More about headlines

Headlines are so important that I thought it useful to elaborate on the previous post.

If the headline doesn’t catch people’s attention they will not read your marketing so here are two rules for a killer headline:

Rule 1 – the headline must work as a standalone as a sentence

Rule 2 – the headline must make the reader want to read the next sentence

I came across one article that suggested the 50:50 rule. This is that 50% of your time should be spent writing the headline and 50% on the rest of the copy. I am not sure this is correct but it is worth bearing in mind. So is that fact that advertising guru David Ogilvy rewrote a headline for a car advert 104 times and master copywriter Gene Schwartz often spent an entire week on the first 50 words of a sales piece.

How much time and energy do you put into your headlines?

To help make sure your headlines are there best they can be here are 8 checks that will help you create powerful headlines:

Check 1 – Does the headline promise a reward for reading on

Check 2 – Be specific e.g. 7 reasons…

Check 3 – Is there is a well defined audience in the headline?

Check 4 – Avoid all negatives

Check 5 – Does the headline create an emotion?

Check 6 – Avoid headline that just provoke curiosity

Check 7 – Be clear and direct

Check 8 – Avoid cleaver or cute headlines

Keep in mind that if you are writing copy for your Website that it can be useful to include keywords in your headlines.