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Headline Structure — A Master Class

2 Strategies and 5 tactics for irresistible headlines — with examples.

Creating an irresistible headline is easier than you think. The reason it seems difficult is because you don’t know the 2 strategies or the 5 tactics that make up irresistible headlines. But that changes with this article.

P.S. This article is over 3,000 words, so I recommend saving it so you can revisit it later.

If you’re a writer who’s struggling to make money, you’re in the right place.

Building a business and being great your craft are different skills.

I was a session and touring drummer for a decade, and I made $0 because I had no business sense.

Over the last 7 years, I’ve dedicated myself to learning business.

And now, I’m here to help other writers make a living doing what they love.

I send out an (almost) daily 500 character, 3 bullet point email with business tips for writers.

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2 Strategies

1. Be clear, not clever.

A headline that is clever will always underperform compared to one that is clear.

This doesn’t mean your headlines needs to be boring. But the first strategy you need to know is that clarity always wins. Period. A confused reader will not click an article.

2. Focus on the 3 P’s.

the 3 P’s are…

1. the specific Person that you’re writing for…
2. the specific Problem you are writing about…
3. the specific Promise (how you plan to ease that problem).

Let’s break down these 3 Ps.

Person

The goal of a headline is to get the right people to click it, and the wrong people to ignore it.

It’s that simple. You don’t want the everyone clicking on your headlines.

When everyone clicks on your article, you’ll get more “Views” (people who open your article). But you’ll get less “Reads” (people who stay on your article for at least 30 seconds). And “reads” is one of the primary metrics Medium uses for promoting an article.

Which of these 2 headlines are you more likely to click on?

1. I lost $30,000.
2. I lost $30,000 trading cryptocurrency. Here’s how you can avoid my mistakes.

Example 1: “I lost $30,000.”

Imagine you clicked on the first headline and it was about cryptocurrency. If you’re not involved in trading cryptocurrency, then you’ll click away.

This will kill the metric called “read-ratio” (the amount of “reads” divided by the amount of “views”).

But the reality is much worse then this…

The people who are trade cryptocurrency will ignore the first headline (“I lost $30,000”). This is because the headline doesn’t communicate that this article is for them. So the the people who would read your article will never click, and the people who won’t read your article will open it and click away.

Example 2: “I lost $30,000 trading cryptocurrency. Here’s how you can avoid my mistakes.”

If you trade cryptocurrency and see this headline, you’re gonna click and read the entire article. And if the article is good, you’ll click on the writers profile and read other articles they’ve written.

That’s the power of having a headline that calls out your target reader.

There’s 2 ways to do this.

This first is to explicitly call them out in the headline.

This could be a headline such as, “New writers beware; These 3 productivity apps will kill your time management.” In this example, you are explicitly calling out new writers.

The second way to do this is implicit.

An example would be, “3 time management tips I wish I knew when I first started writing.”

In this headline, you are not explicitly saying, “this is for new writers.” But you are saying, ‘here’s something I wish I knew when I first started writing.’ People who have 5 years of experience writing won’t click on this article. But new writers will click on it because it feels like it was tailor made for them on their journey.

Problem

People don’t read articles because you spent time writing.
People don’t read articles because you researched the topic.
People don’t read articles because they enjoy reading.

People read your article because they have a problem and they believe your article has the solution.

They may be consciously aware of the problem (such as wanting more financial freedom, inner peace, or a raise at their job). Or they may be unaware of it (such as wanting to reduce boredom).

So the question you have to answer when crafting your headline is…

What is the specific problem that the person you are writing for is experiencing?

By not naming the problem within your headline, you remove any reason for a potential reader to click.

Here’s an example headline that doesn’t address the problem:

1. 3 lessons I learned in my twenties.

How intriguing is that? Not at all

How likely are you to click on that? Not at all.

Here is a similar headline that calls out the problem:

2. 3 popular pieces of advice that ruined my relationship.

Those two headlines could be about the exact same article, but the second headline is more intriguing. Why? Because it calls out a specific problem and creates curiosity. It triggers the thought, “Is there popular advice I’m following that will ruin my relationship?”

This is better, but there’s still room for improvement.

Let’s see how we can improve it even more:

Original — 3 lessons I learned in my twenties.

Better — 3 unpopular pieces of advice that saved my relationship.

New — 3 unpopular pieces of advice that brought my relationship back from the brink of divorce.

The Better option names a general problem. You’ll get a lot of clicks from people who are dating, engaged, married, experiencing a rough patch, or want to improve their relationship in general. That’s a lot of people, who will interoperate “saved my relationship” differently.

This means a lot of people will click (looking to “save my relationship”), but then click away because the article doesn’t apply to them.

The New Option names a hyper-specific program. You’ll only get clicks from people who are married and on the brink of divorce. This will mean you get less clicks but you’ll have a higher read-ratio. You’ll also be able to deliver higher value to a very specific person — which leads them to come back and read more.

