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How to Write Headlines: Evaluating Headlines to Ensure You Grab Your Prospect’s Attention

Written by: Yolanda Allen

Article Overview: Learning how to write headlines is critical to grabbing the attention of your prospect. When you get their attention, they will read your ad or sales page. Here is a formula for evaluating your headlines to ensure you have the best.

How to Write Headlines: Evaluating Headlines to Ensure You Grab Your Prospect’s Attention

Learning how to write headlines is one of the most important copywriting skills you can learn. The purpose of headlines is to catch the attention of prospects so they will want to read your ad or sales page. Your goal is to write an attention getting headline. You can have the best sales page ever, but if your headline doesn't attract your prospects, the time you spent writing your sales page is a waste. Michael Masterson, a well known copywriter, developed the 4 U's Formula for evaluating headlines.

The 4 U's stand for Urgent, Unique, Ultra-Specific, and Useful.

Your headline is urgent if you give your prospects a reason to act now. You make your headline urgent by adding a time element to your headline. You can use a limited time offer or you can state something that can be done within the week(s), month(s), or year.

Your headline is unique if it says something new or something familiar in a new way. One way to do this is to state a reason for something. For example, instead of writing "Save 10% on Dog Food," you could write, "Why do Healthy Dogs Have Shiny Fur?"

Your headline is ultra-specific when you focus on very specific points like a bullet statement. These are called "fascinations" because they point out something your reader is intrigued by, which creates a curiosity to read more.

Your headline is useful if it offers a benefit or information your reader is interested in.

When you apply the 4 U formula to your headline, rate it from 1-4 (with 1 meaning weak and 4 meaning strong) against each "U." Trying to make sure your headline strong in each U may not be practical, but your headline should rate a 3 or 4 on at least three of the U's. If it doesn't, you should probably rewrite your headline.

Here are some other questions to ask when evaluating your headlines. Is your headline clear and direct? Is it specific? Does the headline relate to the product or service the ad is about? Have you gotten rid of words that are irrelevant? Does your headline promise your reader something, a benefit or an answer to a question?

Learning how to write the best headline possible is the first step to getting your ad or sales page read. The more you write headlines, the better you'll get at it. Just be sure to evaluate your headline against the 4 U's to make sure you have the best.

Happy Business Building,

Yoli

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  Grab Attention with Your Headlines

Article Tags: evaluating headlines, good headlines, how to write headlines, michael masterson, writing headlines
Referred by: http://jaykubassek.com



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Re: When is your interest peaked by unsolicited mail? - I rarely ever read the headlines of unsolicited email. I know when it's something I haven't signed up for and delete it right away. I get so much crap it's sickening. I may browse over the headlines as I delete them, but that's it. I haven't really noticed any that have caught my interest. As many have already suggested, I'm so calloused when it comes to headlines because I see them all the time and know what to expect. As a marketer, it makes it easy to sniff out the sales pitches. Headlines such as "can you help me?" usually get my attention, but in the end I know they want me to buy something. At least that's the case for most of the newsletters I get. Case in point, even if it isn't unsolicited, it better have a headline that's going to get me to click on it. Otherwise it'll never get read.
Re: When is your interest peaked by unsolicited mail? - In "The Copywriter's Handbook", author Robert W. Bly emphasizes that effective attention-getting words are ones that offer news. For instance, Bly says "Headlines that give news often use words such as new, discover, introducing, announcing, now, it's here, at last, and just arrived...Free is the most powerful word in the copywriter's vocabulary...Other powerful attention-getting words include how to, why, sale, quick, easy, bargain, last chance, guarantee, results, proven and save" (pg 17 & 18). However, I feel as if all of Bly's keywords are over-used and audiences have learned to ignore them in unsolicited email headlines.
Re: Quote of the Day - "Have the courage to follow your heart an - [quote="GT Bulmer":102twzd2]Hi, Evan: I haven't yet managed to capitalize on the longings of my heart as successfully as Jobs did[/quote:102twzd2] Hi GT - I woke up thinking about this post and I have a challenge for you for May if you're up to it. Here it is: Write the blog post / article you were born to write. Write something that you can pour your heart and all your passion into. Write something where you can change the life of the person reading it. Write something where if you look back in 10 years you'll be really proud of what you created. Can you do that? I'd love to read it (and I bet a lot of others will too!)
One More Thing... - Ensure they clearly (i.e. they understand, not just you understand), what is expected of them. Regards
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