Gaffney3.com

In a rush to meet deadlines or share a blog post with the masses, many of us fail to dedicate the necessary time and effort to the most critical and viewed element of any article: the headline. The headline is the first — and often only — means of converting a viewer to reader. Fail at this and you negate any reason for writing the article at all.

Recently, I read that Google knows of 1 trillion unique URLs on the web. That’s a tremendously large sea of content in which your article will either sink or swim. Without a compelling headline to not only grab attention but also lure the reader into the body copy, you’ll quickly find your article slipping into its murky depths.

I certainly haven’t expended enough energy on my post titles historically, but in having conversations with many of you regarding growing your online audience, I’m attempting to collect my thoughts and put my money where my mouth is. My long-term hope is to continue this conversation as a series that addresses headline creation tools, search engine optimization, social networking and keyword/ keyphrase consideration.

State the main point

Before you type a single word of the body copy, write the main point or goal of the article as your headline. I’ve started this post with the working title of “Headline Writing.”

I’m certain this will not be the final title, but defining it from the start helps to sharpen the focus of the article and foster greater creativity along the way. If you struggle in writing the copy, chances are you need to define your goal.

Provide a benefit

With a clear purpose of intent defined, determine how it can motivate or lure readers into the article. State the benefits or usefulness of the article. Three tried-and-true headline writing tips for conveying a reward:

• The “How to”
  • Defines the conflict and implies the reward in reading the article
  • Example: How to increase readership through compelling headlines
• The “Question”
  • Leverages empathy with a reader’s challenges to lure them into the article
  • Example: Struggling to get your blog found online?
• The “Outline” or “List”
  • Spells out the number of tips or steps in overcoming challenges and finding success
  • Example: 7 Steps to Writing Compelling Headlines

To better convey the usefulness of this post, I’ve chosen an implied “How to” and changed the title at this point to “The art of headline writing.”

The former obviously lacked punch failing to state my goal of providing advice on constructing an effective headline. The minor edit clearly states a reward to those who have interest in bettering their title writing.

Present a sense of urgency

A good friend of mine introduced me to the phrase “time-poverty” which perfectly summarizes our collective lives. But more importantly it defines the manner in which most of us use the internet. We have little time to capture a reader’s interest and are often competing on the merits of our headlines alone. Provide a motivator to press the reader forward.

The current working headline is passive in tone. Changing it to “How to write compelling headlines,” maintains the clarity or intent of the post, implies a reward to the reader and move it to a more active state. This title modification serves to solve a problem that the reader is experiencing at this moment.

Be controversial

A good headline elicits an emotional reaction by stirring up some controversy; however a balance between the boastful and inane needs to be met. Adding an element of intrigue or sensationalism is a time-tested approach in newspapers and magazines which compete for a reader’s attention at newsstands. Applying this rule leads us to either “How to write the perfect headline” or “How to write an irresistible headline.”

Both are viable options, but I selected the former as the latter reads almost as a challenge for the reader not to click into it.  If you come to a cross roads, the beauty of the Internet is that you can try both.  Tools like Google Website Optimizer allow you to test different versions and shows which results in the most conversions.

Regardless of the method you use to heighten your headline’s appeal, please be sure you are not over-promising and are able to deliver on it. Readers are smart. They recognize bluster from swagger; exaggeration from conceit; but they will not forgive being misled.

Aside:
For those of you who read my previous post on using Wordle as an online marketing and seo tool, here is the Wordle for this post.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 4:28 pm and is filed under Advertising, Blogging, Journalism, Marketing, Media, Newspapers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.