My time is limited, but I also like to keep up-to-date with what is going on in the world and around me. Headlines in newspapers, magazines or advertising material do a great job keeping me in the picture and if they really grab my attention I continue reading the first paragraph.
It’s like with many things in life the Pareto principle, or as people call it, the 80/20 rule counts here too. I wear 20% of my clothes 80% of the time – most people can relate to this one. The same counts for headlines – most people read 80% of the headlines and only 20% continue to read the first paragraph.
Are you wasting 80% of your time and money in attracting new customers?
The goal of a headline is to compel people to read more.
Three important tips for writing headlines:
- Write the headline last - first write your story.
- Use strong action verbs. Verbs like achieve, avoid, discover …
- Include one or two of the most important keyword(s) of the main message in the headline.
There are various ways of writing compelling headlines that work, e.g. “How to ….” headlines. You see them everywhere, because they work.
For the best result write at least fifty different headlines, select the ones you like best, test them on your friends or place two or three advertisements with different headlines in various papers and monitor the result.
Warmly,
Janna – SmartBiz Blog
PS: Much more about becoming an expert in writing compelling headlines, sales letters and advertisements at www.smartbizcopywriting.com