Headline writing is not THAT big of a deal –is it?
I mean…how hard can it possibly be to create a winning article, sales page, website or other marketing tool? If an audience is interested in reading what you have to say, writing headlines is the least of your worries—right?
If people are going to buy, they will buy; if they are going to read, they will read—correct? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Those assumptions are far from the truth.
Your headline is THE most important detail in any of your marketing tools. Without an interesting, relevant and engaging headline, you can’t expect much interest in your website, product, service or any other form of published material. A good headline has numerous benefits, including:
- Attention—capturing the attention of interested visitors, customers or audiences. Attention is always the first very step.
- Action—effective headlines invoke emotional responses in people. People act on emotions. Go figure.
- Controversy sells—some headlines are controversial; people usually read further just to learn more about the topic or issue at hand. Bad news attracts more attention than good news, sadly.
- Summarizing—many people are “browsers” with short attention spans. An effective heading summarizes the content of the writing, making it easier for them to decide whether or not to continue reading.
- SEO—effective headlines include relevant keywords, which help search engines determine how to “rank” a page (i.e: how high). A headline alone can virtually make or break your placement in the search engines.
—
Ok, enough of my ranting. So, you probably better understand why writing headlines should be taken seriously, right?
So now, let’s get on to learning how to write a headline!
To do that (and to save time) I’ll just present a dull headline.
I’ll then spice it up to show you the “better” version.
Here we go…
BORING: “The Ten Best Ways to Protect Your Credit and Prevent Identity Theft”
BETTER: “Protect Your Credit: Top Ten Secrets the Big Credit Agencies Won’t Tell You“
———–
BLAND: “How to Get Money Back From Your Mortgage Lender“
SPICY: “How to Get Your Mortgage Lender to Pay for Your Dream Vacation!“
———–
BAD: “How A Skinny Nerd Can Get More Dates Within a Week.”
GOOD: “How a Skinny Nerd Became a Total Heart-Throb in Only 7 Days!“
————
HO-HUM: “7 Strategies That Helped Acme Incorporated Earn More Net Revenue.”
EXCITEMENT: “Acme Incorporated Earned $100 Million Dollars More in Net Revenue Using These Tips.“
————-
Hopefully these tips on how to write a headline will help you construct your next masterpiece. For the sake of saving time, I won’t get into breaking each of the above headlines down to explain the differences between the two and what makes one more effective than the other. I’ll save that for the next post so be sure to check back often.
Does anyone have real-life examples of how a headline helped or hindered a project? Please feel free to share!
Until next time,
Jarvis Edwards – Commercial Copywriter
