The Headline - a make or break moment..... #56
- Adrian Dionisio - business737 owner
- Feb 25, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 25, 2024
A good headline is crucial. If it is no good then everything else is a waste of time.
Headlines are used in many places;
In the subject lines of our emails banners of our homepages
On the photos and text of our Facebook ads and Twitter posts
In click-to-skip ads on YouTube and opening lines of radio ads and podcasts
In site titles for organic and paid search results
On billboards and in print ads
Headlines are how we entice an audience.
If you fail to make your headline impactful and clickable, every other marketing step that you take will be a total waste of time
The headline is the most important part of any piece of content
This is true whether in an article, post, newsletter, sales copy, blog entry, web page, email or business report.
The headline has to make you ignore all other distractions and read to find out more
The headline persuades the reader to make an instant judgment - to engage or move on.
The headline is your first and sometimes only chance.
After scanning the headline and an instant decision will be made
Does it interest them, intrigue them or amuse them or can it be ignored?
No second chance. No appeal. Just one chance.
Entice them,
Engage them
Capture their attention
A headline must be good for anyone to continue reading.
The golden rules of headlines
Without a good headline the rest will not be read. Follow these rules to make your headline effective;
1. Be clear
Do not be confusing. Be clear what the headline is saying and what the rest of the article is about. Keep it simple. Get your message across clearly. You can be clever and creative with your headline but only if it doesn't cause confusion. 2. Be relevant
The headline must be relevant to the rest of the article or you will lose the reader as soon as they see any discrepancy. A headline needs to provide an accurate explanation of the content. 3. Be concise
Keep your headline short and to the point. Concise. If there is waffle it will not be read. Keep it short and sweet. No one wants to read a paragraph long headline 4. Be exciting
Don't bore your reader - excite them, amuse them, make them curious.
Entice and entertain. A headline needs to grab peoples’ attention and encourage people to read on or click through.
5. Target your audience
As with the content itself, knowing your audience is key. Understand who they are, what language they use, their tone of voice, their tastes, their desires and their sense of humour. Get inside the mind of your audience and come up with a headline that will appeal to them.
By improving your headlines your content will not be ignored, dismissed or deleted. It will make people want to find out more
Understand who exactly the headline is for
To create great headlines, we must:
1. Know who we are talking to
2. Understand what they care about
3. Understand why they should buy from us
4. Distinguish between what does and doesn't get results
SEO and headlines
When making your headline keep in mind these things to increase your click-through rate and improve your SEO ranking.
Include keywords — This will help you increase traffic and get a higher ranking
Be accurate — Provide a descriptive, helpful summary of the content. Google will reward it with prime ranking positions on its search engine results pages (SERP).
Use Numbers — Numbers are effective at increasing click-through rates. They provide clarity and let readers know exactly what they can expect from the content.
CTAs (Call-to-Actions) — Using powerful, emotional and urgent language (particularly commands like “Try These…” or “Why You Should…”)
Avoid clickbait — Don’t overpromise and underdeliver because it will only increase your bounce rate (which signals to Google that your content doesn’t contain valuable and reliable information).
Keep it short — Keeping it concise is very important when it comes to SEO. The optimal length of an SEO-friendly headline is around six and eight words
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