Have you ever wondered if ‘they’ aren’t telling you something? That you don’t have all the information? Well, never fear. This week’s guest post takes away the fourth wall when it comes to headline copywriting. Over to you Jacob!
Ladies and gentlemen; we are fighting a war.
A war for attention; for eyes on screens, for the precious minutes consumers have to spend each and every day. The audience’s time is the target, and the weapons are glitzy commercials, stylish billboards, ear-splitting radio ads, flashing banners and magnetic content.
As copywriters on the frontline, our standard-issue sidearm is the headline, without which our killer copy would be lost in a relentless bombardment of ‘me-too’ articles and ‘seen it before’ posts. As a result, we need to make sure that we’re locked and loaded by fully understanding how to use our weapon to its best effect – we need to know the truth about great headlines.
Sure, there are plenty of ‘how to’ articles out there, but they inevitably run through the same top 10 tips and then leave you on your own. Today, I’d like to go deeper than that. Much deeper. Here’s what the experts don’t tell you…
Warning! The experts make it all up
Most headline writing guides will suggest that you write your headline first, and I totally agree with that.
What they don’t tell you, however, is that you should also be prepared to go out on a limb when crafting your headline. Take, for example, an article I recently wrote titled What Jack Kerouac Can Teach You About Business Blogging. When I wrote this headline, not only did I not have an article ready to go, I didn’t have a clue what (if anything) Jack Kerouac could teach us about business blogging!
Why would I put myself under this kind of pressure? Because, as a result, I forced myself not only to write a great headline but to actually follow it up with a well-researched, well-written article.
Once you’ve made a tantalising promise to your audience, you need to really flex your copywriting muscles to make sure you don’t let them down.
How to stop being boring and become bold
As outlined above, being creative with your headlines can have a big-payoff, yet it’s also important to realize that your audience sees around about 5,000 advertising messages designed to grab their attention each day. Blandness will just get lost in the noise, so you have to be bold and dare to offer the audience something of real value.
By writing a bold headline, you’re forcing yourself to deliver on that value, meaning that the outcome is win-win – you’ll learn a lot more about the particular niche that you’re writing about, and your audience will get to read an article bursting with quality content.
This is what they don’t tell you – you can follow the headline templates, but if you’re not making bold statements then you’re not going to improve your own writing skills and experience.
Why you shouldn’t rely on lists
List posts have been popular since Moses published the 10 Commandments, which is why the list-post is the golden crutch of copywriting. We lean against it whenever we’ve been sapped of creativity and need to finish an article right now.
It’s no secret that list posts work, but when it comes down to it, they often don’t push us very hard as copywriters, even if sprinkling them in every now and then just feels so right.
What they don’t tell you is that you’re not going to rise to the top of your profession by relying on list-posts – what you need are definitive guides, daring statements and rich content that is as unique as you can make it. Keep list-posts in your toolbox but don’t rely on them.
Here’s why it’s okay to borrow
Great copywriters often keep a ‘swipe file’ of great examples of copywriting, be it in magazine form, ad copy or online articles. Although writing a great headline from scratch can feel fantastic, whether you know it or not chances are that someone else has written a headline using that exact same format.
What they don’t tell you is that great copywriters borrow from each other much more than they’d like to admit, and you shouldn’t be ashamed to look to others for inspiration. A handy technique is to repurpose a headline from a totally different niche.
For example, today I scanned Alltop for some random headlines, and found a great one in their ‘Diabetes’ section titled “Have You Noticed This About Your Diabetes?”. It doesn’t take a genius to see how this could be replaced with something from virtually any niche, and suddenly it becomes “Have You Noticed This About Your New Car?”, or “Have You Noticed This While Shopping Online?”.
Let your imagination run wild…
A shocking method to predict the future
So now we know that the industry’s big guns say swipe files are a great way to find inspiration, and sometimes you can just go out on a limb and make something up, but here’s what they don’t tell you; you can predict the future.
How’s that?
