I created more than 10,000 titles a year. I summarized 9 rules for titles that will make users remember them.

I have been engaged in new media operations for more than a year. I dare not say that I have made great achievements in coming up with titles , but in this year, I have come up with no less than 10,000 titles. Therefore, I have boldly summarized the 9 essential elements of a good title, as well as the thinking process of creating a title from scratch.

Let me first talk about the time I spend on titles in my daily work.

This varies from person to person. Our new media team has always attached great importance to titles, so many important articles or courses will have 5-10 titles in advance, and everyone will vote to select the best one, which will take about half an hour to an hour. After all, a person's power is limited, and routines are also limited.

Most public accounts have the need to reprint articles from other public accounts. At this time, we have to think about whether the original title can be better. If we just copy, paste and add pictures, then we are no different from porters. For new media editors, it is imperative to have the ability to turn decay into magic.

For the same article, the title you changed has a 10 times greater circulation than the title he changed. This is your outstanding feature.

When you get an article written by someone else and want to understand the content of the article, what it talks about, and what the core is, most people's first reaction is to read it from beginning to end. If some articles are difficult to understand, you may have to read them several times. This method is not bad, but it is a waste of time. For those working in new media, time is money, and there should be a quicker way to understand the outline of an article.

How did I do it?

Look at the title and the major headings, beginning and end of the article. It only takes 2-3 minutes to outline the general outline of the article. Generally speaking, there will be an introduction at the beginning to tell readers what kind of story the article is going to tell. The ending will add the finishing touch and summarize the entire article. The main title acts as a thread, connecting the beginning and the end.

After knowing what the article is about, you should go back and look at the original title to see if there is anything that can be optimized? Most of the time, the title can be better because the author basically comes up with the title alone and his or her thinking is not broad enough. As outsiders, we will have better inspiration and ideas.

How can we ensure that our title is better than the original title?

At this time, you need to read the article through. Note that reading through here means reading it carefully 1-2 times. Find the key sentences in the article and mark them out. Some golden sentences are hidden in an inconspicuous corner of the article. Moreover, in many cases, a key sentence can be used as a title because the key sentence itself is enough to touch people's hearts.

This will bring up the 9 elements of a good title that I will mention below. I will go into detail later and will not elaborate here.

For original articles, the idea here is somewhat different from changing other people’s titles.

As the author of the article, we will inevitably fall into self-satisfaction, thinking that we know the readers best and that the title must be the one that users like to read the most.

In fact, it is not like that. As the saying goes, those who are involved are often confused, while those who are not involved can see clearly. I have seen too many articles written by awesome authors whose contents are really good and touching enough, but no one is interested in them when they are circulated on their own accounts. It is not until they are reposted by other big accounts and given a more contagious title that the author’s hard work is not buried.

Here is a method that I particularly like to use, and it is also a very effective method:

Find the pain points.

If a title hits your pain point, either describing the phenomenon or providing a solution, either way, you will be interested in clicking on it.

For example, Mimi Meng ’s titles such as “The century-old question: why doesn’t the person you love love me” and “Who the hell cares about right or wrong, I just want you to support me”, etc., all hit the hearts of users.

For example, we target Internet professionals, so we often have titles like this:

"Faced with the dilemma of low WeChat opening rate and difficulty in user growth , how can new media operations break through?" 》Identify pain points and provide solutions.

" WeChat Mini Programs are here. Do product developers and operators still need to beg programmers for help?" 》It hits the pain point and is a very common phenomenon in daily work.

Titles like this tend to get a lot of clicks .

This method has always worked. In order to avoid being self-satisfied, we can choose to be a bystander. For our own original articles, this way of giving titles is perfect.

After talking about the ideas for coming up with a title, let’s move on to the main point I want to talk about today: the 8 elements a good title should have.

You may have heard of some of them, which is normal, because there are so many awesome copywriting masters, and the methods they summarized are timeless.

Factor 1: Understand users and cater to their needs

Know what kind of titles your users like.

Not all so-called good titles that are forwarded crazily in the circle of friends are applicable.

