Compelling Headlines Turn Visitors into Readers
Written a great blog post? Crafted a fantastically informative web page? Fabulous! Now how will you persuade anybody to actually read it?
In the age of information overload, you have just seconds to get visitors to stop scanning frantically and focus, for a moment, on what you’ve got to say.
Headlines, headings, and titles are the best tools you’ve got. Use them well – to literally stop traffic – and you can greatly improve the reach of your message and the impact of your work. Your headline communicates the deal you’re offering readers: “give me some of your valuable time, and I’ll tell you about _________.” (That’s why, by the way, it’s smart to write your headline first – it will keep your writing focused on delivering on your promise.)
A compelling deal references results we want or addresses concerns and objections we have. It’s clear, simple, and compelling enough to stop us in our tracks and get us to read on.
There are lots of different formulas out there for headlines, but most are based on mixing and matching any or all of 3 key elements: results, objections, and time.
You can express these elements all together quite simply:
- Result + Objection (travel) + Time: Learn French at Home in 30 Days
Or you can play with the construction:
- How to + Time: How to Learn French Fast
- How (personal story) + Time: How I Learned French in Just 30 Days
- How + Benefit: How Learning French Helped me Earn More Money
- Command: Learn French While You Sleep!
- Lazy Person + Result: The Lazy Person’s Guide to Learning French
- Numbered List + Result + Time: 5 Ways to Learn French Fast
- Time + Result: 30 Days to French Fluency
No matter what structure you use, remember that your headline is being skimmed and that your aim is to get readers to read the next line.
- Use clear, simple, direct language. Your headline is being skimmed – this is no place to be clever or cute!
- Keep it brief
- Focus on just one or two big results or benefits.
Want to get better at writing headlines, headings, and titles? Practice! And keep a swipe file of great headlines you come across to inspire and guide you.