Remember, the point of a headline is not to get as many clicks as possible, but to get as many clicks from the person you are trying to serve as possible.

When you name the problem in the headline, you increase the likelihood that you’ll get the right clicks.

Promise

This is how the reader will achieve the result.

This can be explicit, or implicit.

Explicit: “I made $2,000 writing on medium this month. Here’s how.”

In this example, the explicit promise is, ‘the process I used to make $2,000,’ with the implication that it’ll work for you.

You are explicitly telling the audience the result they will get.

Implicit: “The unpopular piece of advice that saved my marriage.”

The implicit promise is, ‘this advice will improve your relationship.’

Most writers know that headlines are important, but almost none focus on it. They spend their time focusing on the quality of the article while ignoring the packaging (the headline).

But, the packaging is what people will judge. So if you want your article to gain traction, you need to package it in a way that gets the right person to click.

If you are Clear and you call out the Person, the Problem, and the Promise with your headline, you will be ahead of 97% of writers.

If you’re a writer who’s struggling to make money, you’re in the right place.

Building a business and being great your craft are different skills.

I was a session and touring drummer for a decade, and I made $0 because I had no business sense.

Over the last 7 years, I’ve dedicated myself to learning business.

And now, I’m here to help other writers make a living doing what they love.

I send out an (almost) daily 500 character, 3 bullet point email with business tips for writers.

Click here to join

5 Tactics

There are 5 tactics that you can use to improve your headlines.

1. Know your audience size

The purpose of a headline is not to get as many people as possible to click on it. It’s to get as many of the right people as possible to click on it.

While crafting your headline, you have to know the size of the audience you want to target.

There are 3 audience sizes to target.

1. General Public

The general public audience is the largest audience.

It’s the majority of people. They have no idea what’s happening in your niche, and may even be unaware that your industry exists.

To target this group, you have to create a broad headline.

• e.g. “The 3 best exercises for losing those last 5 lb.”

Losing weight is a enough of a general desire that this headline would appeal to most people.

To make this easier, try connecting your headline to something that’s happening in the media. This increases the chances that the general public will click on your article.

e.g. If a new Thor movie is coming out, you could create a headline that says, “Get Thor-Like Abs with These 3 Exercises”.

The purpose of writing articles for the General Public is to get the greatest amount of exposure. The assumption is that more exposure leads to more sales, so you want as much exposure as possible.

2. Industry Specific

The Industry specific audience is the group of people who are aware and active in your industry. These people know of your industry and have an opinion, but they are not involved in it. They are aware of the industry and have a problem within the industry, but aren’t trying to solve that problem yet.

If you help people flip houses, the Industry Specific audience would be people interested in Real Estate.

If you help people lose weight through body-weight training, this would be the fitness industry

If you’re a sci-fi author, this would be the fiction industry.

Industry Specific audiences will ignore broad headlines because they already have knowledge of the industry. To reach this group, you’ll want to write articles that either call-out these people, or solve their specific problem.

e.g. “Cancel your gym membership. The best body-weight program for losing those last 5lbs.”

This headline assumes people know what “body-weight” training is, and its connection to fat loss

The purpose of these articles is to grow your audience by solving problems for people within your industry.

3. Hyper-aware

These people are involved in your industry, and are either within your niche or next to it.

If you’re in the “body-weight training for weight-loss” niche, your hyper-aware audience is avid lifters or cross-fitters. They are people who are aware of their problem and are looking out solutions for that problem.

Headlines that connect with this audience must be hyper-specific.

e.g. “Stop doing preacher curls. Do this body-weight movement to lose that last 5lbs”.

Hyper-aware people want specific answers to specific questions. You won’t reach them with a headline that appeals to everyone. You want to create a specific headline with industry-specific gargin.

The great this about this audience is they are easy to reach. The hard thing is, you’ll need to convince them that your solution is better then the alternatives. And because they’re hyper-aware, they know all the alternatives.

2. Strong Language

There are 3 reasons to use strong language.

1. We numb-ourselves every day

In American culture, we soften our pain through language.

Instead of saying, “I am obese,” we say, “I have thick bones.”
Instead of saying, “I drink every day”, we say, “I drink socially.”

No one wants to feel pain, so it’s human nature (and exaggerated in American culture) to minimize that pain through language. This helps us be more comfortable with where we’re at.

It’s your job, as a headline creator to write a headline that shocks-people awake.

Never say, “overweight” when “obese” is more accurate.
Never say, “unproductive” when you can say “stagnant.”
Never say, “we hit a rough patch” when you can say, “we’re considering divorce.”

When you start using strong language, people will accuse you of trying to exaggerate the pain. Let me be clear — you don’t want to exaggerate the pain. But you do want to be honest about it. People dumb-down their pain through language, so when you call it as it is, they’ll feel strong emotions.

They’ve been hiding from this truth, and now someone’s calling them out. That’s painful and hard to face, but it’s makes your headline 10x more clickable.