If you are an emotional public account, and the title contains keywords such as first love, women, scumbag, marriage, cheating, etc., the opening rate of the title will definitely not be low. Your audience likes to read this kind of articles. The appearance of these keywords will give them a feeling. Well, they want to click in when they see the title. They usually like to read this kind of articles the most~

If you are a media or venture capital public account, and the title contains keywords such as entrepreneurship , financing , BAT , valuation, trend... users will be very interested in the content of the article. The audience who follow this type of public account will pay close attention to the latest developments in the circle, and they are eager to get first-hand information.

If you are an e-commerce public account, and the title contains keywords such as "amounts of discounts", "promotions", "discounts", etc., users will click on it immediately. For them, nothing is more important than price cuts and discounts.

In short, every public account should have its own keyword library, and know what kind of keywords in the title will make users more willing to click on it. Otherwise, no matter how brilliant your title is, if your audience doesn’t understand it, doesn’t buy it, or doesn’t like it, it won’t have a good effect.

Element 2: Simple and easy to understand

First of all, we must ensure that the title of the article published by the official account does not exceed two lines displayed on the mobile phone, and at most three lines. Anything more than three lines is simply inhumane.

For example, in the screenshot below, those who read the title marked in red, click in, and then forward it must be true fans.

No one spends more than 5 seconds reading a title. Do you have the patience to read a long title of thirty or forty words?

Even if users like the content very much and forward it to their friends circle, the title will be displayed incomplete. Isn’t this a waste of good content?

For example, in the screenshot below, because the title is not displayed completely, it is completely unclear what the article is trying to express.

So, how many words would be appropriate to fully express the author's intention while not being too long to display on a mobile phone?

Take iPhone 6 as an example:

If the title of the headline article is displayed in two lines, the number of words in the title needs to be controlled within 34 words.

If the title of the next article or other location is displayed in two lines, the number of words in the title needs to be controlled within 31 words.

If you want the title of the article forwarded to your Moments to be displayed in full, the number of words in the title must be limited to 36 characters.

In addition to being concise, the title should also be easy to understand, meaning that users can understand it at a glance without having to think about it.

For example, the titles of the following two articles

The first article: "How can operations grasp the rhythm when facing products in different periods? 》

Sense of rhythm? ? ? Many people are confused and don’t understand the relationship between operations and sense of rhythm, so they have to think about this question for a long time at first glance. Since it is so difficult to understand and my time is so precious, why should I waste time clicking on an article that I don’t understand?

In fact, this article is an original article by Zhihu great Mr. Zhang Liang. The content is very good, but because of the title, the number of readers is average.

The second article, "3 essential image-finding skills for new media professionals"

Keywords: new media people, essential, picture-finding skills. The title is very ordinary, without any fancy adjectives, but you can tell what the article will be about at a glance.

Therefore, although both articles talk about operational practical knowledge , the reading volume differs by nearly 10 times.

How to judge whether a title is understandable enough? Send it to the company group or the user group you set up. You don’t need to ask them to evaluate the quality of the title. Just tell them whether they can be understood at a glance and whether it requires time to think.

You should know that the opening rate of an obscure title and an easy-to-understand title may be 10 times different~

Element 3: Contrast and comparison

That is, there is a strong contrast between the before and after, and there is a comparison. Titles that include this factor can often give users a sense of impact.

For example, the following two topics:

《Teach you how to create an H5 plan that will attract millions of users in 5 steps》

10 Efficient Methods that New Operators Must Master

In fact, these two topics themselves can get passing scores. The keywords such as "million", "5 steps", and "10 efficient methods" can attract some users to click in, but it is not good enough.

What if it is changed to the following?

"H5 Marketing from a Novice to an Expert: 5 Steps to Teach You How to Create an H5 Planning Scheme with Millions of Users"

From scratch to professionalism, 10 efficient methods that new operators must master

The first topic was added with “From Novice to Expert”, and the second topic was added with “From Zero to Expert”. This immediately makes the user feel involved: it turns out that this article can help me go from a novice to an expert and become a more professional person. Then I must take a look.

