Deliver on Your Blog Post Headline’s Promise or You’ll Lose Readers

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I’ve been telling my blog consulting clients over and over again this one very important thing, and now I’m going to share it with you:

The headlines for your blog posts make a promise, and your post content needs to deliver on that promise.

I was suddenly reminded of this again while reading this excellent article on branding and action. Whether you realize it or not, the headline of your blog post is making a promise to the reader. One of Mr. Becker’s points in his article is that if the content fails to live up to the promise, that is a disappointment for the reader, and that unpleasant experience is now associated with you. With your brand.

If I go to the store and buy a bag of buffalo chicken wing corn chips, they had damn well better taste like buffalo chicken wings. If they don’t, I’m not going to be happy with my purchase and I won’t buy them ever again. As the old saying goes, it has to do what it says on the tin (well, bag in this case). Likewise, if your headline is How to Succeed in Tradeshow Networking, and all you do is talk about how it’s important to go to tradeshows and network… but you never provide any actual “how-to” advice, then as a reader I’m going to feel pretty ripped off.

Readers who feel disappointed won’t return—or even if they give you more chances, if you keep failing to deliver you’ll eventually lose them for good. They certainly buy whatever it is you’re selling. Okay, so you get it: you don’t want to fail at delivering on the headline’s promise. But that’s the least we could do.

What’s the best we could do? Exceed expectations. Your headline offers ten ways to braid your cat’s hair? Give them eleven. You told them things they were expecting, now tell them something unexpected (but still on topic). Don’t just give 30 links to useful articles, give them 30 links to the best damn articles on the web… ever.

You get the idea.

Tips for Delivering on Your Headline’s Promise

Write the headline first and make sure your post delivers what the headline promises. Treat your headline like a thesis statement: your post content has to support it and deliver on its promise.
If you can’t perfectly match up the content with what you wanted to promise in the headline, adjust the headline to suit the content. Maybe you wanted 10 tips but could only for the life of you come up with 8. Use 8 or drop the weakest one and give 7, a number people seem to like better.
Write the post first, figure out what it’s really delivering (unless it’s obvious), then write the headline. If you’re still not really sure, share the post with a friend or two and ask them what they think it’s about.
Count how many pieces of advice or tips you have in your post and write the headline to that. You wrote down all the tips you could think of and came up with 23? Now you have a headline that may begin: “23 tips for…”
If your headline says “how to” in it, there had better be step-by-step instructions in your post.

Why isn’t the headline for this post “5 Ways to Deliver on Your Headline’s Promise”? Because I needed to first make the case that you should be thinking about what your headline promises, and I needed you to understand why and what the consequences were if you failed.

Nobody wants to lose readers, so in my headline I gave you a curiosity-inducing way to lose readers you haven’t considered. The promise of my headline is a bit more implicit than normal: you were expecting me to explain what it means to deliver on a headline’s promise. You already know losing readers is bad. What wasn’t explicitly promised was how to do it. So I gave you the tips anyway and overdelivered on that promise.

For You:

Go look at the last three blog posts you wrote right now and look for parity between headline promise and post content: did you deliver? What would you change to fix it? Try making those changes and then re-sharing those posts with your readers. Then come back here and tell me what you found in the comments.

Filed Under: Blogging

http://courtcan.com Courtney Cantrell

Michael, this post reminds me of the time shortly after Ed and I moved to Chemnitz, Germany. His German was still rusty. He went grocery shopping and came home with, among other things, a can of “chicken”…or so he thought based on the picture on the label. The word on the label wasn’t quite “chicken,” but he didn’t realize that. When he opened the can and discovered chicken stomachs there was much grossed-out-ness and laughter. ; )

So, not only do our headlines have to deliver as promised, we also need to make sure our readers can understand the promise. If they don’t, the disappointment still happens.

