The Simplest Way to Write Viral Headlines with ChatGPT
Write your next headline
Hey there my friend,
First of all, welcome to the Savvy Snack newsletter once again.
You are in the right place if you love to grow as an online creator.
Ok. Time to say it!
Before starting to write a headline with ChatGPT, it's essential to understand what the purpose of the headline is.
Attention: Some people call them hooks. But for the sake of this conversation, let’s call them headlines.
Headlines serve as the first impression of your content.
Their goal is to capture the reader's attention and get them to read the rest of the copy.
Remember, headlines can make or break your copy and writing.
It will break your trust along with your writing if it’s a clickbait.
But it will make your copy if it mentions the promise that is kept throughout the writing.
You got me?
Cool.
While writing headlines might require effort, here’s an easy way you can create them faster and better with ChatGPT.
Yeah.
Save your time and sweat while writing creatively.
Ready for that?
Let’s start:
1. Analyze Headlines that worked well
Before creating headlines with ChatGPT from scratch, it’s best to let it analyze some that worked well.
Go to some of your favorite creator’s posts and copy a number of their headlines or hooks.
Try to choose from Headlines that are different in style from each other.
Now, paste them into ChatGPT after writing this prompt:
The prompt:
“Analyze the following headlines and identify the elements that make them effective. Address all the features and techniques that make them compelling and successful :
[List of successful hooks that you’ve selected]”
ChatGPT will provide a breakdown of the headlines and the techniques that make them successful.
* Be aware of one thing. ChatGPT doesn’t well recognize the name “hook”.
Instead, it recognizes “headline”.
2. Brainstorm hook ideas
Once you have a solid understanding of what makes a headline effective, you can start brainstorming your own.
And know what?
ChatGPT is pretty good at brainstorming.
So, let’s use this prompt:
The Prompt:
“I'm writing an article/blog/post about [topic]. Can you suggest some attention-grabbing headline ideas that incorporate?
[elements you want to include which you achieved from the breakdown you just did in the last step]”
ChatGPT will generate a list of headline ideas based on the previous analysis.
It’s a better starting point and you can tweak those hook ideas to match your preference better.
(I also pushed it more for an even better result) - check out the screenshots!
But just to let you know, ChatGPT can even go further and better optimize the headlines for you.
See below:
3. Refine and Optimize your hooks
To better serve your copy and to do that faster and better, let’s refine and optimize those hooks with ChatGPT.
Choose one or some of the Headlines…
… and use one of the prompts below.
The prompts:
If you’re trying to ask for suggestions on how to make your headlines compelling:
“Can you analyze the following headline and suggest ways to make it more compelling?
[Your headline idea]”
If you’re seeking help with its SEO features:
“How can I optimize this headline for better search engine visibility while maintaining its attention-grabbing quality?
[Your headline idea]”
If you like the headline you already have but just want to change the wording or size:
“Can you rewrite this headline to be more concise and impactful?
[Your headline idea]”
Now, most of the job is done.
But wait.
Let’s test which hook will work better.
4. Testing and iterating your hooks
Writing hooks is an iterative process and you should test and refine your headlines each time.
This helps in increasing the chances of your headlines bringing you more traffic.
So let’s use ChatGPT to make this process even easier by using this prompt:
The prompt:
“I want you to A/B test the following two headlines to determine which one performs better.
Headline A: [Your headline]
Headline B: [Alternative headline idea]
Try to provide it in a two-column table while A/B-testing both headlines. Also, explain why one headline would do better than the other and why the other wouldn’t.”
By now, you should have a headline(s) that can stand before your reader.
And remember?
We mentioned clickbait before.
If your hook promises one thing and the rest of the copy provides something else, that’s clickbait.
It’ll ruin your credibility and trust.
It’ll also urge the reader to leave reading as soon as he realizes it’s a clickbait.
And even worse, your reader may never read from you again.
The solution?
Try keeping the promise in the body of the copy that you made in the hook.
The even better solution?
Use ChatGPT to make this process better and faster.
5. Maintain authenticity and avoid clickbait
With the right headline, it’s even more important to keep its promise throughout the copy.
Here's a prompt to help you strike the right balance:
“I want to check if my headline is attention-grabbing while still accurately representing the content and avoiding clickbait or misleading tactics.
If it is clickbait, then rewrite and optimize it to better represent the content and not mislead the reader or under present the promise in the content.
Here’s my headline:
[You headline]
Here’s my content:
[Your content]”
And yeah.
That should be it.
So this guide just showed you a faster and better way of writing your headlines with ChatGPT.
But try to use your own guts and understanding as well while writing headlines.
It’s true that AI can do most of the job of creating content.
But we as humans still need to interfere and increase the accuracy of what it generates.
If you need any additional help with writing with AI, feel free to reply to this email or just send a DM.
I’m always happy to help.
With Love,
Sami Sharaf