The headline is just as important as the piece that follows it. For some writers, it can be hard to accept that five to ten words that are generally written in the space of a minute are equal in importance to the hours of work you, or one of your writers, put into writing an article, but the truth is that your work doesn't matter unless someone reads it, and that's what the headline's job is: to get people to read your work.
Over the years I've observed that one of the most important factors determining whether a piece is well-read or not, is the quality of the headline. A headline needs to not only describe accurately what the reader will find when they read the piece, but make it enticing and compelling to do so. It's a tricky balance to achieve at times. There's also another kind of reader to consider: the search engine. While you should never fall into the trap of writing for the search engines, you should certainly take them into consideration while writing for the human reader.
To find out what sort of headlines have been working for decades, you need only consult the mainstream media who've got snagging an impulse purchase from you at the checkout line down to an art.
If you really want to study headlines that grab for attention, browse through the women's magazines at the news agency. You'll see things that might look a bit trashy, but which are hard to resist. What we're interested in here is finding formulas that work. In our women's magazine example, the formula would seem to be "How __ is Your __" on the surface. But headlines aren't about words, they're about emotions and what sort of questions they evoke from the reader.
The headline first has the reader wanting to find out how they measure up – it's a self-esteem thing and the odd human desire to be judged – and offers readers the possibility of reassurance and validation if they do. You need to look beyond the words in the formula and ask what those few words are doing to the reader on an emotional level.
One important question to ask when writing headlines is, "What benefit will the reader see in this title?" That question can turn a generic title into a focused, effective one. Make it clear. A FreelanceSwitch article, "The Business Name Checklist for Freelancers", promises the reader a way to ensure they choose a business name that's going to work in the marketplace. The benefit of clicking on the headline and reading the whole article is immediately clear.
It doesn't need to be that obvious. We discussed what the reader will get out of the article "How Normal is Your Sex Life?" but the benefits aren't explicitly stated; they're very much there, but in a subtle way that plays on the subconscious mind, and is the mark of an expert headline writer.
Headlines make a promise that excites the reader's interest. At the most basic level, that's what makes them work. But they have to make a promise to a specific kind of reader. Ultimately, even the most effective headline is going to fail to interest a large majority of readers. One of the most important things you can do is to understand the target audience and cater to them. Be as specific as possible, and don't fall into the trap of trying to please everyone.
For a controversial example, you've got an article on the history of abortion and whether your audience is liberal or conservative is going to influence the angle, in both the story and the headline, considerably. Come up with a few headlines based on this example as an exercise in how considerably different they'll be when catered to different readers.
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Note: This article was sent to us by: Kenneth Wilson at 02172011
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