Though, hopefully, they won’t be grossed out.
- http://remarkablogger.com Michael Martine
  
  That is a great story! Making the right promise for the right people is a topic for a different day.
http://writeclever.com/ Sue Neal

Hi Michael – thanks very much for that. It reinforces some advice I heard recently in a video by Karon Thackston – she says it’s a common copywriting error not to deliver on what you promise in your headline. There’s so much emphasis on the importance of grabbing people’s attention with killer titles, I guess there’s a danger we can forget that’s just the start – and I think there’s nothing more annoying than feeling you’ve been ‘had’ by an enticing headline that turns out to have little to do with what follows.

I came across a post recently with a title promising a large specific number of something-or-other, but it wasn’t at all clear from the content exactly how many points the author was offering and I felt the headline was a bit of a ‘con’.

From what I’ve learnt so far, the most successful marketers appear to be those who ‘over-deliver’ – as you suggest in your post, actually giving more than they promise. If we try to ‘trick’ people into reading our stuff with misleading headlines, we’re not going to get very far – as you say, the result could actually be counter-productive.

The simple point you make in this post reminds us how important it is to treat our readers with respect – and to write with honesty and integrity.

Thank you!

Sue
http://www.husplushave.dk/ Mikael

Hi Michael,

I am not sure if there is something wrong with my browser, but I can hardly read what you write. Only from my feed reader does it make sense. From what I see you’re using a font size 4 or 5. Who does that?

Is it my browser or like that by design?

/Mikael
- http://remarkablogger.com Michael Martine
  
  There is some funny glitch somewhere that causes that and I have to re-publish the site via Headway. Not sure what causes it but when my new design goes live soon it will be gone. If you reload the page now it should be ok.
  - http://www.husplushave.dk/ Mikael
    
    Thanks Michael. Back to normal now.
http://www.azcompudoc.com Howard Toole

Great article. I love the part about starting the post before you do the title, I’ll have to try that. This reminds me of most internet news stories. Example headline “the world is coming to an end!”…actual story….”joes world of fish tanks is closing”….. Yahoo and msn have a terrible habit of dramatic headlines with trivial non related stories.
http://waterfiltrationcoolers.com/ Christine Kelly

The web is a sound-byte culture, which is why Twitter works so well. If the headline is not instantly catchy but clear about the topic, I’ve seen huge abandonment rates on my posts. It’s different in my mind than writing for newspaper headlines.
http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/37777/?lang=en darwin

although i agree with you entirely, isnt it the other persons interpretation of your words that causes the problem, if i say something to you, someone will intepret it one way, another will interpret in another way
- http://remarkablogger.com Michael Martine
  
  This is true, but the better you know the mind of your target, the more likely it is your headline will be taken the way you want.
- http://www.maxiworkoutsexposed.com/ Ida Spencer
  
  I also agree with darwin. Sometimes the way the readers interpret the blog post couldn’t be the way you intend to put it. But anyways it is better to ensure that the headline delivers the promises.
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amber

“This is very true. I find it more difficult to come up with a good title for my blog posts than it is to write the actual content. So many people are quick to judge a post by its title, just like judging a book by its cover. It is important to make sure your blog content ties in with the title. It’s kind of funny when you read a “top 10…” blog post and then they only list 8 things. Blogs are kind of like restaurants…one bad experience and you’ll likely never go back.”
- http://remarkablogger.com Michael Martine
  
  Love your restaurant comparison.
Sadie Thompson

This is a good point. I am a new blogger and I know when I read other people’s blogs I am most attracted to the most concise and organized blogs. I never thought about the role that the title plays. I will focus on this idea as I approach my next blog. Thanks Michael!
http://remarkablogger.com Michael Martine

You’re welcome!
Connie

My boss who’s an expert article writer has taught me so many stuff about posting blog posts or articles. He would always tell me not to make up nonsense headlines and contents because that would mean losing a lot of our respected readers.

