Original: “Transforming Anger Into Strength”
- “What If I Told You – You Can Turn Anger Into a Strength?”
This headline is effective and catches readers’ attention more easily than other headlines might because it builds up anticipation by saying, “What if I told you?” It’s effective to make a person stop and read the headline because it suggests that there’s a piece of information that they don’t know yet, but they can find out more by clicking on it. This is a classic and effective curiosity gap that gets people’s attention effectively by imposing that there’s more to learn, which is a great way to get people to click on headlines.
This headline is also more conversational rather than looking like a title because it feels like someone is talking to the readers directly. By adding that human tone to it it makes it more engaging and easier to connect with. This is exactly what we talked about in class, headlines should be clear to read and easy to understand because a reader shouldn’t have to figure out what you are saying or guess what kind of information will be provided, it should also sound natural and not sound like a title for Oxford University, because that will go right over peoples heads if it doesn’t use plain language.
This headline is also turning a negative trait into a positive one by telling readers Did you know?
And then giving them the peace of information. This will start to get readers to wonder more, especially for those people who see anger as something they can only control, not change, it challenges their own opinions and beliefs which is a very effective motivational factor to read the article because people love to be right and want to see if the article is all bs or if it actually changes their opinion. It’s an effective way to create curiosity and a space for learning something new, so the reader will feel that they will get something out of this by clicking on it if it resonates with them and that’s the point of a headline, to provide readers with something, whether that’s knowledge, an emotion, a reality check, etc.
I also once again included “you” in the headline because it makes the reader feel like it’s about them by making it sound more personal and like the headline is written specifically for them.
- Finally! An Empowering Way To Turn Your Anger Into Strength
I went into one of the slide shows (Briscoe- W6-B “Power words for customer service”), and I went through the list of all the words that can be effective in headlines and I chose to use “Empowering.” I chose this word because it sounds motivational and completely changes the tone of the headline by making it sound like the reader has the power and control to create the change themselves. It makes it sound like the article is going to provide information so readers take control of their emotions instead of just being a boring informational article with facts and statistics. This creates a motive for motivation and makes it action-driven by luring the reader to click on it if they want to change and empower their negative emotions into positive ones.
By wording the headline this way, it focuses on making it clear that the reader will be rewarded with a positive outcome if they decide to read and learn more. Rather than making it sound like a “How to” headline. The “how-to” wouldn’t be as effective because how-to is too broad and doesn’t really speak to the reader. It makes it sound more like the headline is meant for everybody, which makes it less special to the reader, making it less likely for them to click on it.
Lastly, this headline carefully implements a lot of important things we covered in class such as using impactful words in our headlines to trigger emotions and encourage CTA’s, because readers are way more likely to click on a headline that makes them feel inspired, curious, or even hopeful rather than one that just states facts because that doesn’t resonate with anyone. That is why it’s so important to write headlines as if you were writing them directly to a persona in your audience that you want to reach. Knowing exactly what your audience wants and wants to hear is crucial for creating an effective headline that can increase the chances of them clicking on it.
This small tiny change by just adding a powerful word makes a huge difference in how the headline connects with readers emotionally and psychologically.
- The Ultimate Guide To Turn Your Anger Into a Strength
When the phrase “The Ultimate Guide” is used in a headline, it instantly feels like the article is going to be super informative and have everything that a reader is looking for. It’s going to have exactly what you need to do with extreme details of how to change your anger into your strength.
If you think about it, when people struggle with emotions like anger, they don’t want to read a lousy article that isn’t going to bring them value in any way whatsoever or help them change their ways. They want real answers with actual guides and steps and maybe even real-life examples to back the information up and make the reader feel more connected. This headline creates high expectations for readers because they feel that if they click on the headline, they’re gonna get a full breakdown of content and valuable information that can bring some real benefit. That is exactly what this article provided when I clicked on it and read it, so this is why I know this headline would be effective for readers who also struggle with anger like myself and had no idea they could use different tools to implement changes.
I remember in class I learned that certainty and authority in headlines matter a lot because people are more likely to click if they feel like the content is trustworthy and complete with valuable information This is why “Ultimate Guide” is super powerful for headlines that plan on giving their readers a good amount of important information that can benefit them, and if that wasn’t the case then we’d want to stay away from that phrase because it would become clickbait and we need to stay completely away from doing that because it will hurt our reputation and have readers not trust what we have to say and give.