2. Pain is the prerequisite to action.

No one takes action unless they are compelled to.

This is the cornerstone of storytelling. It’s the call to adventure in every book, movie, and myth.

Your potential reader needs a a call to adventure as well. Strong language will intensify the pain felt in the moment, which is the catalyst for action.

Never say, “might, maybe, possible, likely, probably,” etc. when a definitive word will suffice

Never use vague language when you can be clear. If you can be more specific, do it.

3. Spotlight your article through Senses.

Everyone has thousands of thoughts running through their head as they’re scrolling.

If your headlines does not silence those thoughts, their brain will continue down its current path…

“I really shouldn’t have yelled at my significant other like that… Shoot, I still need to respond to that email don’t I?… Did I forget to do that task?…”

Your headline must captures their attention and remind them how important solving this problem is.

Never say, “Lose fat in 30 days,” when you can say, “Become bikini ready in less than a month.”

“Lose fat” is a concept, so the brain will ignore it.

“Bikini ready” is sensory-focused.

When you read “bikini ready” your brain pictures what “bikini ready” means and then compares that to you.

This is no longer a concept, but an image. And images are almost impossible to ignore.

Strong Language Cheat Sheet

Call out the pain explicitly and accurately.

• What is the short-term result of this pain?
• What is the long-term result of this pain?
• How does this pain impact other areas of their life? Other people in their life?
• How does this pain impact their view of themselves? Of others?

Be decisive and specific.

• Remove all modifier-words.
• Hint — if it ends in “ly” (e.g. probably, likely) or “er” (e.g. stronger, faster) consider removing it.

Use your senses.

• Can we connect this to any of the senses?
• What does this feel like? Smell like? Sound like? Taste like?
• Can we make this visual? The brain categorizes information via images, so using visual language will have the strongest impact.

3. Enhancing Words

These are words or phrases that enhance specific elements of the headline.

For example, you can feel the difference between the following 2 headlines?

1. 3 steps to lose 30lbs in 30 days.
2. 3 easy steps to shed 30lb in 30 days.

Version 1 is not bad, but version 2 feels stronger — and all we did is add 2 words. Those words (“easy”, and “shred”) are enhancing words — they enhance the pain, product, or promise of the article.

How to use enhancing words:

1. The Problem

Enhancing words are used to strengthen the problem that someone’s experiencing.

• e.g. 3 mind blowing myths I believed when I started writing.

Here, “mind blowing” enhances the problem of “myths”.

2. The Promise

Enhancing words are used to strengthen the solution that someone’s experiencing.

• e.g. 3 quick and effortless ways to lose 30lb in 30 days.

“Quick and effortless” enhance the promise which are the “ways to lose 30lbs in 30 days.”

4. Other Enhancers

Numbers.

Whenever you have the opportunity to quantify something into a number, do it.

Odd numbers are better than even numbers, with the exception of the number 10. Whenever you can use a number, you give the reader a road map for what comes next so they can set their expectations appropriately.

If your headline is, “these lessons saved my relationship” the reader how no idea if you’re gonna list 3 lessons, 15 bullet points, or 105 micro-lessons.

Adding a number sets expectations for the reader.

5. Test and Optimize

Your first headline is probably not the headline you should use, even though you may like it.

There’s a great story of a photography professor who split his class into 2 groups. To the first group he said, “You can only submit one photo at the end of the semester. All your grades for this semester are based on the quality of that photo.”

To second group he said, “You can submit as many photos as you’d like. All your grades are based on the total number of photos that you submit, regardless of their quality.”

At the end of hte semester, and the students whose grades were based off the total number of photos submitted ended up submitting higher quality photos then the group tasked with submitting 1 high-quality photo.

Why?

Because the first group practiced more, through repetition.

How to practice

Whenever you write a headline, take a few minutes to look over these principles and then write 5 more versions.

Take a 5 minute break to clear your head, then come back, pick whatever was your best headline, and use that. It might be the first headline you came up with, but chances are it won’t be. And even if it is, the act of writing 5 more headlines gives you practice.

If someone else is always using their first headline, while you’re writing 6 every time, you gain an unfair advantage. They write 52 articles, and create 52 headlines. You write 52 article, and create over 300 headlines. It would take them 5 years of writing weekly to catch up to where you are now.

And all you did is put in an extra 5 minutes of practice.

How cool is that? Pretty cool.

If you have any questions or wanna go deeper on any of these, let me know in the comments below.

If you’re a writer who’s struggling to make money, you’re in the right place.

Building a business and being great your craft are different skills.

I was a session and touring drummer for a decade, and I made $0 because I had no business sense.

Over the last 7 years, I’ve dedicated myself to learning business.

And now, I’m here to help other writers make a living doing what they love.

I send out an (almost) daily 500 character, 3 bullet point email with business tips for writers.

Click here to join

image from Cheryl Bame of Bamepr.com