How many of these ideas are you using?
Headlines are the gateway to your website, blogs, newsletters, e-shots, social media posts, advertisements or any other promotional piece.
Ineffective headline? The result will be fewer readers and sales.
So the question is: how to write better headlines?
“On average, five times as many people read the headline as the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” ~ David Ogilvy
When I was 26, I landed a job as a trainee copywriter. For the next three years, my boss would disembowel my words every single working day, with a blunt red pen. Ouch!
We spent a great deal of time talking about headlines.
Marketers, comms specialists, sales professionals, politicians, charities and business owners live and die by their headlines.
Here are 26 headline writing tips for you:
- An effective start for your headline is: How to…
- Are you using questions in your headlines?
- Write about what you deliver, not just what you do
- Include a benefit statement
- An emotional appeal outsells a logical approach
- Create pictures inside the reader’s head
- Use positive language and never be negative
- Include numbers, i.e. “7 ways to save money”
- How long will they have to wait?
- Talk in the language of your audience
- Write several versions, before you select your headline
- It is OK to write long headlines as it only takes a moment to read them doesn’t it?
- Include precise facts and figures, if you have them
- Study advertisement headlines
- Avoid superlatives regarding your fantastic and amazing product or service
- Help, don’t just sell
- See your headline from the reader’s perspective
- Provide proof
- Be bold
- Where appropriate, convey a sense of urgency
- Don’t Use Leading Capitals As They Are Harder To Read
- Avoid humour in headlines; they won’t all get the joke
- Ask whether the reader has a specific problem?
- Don’t be vague
- Don’t make the reader think too hard
- Ensure that your message is clear
I offer copywriting training services: https://copywritingtraining.pro
