How to Write a Video Headline: 5 Rules That Get Clicks

Welcome to the video made simple podcast. I'm your host, Chris Schwager. And today's question is from Olivia. And Olivia wants to know how to make a good headline for video. This is a really important part of the video marketing process because if you can't get your headline, right, you can't entice your viewers to want to watch, and therefore they don't, and your video doesn't get played. That's no good. So Olivia, let me help you.

The secret to getting your videos working is to get the attention it deserves by having a catchy headline. A title that says something like, learn more about our service here may not be as descriptive as it should be an enticing people. And it's not overly interesting. So it doesn't really entice people to watch. About the company is another classic that really is not sort of as entertaining as interesting as you might like, using adjectives like innovative, earth friendly, timeless, not compelling. And these types of things also lack the emotion, you know, you want to give people an understanding of what they're going to get as a result of watching the video.

If the title is boring, their attention is flaky and vague. And then of course, their eyes wander to other things and other videos on the page. So before writing your headline, the main thing you want to start considering is what is the video actually about? Because sometimes the simplest titles might be right in front of you. What is your audience? Therefore, why are they watching? include that and understand that as part of your headline.

And what do you want them to do? What action Do you really want them to take, if you understand those key points, you're in a really good place to start being creative and writing a headline that compels people to want to watch.

So here's five things that will make your headline writing a little bit easier.

It's got to be brief, it should be a summary of what's going to be included in the video. And by brief, I mean, keep it reasonably short, you know, so if it takes a long time for people to read the headline, and the headline takes up too much space, it's otherwise supplemented by dot dot dot because physically, that headline is way too long and actually doesn't fit on the, in the desired area, the LOD part of the page, and that's a problem because, you know, you don't have to kind of get them to read the whole thing, that's a big problem.

Secondly, be on topic, you know, tell viewers what they're gonna expect from the video, avoid misleading them, you know, as it's gonna leave them feeling cheated, and it might hurt your reputation instead, you know, you don't want that sour taste of them thinking well hang on a sec, I was actually looking for this, and they've given me something different. There's nothing worse than trying to over engineer a title for the sake of it being clickbait, but they're not delivering the video that you're intending. And then people just leave feeling like this a sour taste in the mouth. And you know, it's a bit of a waste of time, and you don't want that.

Thirdly, be unique about it. And that's harder than it might seem. But you've got to add relevant words to make it easier for people to understand why they should watch, right? So YouTube was really good in its day at inventing the whole how to methodology to your titles, you know, by simply putting how to at the start of your title insinuates to the viewer that whatever they're going to watch, they're going to learn how to do it. So that's been highly effective in the world of YouTube. And you know, nowadays, if you want to know how to do something you most likely put in how to at the start of your sentence, and you'll pretty much get the video that delivers the response to your question. So that is a great example of a way to make your title way more catchy and useful.

Having a keyword focus. Now, there's probably not a lot of talk about this as there should be. But having a key phrase or a key word including your title can be incredibly powerful for optimizing for instance, your website or YouTube channel. For instance, having that having say video marketing Sydney or something to that effect included in your title is a great way to be search friendly and offer a piece of content that is related to that specific search term. So in just under, say if you have an understanding or insights as to what people are originally looking for, then create a title that's around that search term because that will give you a lot of optimization, and SEO benefits for your web page or your YouTube channel. That will then in turn, offer more views of your video and we all want more views.

Number five and final being intriguing about it something that solves the problem touches people's emotion promises, juicy secrets. Really, really powerful stuff. There is a title generator that you can search for online search, headline generator, for instance online and you'll find, you'll find a whole bunch of software that'll enable you to do this. And to find the right balance of emotion and the length and making sure that you've got enough descriptive words and adjectives and nouns and all that type of stuff, which is really great, you can get carried away with it, it's important not to get too buried in it.

But as a general guide for you, it can be incredibly powerful. When you're stumped at what headline to choose and how to dazzle up a headline for your video. If you have a go at one of these five things, at least, probably people will appreciate how easy it was to search to understand and to watch your video online. And we all want more views and more binge watches. And this is a great tactic for you to be able to do that.

Make the video work for you and having a catchy headline is one of the most important ways that you can increase your visibility of your video. A good video title or headline gives more traction from prospects. Good video titles make people want to watch bad video titles do nothing, so make it a good one.

And Olivia, thank you so much for asking your question how to write a good headline for your video. If you use these methods of coach you through to generate compelling titles that your audience must click. I'm sure this is going to be increasingly very helpful for your viewership. And for listeners. What has you feeling overwhelmed? submit your video marketing question to ridgefilms.com.au/question for your chance to get coached by me. Thanks for listening and see you next week.