Here, contrast and comparison are used, that is, the novice and the expert, zero-sum and professional.

For example, the following question:

"WeChat has updated a new feature called 'Hot Articles in Moments', come and take a look!" 》

The title is concise and easy to understand, and every update of WeChat attracts a lot of attention. From this point of view, this title is already pretty good. But it can be better.

"WeChat's new function made Baidu and Toutiao break out in a cold sweat"

WeChat updated a new feature that made Baidu and Toutiao sweat. Here, WeChat, Baidu, and Toutiao, isn’t there a strong contrast? I may have thought that WeChat’s new features were nothing special, but since they shocked Baidu and Toutiao, I had to check them out.

It can be seen that the clever use of contrast and difference can make a good title even better. I dare not say that it can reach 100,000+, but it will definitely increase your article opening rate exponentially.

Of course, in my opinion, the topic that used the contrast to the extreme is the one that went viral on WeChat Moments before: "The difference between a copywriter with a monthly salary of 30,000 and a copywriter with a monthly salary of 3,000"

Factor 4: Use the process of elimination to arouse curiosity

There are many ways to arouse curiosity. Here I will focus on a method that I often use, which is the clever use of the process of elimination.

Look at this topic:

"Communication is the most important skill for a great operator"

After watching it, most people might feel, oh. The title summarizes what the article is trying to express. Is there any need to go into more details?

"Besides creativity, execution and methodology, what other skills are essential for great operations?" 》

What if I change it to this? List the common phenomena and then eliminate them one by one. An awesome operator must not only have creativity, execution, methodology, but also... This will arouse the curiosity of many people. In the minds of most operators, creativity, execution, and methodology are enough. Do awesome operators need to have other skills? Out of curiosity, these people will click in to take a look.

It’s indeed a routine, but it works well. Everyone has curiosity. If you cast a veil over your title and make users click in involuntarily, your goal will be achieved.

Element 5: List pain points and trigger resonance

I have mentioned the pain points before, and I will explain them in detail here.

Let’s look at this topic first:

"How to enter first-tier Internet companies such as BAT to do operations? 》

At first glance, the topic is indeed very attractive. Entering a BAT company to work in operations is the dream of many people. It can indeed resonate with many people and make them want to click on it, but I would like to say that adding a few more pain points would be icing on the cake.

"With zero experience, poor foundation, and no connections, how can I enter first-tier Internet companies such as BAT to do operations?" 》

What if it is changed to the above? I set several premises, which are the current pain points of many people. Zero experience, poor foundation, and no connections. It touched the hearts of more people at once. The operation business itself has not been popular for long, and most people are still at the stage with poor foundation and no connections. I have listed the pain points directly here.

Some of our users are engaged in community operations , so we will use topics like this to get in sync with them: "No users, no activity, difficult to manage, no monetization, how can community operations avoid these pitfalls?" 》

Some of our users are engaged in new media operations, so we have listed the most common pain points of new media people to attract them to open the article: "How to do new media to quickly increase followers and gain high readership and massive forwarding? 》

This type of question has a higher open rate.

No matter what user group your public audience is targeting, your existence must be to solve their pain points. Moreover, users are sensitive to their pain points because they are desperate for solutions, otherwise why would they pay attention to you? Therefore, if there are pain points in the title, the opening rate will definitely increase significantly.

Factor 6: Use numbers to improve your image

Numbers are more intuitive than other Chinese characters. Clever use of numbers can instantly improve the quality of the question several times.

For example, this topic:

20 efficient methods to teach you how to do content marketing

In itself, it is attractive enough. It does one thing well and provides 20 methods. It is convincing and attractive enough, but it is not impressive enough and can be better.

《36 pages of PPT, 6,000 words, 20 efficient methods to explain content marketing》

What if that's the case? Add to that a 36-page PPT and 6,000 words, doesn’t it seem more impactful?

