How Do You Write Compelling And Successful Headlines?
How Do You Write Compelling And Successful Headlines?
So…what makes a good headline?
Marketing experts have puzzled over this for many years, trying to figure out why one headline produces excellent results and yet others flop. Why some words just work and yet others don’t.
Newspaper editors are experts at headlines. They have to be, to continually come up with lots that compel people to buy the paper each and every day. A really good exercise to scan a newspaper and look at each of the article headlines. Why do particular ones catch your eye? How does your brain seem to be attracted to some enough to start reading the text of the article? What words are they using? Are they large, or small? Are they long, or short?
I have read books by many martketing experts over recent years and most of them contain a list of words that have been proven to spark or increase interest and response to adverts. Words such as Free, You, Exclusive, Amazing, Valuable are known “triggers”. When these, and many others like them, are used in headlines, responses increase over adverts whose headlines that don’t contain a trigger word.
If you are like me and you struggle to come up with more than 3 or 4 headline choices for your advert, I strongly suggest you buy one of the books I have recommended on this blog, find out a list of these trigger words, and then look at writing at least one headline containing each of the trigger words. That isn’t a difficult job when you have the list in front of you and suddenly you will have the choice of up to 100 or more headlines to use. Some of these will seem much more usable than others and you will probably find the last few you write are the best as your brain is really getting into the idea of writing compelling headlines.
So now you have a much longer list of possible headlines, what do you do? You can’t afford to use them all. I would think it is time to test them out a few on people around you. Watch for their reactions - do their eyes glass over? do they laugh? do they ask what article the headline relates to as it has stimulated their interest? do they go down the list and say “sorry, but they are all rubbish - they wouldn’t compel me to even read to the end of the headline”.
When you have narrowed your potential good headlines down to 3 or 4, you must test them on your target audience. You will very quickly find out which ones work. This is where the internet is so powerful. You can put some software on your website that will alternate various versions of your website, different headlines in this case, so you can see exactly how people react.
Even if you think you are convinced you have a really strong headline, and it is out their working for you, you should still test changing a word or two, just to see if you can improve on it further.
There are no rules about the length of a headline. A newspaper will use as few words as possible due to space, but look at Paul Gorman’s book on my recommended reading page - his book title is “How To Outsell, Out Market, Out Promote, Out Advertise Everyone Else You Compete Against Before They Even Know What Hit Them!“ What a headline - and what a book. Everyone considering advertising their business should read this book - and take action before competitors do.
How Do You Write Compelling And Successful Headlines - To learn more about this author, visit Ray Stewart's Website.
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Headlines are really important parts of our adverts. If you send out a letter, a website, an advertisement, a blog post and the headline is a good one, the subsequent text will be more likely to be read and acted on. However, if the headline is weak, then the chances are slim that anyone will be bothered to read on or act, no matter how good the rest of the item is.
So…what makes a good headline?
Marketing experts have puzzled over this for many years, trying to figure out why one headline produces excellent results and yet others flop. Why some words just work and yet others don’t.
Newspaper editors are experts at headlines. They have to be, to continually come up with lots that compel people to buy the paper each and every day. A really good exercise to scan a newspaper and look at each of the article headlines. Why do particular ones catch your eye? How does your brain seem to be attracted to some enough to start reading the text of the article? What words are they using? Are they large, or small? Are they long, or short?
I have read books by many martketing experts over recent years and most of them contain a list of words that have been proven to spark or increase interest and response to adverts. Words such as Free, You, Exclusive, Amazing, Valuable are known “triggers”. When these, and many others like them, are used in headlines, responses increase over adverts whose headlines that don’t contain a trigger word.
If you are like me and you struggle to come up with more than 3 or 4 headline choices for your advert, I strongly suggest you buy one of the books I have recommended on this blog, find out a list of these trigger words, and then look at writing at least one headline containing each of the trigger words. That isn’t a difficult job when you have the list in front of you and suddenly you will have the choice of up to 100 or more headlines to use. Some of these will seem much more usable than others and you will probably find the last few you write are the best as your brain is really getting into the idea of writing compelling headlines.
So now you have a much longer list of possible headlines, what do you do? You can’t afford to use them all. I would think it is time to test them out a few on people around you. Watch for their reactions - do their eyes glass over? do they laugh? do they ask what article the headline relates to as it has stimulated their interest? do they go down the list and say “sorry, but they are all rubbish - they wouldn’t compel me to even read to the end of the headline”.
When you have narrowed your potential good headlines down to 3 or 4, you must test them on your target audience. You will very quickly find out which ones work. This is where the internet is so powerful. You can put some software on your website that will alternate various versions of your website, different headlines in this case, so you can see exactly how people react.
Even if you think you are convinced you have a really strong headline, and it is out their working for you, you should still test changing a word or two, just to see if you can improve on it further.
There are no rules about the length of a headline. A newspaper will use as few words as possible due to space, but look at Paul Gorman’s book on my recommended reading page - his book title is “How To Outsell, Out Market, Out Promote, Out Advertise Everyone Else You Compete Against Before They Even Know What Hit Them!“ What a headline - and what a book. Everyone considering advertising their business should read this book - and take action before competitors do.
How Do You Write Compelling And Successful Headlines - To learn more about this author, visit Ray Stewart's Website.
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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