A few extra minutes working on headlines can grow your audience and rally employees around your message.

You’ve spent hours – maybe days – making sure every word in your email or intranet post is perfect. You know that the content is exactly what’s needed; your readers will laugh, cry and throw flower petals at your words.

Then you spend 30 seconds thinking about a headline, slap that bad boy on and hope for the best.

You’ve just sabotaged yourself.Headlines are the most critical part of your writing, whether it’s an internal memo or a story that lives on your brand journalism page. In many cases, your headline (and perhaps a photo) are the only clues a prospective reader will have about the subject of your content – and whether it’s worth reading. Think of it as a book cover: if it isn’t interesting and appealing, your audience will move on to one of the billions of other options they have available to read.Make your hard work pay off by attracting as many readers as possible. These tips will help.

1. Emphasize what’s in it for the reader

It’s easy to get wrapped up in what you’re trying to achieve with a piece and how it fits into your overall internal comms strategies. That’s just human nature. But with every piece of content you create, you need to take a deep breath, step back and ask why your reader would be interested in this.

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