There are two more topics:

"Former senior operations manager at Xiaomi: What are my experiences in doing user operations well? 》

"Former senior operator of Xiaomi: After three years at Xiaomi, I summarized the four most important tips for user operations"

The second title is more specific, and "Xiaomi 3 years, 4 experiences" - these two keywords will give users an expectation. This takes the topic to a higher level.

Factor 7: Use your influence to enhance your persuasiveness

The presence of some familiar brands and well-known figures in the title often enhances the credibility of the article itself. Once users trust you, they will naturally want to open the article.

For example, this topic:

《Counting the 9 most heartfelt marketing cases in 2016》

As a user, when I see this title, I will click on it out of curiosity, but the motivation is not strong, and I feel that these marketing cases have little to do with me.

"The Palace Museum Taobao , Durex ... A review of the 9 most thoughtful marketing cases in 2016"

What if I change the title to this? I took out several classic marketing cases mentioned in the article, Durex and Forbidden City Taobao, which are all well-known brands for marketers , and their marketing cases are often seen on WeChat Moments. Therefore, with these two "big legs" in the title, users will be more convinced of these 9 most heartfelt marketing cases and will be willing to click in.

There are similar topics like this:

Mantou’s recent 100,000+ headline: “ Lu Han ’s 40 million fans are all super operators with a monthly salary of 30,000 yuan” (click here to view)

Taking advantage of Lu Han’s momentum, on the first day Lu Han announced his relationship, Mantou’s new media team published such an article on the second day. The number of readers exceeded 100,000+ within 24 hours. This can be said to be a typical example of taking advantage of a big shot’s momentum to publish a topic.

The day before yesterday, the gravitational waves announced by astronomers was a hot topic, and Mantou immediately published an article: "What happened to the Peking University student who once explained gravitational waves to Lei Jun and Li Yanhong ? 》

The topic not only includes Internet giants like Lei Jun and Robin Li who have their own traffic , but also the super hot topic of "gravitational waves". It’s hard for such an article not to be popular.

Element 8: Internal information, highlighting scarcity

For example, the following topic:

"6000 words to explain the most professional user research and demand analysis methods"

It contains 6,000 words, and is very professional. It is actually very fascinating, and makes one want to open it, but it is not convincing enough, nor is it very scarce.

"NetEase internal information: 6000 words to explain the most professional user research and demand analysis methods"

What if it is this topic? NetEase’s internal information is definitely not easily available, but if we give it to you, is the scarcity high enough? Are users very interested in clicking in and taking a look at NetEase’s internal information?

Element 9: Tell a story that makes readers feel empathy

Everyone loves stories. Good stories will make users listen patiently, evoke certain emotions and trigger dissemination.

So can you tell a story in the title to arouse users' curiosity and resonance and attract them to click in?

"How did Zhang Hanyu go from obscurity to the top of the Chinese film industry?" 》

This title is actually quite attractive, with the star Zhang Hanyu mentioned above, and there is also a contrast, from obscurity to reaching the top of the Chinese-language film industry, but it feels like something is missing.

"He has been doing dubbing for 25 years, played minor roles for 7 years, and won the Best Actor award for his first leading role, reaching the top of the Chinese film industry"

What if it is changed to the above? "He has been doing dubbing for 25 years, played supporting roles for 7 years, and won the Best Actor award for his first role as the leading actor." This sentence actually tells a story and fully summarizes Zhang Hanyu's experience so far. Obviously, it is more exciting to open the topic than the previous one.

There are countless examples of storytelling topics:

"Transferred to another school 7 times, became unemployed upon graduation, resigned 3 times, sold her company... How did she transform from a country bumpkin to a successful career?" 》

"He entered Zhejiang University at the age of 16, became a factory manager at the age of 28, and now occupies 2 of the top 5 mobile phone companies in the world, surpassing Xiaomi, Huawei and Lenovo..."

"Six years ago, six people borrowed money to start a business; six years later, they made 15 billion with only four products and were acquired by Tencent for a whopping $4 billion."

Being able to come up with a title is just one of the many core skills of a new media editor. If you want to advance quickly, increase your followers, select topics, and write original content, you need to be proficient in everything.