transfers onto the parent brand.

A Four-Step Process for Blog Re-Branding

1. Decide what you鈥檙e promising your audience
Write a mission statement (what you do) and a vision statement (the change you鈥檇 like to see) that are specific to the blog. What do you stand for? How will you achieve it? Who is the blog intended to help?

2. Alter the blog to make your position clear
If needed, rename your publication to fit that vision. (There are no wrong names except, 鈥淏log.鈥�) Add a one-sentence tagline that summarizes the mission and links to an 鈥渁bout us鈥� page that goes into further detail. Then, the design changes. If you are missing any of those pictured, add them to your site. They are crucial for helping readers understand who the sender is and vital if you, the publisher, are to build a relationship that makes them want to click.

3. Devise and uphold strict editorial standards
Where many corporate blogs go wrong is they鈥檙e a bit of everything for everybody. Which means that rather than thrill one audience so much they鈥檒l click anything you write, it bores everyone equally. 

To uphold your standards, publish a mini style guide, which is easier than it sounds. As you take or receive feedback, collect all of those preferences in one document that serves as a checklist for anyone writing for the blog. 

To ensure you publish only the highest quality stories, manage a content backlog and accept only on-brand stories. Then, edit ruthlessly to ensure consistency and quality. 

4. Defend the brand
By now you understand the value of clear and precise blog branding. But these topics probably aren鈥檛 generally understood within your company and you鈥檒l have to educate others about the necessity of narrowing your focus to increase your effectiveness. Publish a blog guideline which begins by explaining the blog brand and its importance. Then, decline off-brand stories, partnerships, channels, so you can focus on your mission. When you have a strongly branded blog where people recognize you simply by the topics of stories you choose, it will sing. 

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Do all of this and you鈥檒l unlock a hidden marketing achievement: You will have generated a subconscious click machine that guides your audience anywhere they find you, irrespective of the word choice. When people see your articles in a Google search, on LinkedIn, or in a newsletter they鈥檒l jump to engage. 

And where competitors may occasionally ensure your readers with the offhand clever headline, their success will be ephemeral. Yours is rooted in something much deeper鈥攁 brand and a relationship with the audience鈥攁nd that鈥檚 the sort of success that compounds and builds upon itself.