Easy – by creating a spread-sheet where you collect your headline ideas separated into various niches. By collecting these headlines long before they’re needed, if you’re suddenly assigned a writing gig for, say, a tech blog or a lifestyle mag, you’re way ahead of the game. Instead of spending half the day pulling your hair out and trying to decide which headline to use, send the client a list of 5 of your best headlines and you’ll be ready to start writing in no time.
Why you should let the audience write headlines for you
Every headline-writing guide tells you to tailor the headline to your audience, but what they don’t tell you is that sometimes you can actually let the audience write the headlines for you.
By using tools like Google’s Keyword Tool, you can research a particular topic, target it geographically and find out what people are actually searching for. For example, using the keyword ‘windows 8’, I can see that in Australia over 700 people a month are searching for the term ‘How Do I Use Windows 8’, and 500 are searching for ‘Using Windows 8’. With that valuable information, it doesn’t take me very long to come up with “The Ultimate Guide to Using Windows 8”. Now all I have to do is write the article…
What are your favourite headline writing techniques?
Have you used any of the techniques above, or do you think I’ve got it all completely wrong? Let us know in the comments section, we’d love to hear your opinion!
10 Responses
Thanks for your guest post Jacob. These are some really great tips that can help copywriters step outside of their regular approaches to headline writing.
I especially love your theme of making bold statements in your headline and backing them with valuable content.
Thanks for guest posting on The Copy Detective!
Thanks for having me, Belinda, it’s a pleasure! I hope your readers get a lot out of this post, I worked hard to back up each of these statements!!
Great post. “Good writers copy but great writers steal” is my mantra when I look to others for inspiration.”Stealing” in this sense is about taking someone’s idea or concept and making it your own. We’re all influenced by what others have done before us, but they key is to be inspired and creative, and take an example of someone else’s good writing to the next level. I always like to use SEO keywords in headings wherever possible, too. I am focused on health writing which is more “serious” than other professions but you can still be creative and serious without being too zany, or too boring.
Agreed Michelle 100%
Thanks for leaving your thoughts!
Hi Michelle,
Thanks for the reply! We all reuse and are influenced by other’s ideas, and you hit the nail on the head – the trick is making it your own by adding a unique take or idiosyncratic flair. It’s also great that you’re not restricted by your niche – it’s all about the approach that you take.
All the best!
Jake
This post was absolutely fantastic. Thanks for taking the time to debate this, I feel strongly.
Thanks for this post, Jacob. It’s great to read some new insights on headline writing.
We’re constantly told headlines serve one purpose: to suck readers
into your lede sentence. So why not simply duplicate the 100 most successful headlines?
As you note, there’s a little more art to headline writing.
And overreliance on templates and cheat sheets can disastrous.
Don’t get me wrong, I use headline cheat sheets all the time. I usually draft at least 20 (and sometimes many more) headlines, and I depend heavily on tried-and-true formulas.
But after letting the headlines marinate, I come back for a second look. And I ask a few questions– not just “Does the headline still hook my attention?” I ask: “Can my content deliver on the headline’s promise? Is the headline congruent with the product and brand story?”
(If you own a funeral parlor, for instance, you’re not going to
want to use a head like, “Who else wants to save on mortuary services?”)
If I answer “no” to either of the above questions, I rewrite my headline and/or rethink my copy.
Because your customer will sniff out empty promises as quickly as she identifies “fake benefits.” And then you’ve not only lost her attention, but her trust as well.
I agree Lorraine… with everything you’ve said!
I often start with the headline formulas when I’m brainstorming. The “trick” is to be able to take the next step, weeding out the rubbish and honing in on the phrasing that will achieve my goals, and that’s getting the reader to the next paragraph!
One question I like to ask myself is: “could this headline be applied to any other business/industry/topic?” If I answer yes, then it’s not specific enough, which means I could be misleading my reader Or heading in vague-villes.
Thanks for leaving your thoughts and approach!
Ha! From now on I am just going to start every one of my headlines using this model:
“What [insert awesome person] can teach us about [insert topic for article I need to finish by deadline]”
Brilliant post.