Anyway, thanks for stating or including some of the reminders that I keep on forgetting.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.redimedic.homefirstaid&hl=en julie

I tend to stay if the post is pleasing to my eyes and not a long lengthy one rather than emphasis on the title, there´s so much hype these days about having to grab peoples attention with the most amazing title ever,I dolike the idea of stating a post before doing the title – the title will come as you go along eh!
- http://remarkablogger.com Michael Martine
  
  Yes and no. Certainly there’s more than one way to write a post, but some ways are better than others. The romantic notion of feeling inspired, writing something amazing (which usually isn’t) and capping it with a clever title pretty much gets you nowhere because it doesn’t take into account how people consume online content.
  
  There are only 2 ways people will find your content: search or referral. In both cases, the only thing you have to convince someone to click the link and read your post is the strength of your headline. Chances are that if you knew your purpose and keywords in advance for the post and then wrote a post that fulfilled that headline’s promise, you’re going to do much better.
http://www.fotovoltaika-systems.gr/ George

As all your articles, simple and to the point!
http://www.hotelreinigung.net Alain

I wish more bloggers/webmasters would take what was said here to heart… It is really dissapointing when you’re looking for information and seem to find an article that delivers this information because of the headline… and then there is absolutely nothing, nada, niente. This has happened to me often, and I am not giving those sites second chances anymore. On the other hand, I really learned to appreciate websites that deliver what they promise.
http://www.littlegreenplane.com/ Penny

Winning your readers’ trust is a must for all bloggers! Thanks for the very useful tips
Born27

I guess there’s a danger we can forget that’s just the start – and I think there’s nothing more annoying than feeling you’ve been ‘had’ by an enticing headline that turns out to have little to do with what follows.
Natalie

Readers need active, engaging content to remain interested and become regular visitors. The first things a visitor sees when visiting a blog are the header image, site layout and the headlines for your latest posts. Crafting an attention-grabbing headline requires you to pull from your creative reserves.
http://getalaptopforfree.com/ Zinedine

I must admit that reading the title and not getting the stuff later on is sometimes frustrating. But I am used to these types of tricks and usually I know that the title may be a bit procreatory.
http://www.redimedic.com Lenin Lema

I hope a lot of people get to read this post and take it to heart. When someone visits your site, it takes seconds for them to decide if they’re gonna stay or not, they see your header image, site layout and the headlines for your latest posts and decide on that.
http://websitefromscratch.org Tune

Hey Michael,

Good point and I couldn’t agree more. The other aspect of writing good headlines is getting the attention of your readers, to maximize the number of people who actually read what you have to say. So write headlines that get peoples attention and make sure you deliver what you promise, then you should be good to go

Tune
http://runescape.salmoneus.net Rich

Michael, good idea on writing up the post before actually coming up with the title. Normally I do it the other way ’round, but I think I’ll give that a try for my next post and see what happens.

I’ve always tried to deliver on my promises when I post, but sometimes I’m afraid that even the frequency between posts can have an effect on user trust. Publish too infrequently and users will go elsewhere.
http://www.blogg.ekokul.se Anna

Ive been writing for 20 years now, and I find your advice great and to the point. But I think it has always been about common sense, whether you are writing an article or a blog post. Seeing it through the readers eyes before publishing always does the trick.
http://globalofficeworks.com/ Lloyd

I am a start up writer/blogger and I face a lot of challenges specially on the right words to say.

Does it come naturally or you have some resources too?

Thanks a lot, this write up is very helpful to me
- http://remarkablogger.com Michael Martine
  
  Lloyd, the better you know your audience/customers the better you’ll speak their language. To get to know them better, be in constant communication with them. Then you’ll see what words they use, how they think of and phrase problems.
http://dansk-catering.dk Kristoffer

Hi Michael,I know it\’s off topic, but there\’s a problem with your blogs design on my laptot. It\’s a 13 MacBook Air and I\’m running Chrome. I can e-mail you a screeenshot if you\’d like..?
http:/7www.familiejul.dk Anna

Thank you for sharing those necessary and good advices about blogging. You write in a good and clear tone so it is easy to read and understand!
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amit tiwari

thanks for the cool 5 point advice . A title to the post is the first impression to the reader, its very difficult to make a headline and deliver the content that justifies it. i liked the point adjusting your headlines the most.

amit