What are some effective ways to write podcast headlines?

Crafting attention-grabbing podcast headlines requires a delicate balance of clarity, intrigue, and value. Keep your headlines concise while incorporating relevant keywords to enhance searchability. Spark curiosity by teasing compelling stories or insights within the episode, and clearly communicate the benefits or value that listeners will gain. Utilize numbers, emotional appeal, and power words to evoke interest and urgency. Ensure your headline accurately reflects the episode's content to maintain credibility. Experiment with different styles and analyze performance to continually refine your approach. With these strategies, you'll create podcast headlines that captivate audiences and entice them to tune in for more.

Don't forget to consider what your ideal listener might be searching for in the podcast apps. What questions are they asking? Adding those keywords to your headlines will help you get discovered by folks that need your expertise and experience. Repurpose those episodes into blog posts later and you'll have your content doing the lead generation for you in no time!

It also helps tremendously to have those keywords (at least one or two) in your podcast title, author name, and throughout your podcast description. This will increase your chances of being on the top of the searches for that certain keyword 👌🏼

In my experience publishing over 330 episodes of my show, titles with numbers perform better than those without. Episodes with titles such as "5 Tips To Be More Productive" work better than "Productivity Tips To Make You More Efficient" For some reason, people gravitate more to an episode if they know in advance what they'll get from it. And offering "5 Tips" is more concrete than something vague like "Productivity Tips." But be careful. "5 Tips" sounds attainable and should be easy to remember. Whereas "21 Tips" may be overwhelming and confusing.

Look into questions your listeners/clients are asking, situations they're in, struggles they face, and desires they have. Understanding your listener deeply will give you plenty of ideas for titles and headlines that will make them feel seen - and will get them to press play ▶️

Controversial headings can also attract attention and make people curious. "Why I stopped going to the dentist," "I should have quit at two kids," and "I regret buying an electric car" are all controversial headings that will entice people to listen to learn why. But be careful. It's ok to be a bit clickbaity as long as you land the delivery.

Use Answer the Public to find out what kind of questions people are asking about a topic that you’re addressing in your podcast. Be sure to answer at least 3 of those questions, and optimize your episode title and description to reflect those keywords, optimizing your discoverability and relevance to your target audience.

Another simple way of testing headlines is using your email marketing tool. You can use their A/B testing feature to send out a quick email of what's coming up in the podcast - and use that to not only get listeners engaged and curious, but also to test out different headlines. Once you have the A/B test results, you'll know which headline is the winner and got the most clicks 😉

Some podcasters record their intro last, in case the episode title changes along the way. I've done this a few times, re-recording my intro once I was done recording my episode because I thought of something more appropriate. I've also started using headlines on my show notes that differ from the podcast episode. I use AI to analyze my transcript and suggest various headlines. If there's one I like better, I'll use it on my website as the main heading and use the episode title as a subheading.

Don't think the title is just a little thing to do at the end. It deserves proper attention and some hard work to craft something that connects - to the potential listener. - Don't be too obvious but do be clear while leaving room to generate curiosity. - Don't be too clever, it is likely to be misunderstood. - Some listen to everything you put out, whatever the title. Some need more encouragement. - Think about your behaviour. What works at interesting you and what can you learn that you can apply to your titles? - In the episode content, deliver on the promise of the title. They are meant to start listening and keep going to the end not feel cheated or tricked. - Titles and content should be congruous.

Think of the title and description of your podcast episode as an SEO opportunity. Who are you trying to target? Who is your ideal listener? What are they interested in? What is your episode actually about? And, what kind of title would be interesting to your target audience?