The headline is more than a mere summary of the sales copy. Unlike the title of a book, for instance, it’s not meant to summarize, encapsulate, or introduce the story. And most headlines I’ve seen seem to list all the the greatest benefits from the copy.
Remember the time when you went into an online news portal to catch the latest news. How do you decide which news article to read? The headlines correct? To be precise, the headlines that grab your attention the most are the one you would end up reading, right? After all, it’s the first thing that people see. Just like front-page headlines of a newspaper are meant to sell the paper, the copy’s headline is meant to sell people on the copy.
So what makes a good headline? A good headline should always give out an idea or hint to attract readers and visitors to your site. Do note that it’s bad if you give out the entire story in the headline itself as there would no longer be any reason for people to read the article then. To cut the story short, any headline that does not give indication of an idea or hint will actually deter prospects.
In advertising parlance, a headline is the “ad for the ad.” For instance, a resume is not meant to land a job but to land an interview. A headline is, in the same way, meant to land the reader’s attention and arouse their curiosity – not the sale.
Have you heard of the AIDA formula, which basically stand for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action? It’s a famous marketing formula that all ads must follow in order to be successful. It works in that exact order.
Other than “grabbers” like photos, pictures, graphics, pop-ups, lift notes, and multimedia, the first part of the formula often refers to the headline. (Look at direct mail marketing, where lift notes, envelope copy, and “lumpy mail,” where advertisers and mailers add trinkets to grab people’s attention and get them curious.)
The best way to draft a good headline is to learn from others. Site like Digg.com and cracked.com are good reference in writing headlines. It’s important to remember that if the headline does not command enough attention both effectively and, above all, rapidly, then the rest of the formula will fail.
All in all, no matter how good your contents are, without a good headline, it’s hard to grab attention and increase your site’s readership, or sales.
Karl Zoe is the author of BlogCoachings, a blog that reviews blog coaching program. You can check out his review on blog mastermind, the best blog coaching program to this date.
Popularity: 1% [?]
