ON COPYWRITING & CRAFTING HEADLINES
5 Techniques To Craft Compelling Headlines
From my 11+ years of experience in writing for multiple channels, I give out 5 easy techniques to craft headlines that get attention.
Did you know: 8 out of 10 people don’t read past a headline?
I have written for online magazines, for newspapers, for social media, for web, blogs and websites, for video, for print ads, for emails — and across all these platforms, this statistic on headlines holds true.
Add the average attention span of humans online at 7 seconds, and ta-da!
What you have is less than 3 seconds to grab your audience’s attention and make an impact.
That’s why, I think harder to craft a headline.
Here’s are 5 techniques how you can do it:
1.
𝗦𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁
Make a list of all the things that are important to include in the headline. Then start the reduction process by asking: which of these MUST be said?
2.
𝗔𝗱𝗱 𝗮 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗸: 𝗮 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆 𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗽𝘂𝗻
Make it witty, or simply use some wordplay techniques like onomatopoeia to make it sticky / memorable.
3.
𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲: 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁, 𝗯𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝗲 𝘃𝘂𝗹𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲! 𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴.
This is why those old Lux soap ads won’t work today ’cause today’s audiences can’t be fooled. They know the Lux divas they see in the ads don’t actually use the Lux soap.
4.
𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄, 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲
Write about the essence of experiencing the product. How would one feel using it rather than explaining benefits in a boring sales-sy tone.
5.
𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁
This depends on the product and positioning. If you’ve got a unique product to write about, make a bold statement that stands out of the competition clutter.
Now that you know my 5 easy headline writing techniques, take a look at 4 Tips To Ace At Copywriting from my series of curated copywriting advice from the best in the business (and the art) of copywriting in advertising. This series called Write Here, Write Now Wednesdays comes out on my Linkedin profile every Wednesday. Just adding a shameless plug here, my apologies!
