Write Effective Headlines

A headline is the most important element of an advertisement.

Within any printed medium, such as a newspaper or magazine, people will read, or at best "skim" the headlines of articles, but with advertisements, readers often skip right past the ad entirely. Once a person recognizes the space as being that of an advertisement, their eyes dart elsewhere without even giving the ad a chance. By simply redesigning an advertisement to appear as editorial content (with a headline and newsworthy copy), the odds of your headline getting noticed and thus read will increase some 50%.

Steps

  1. Learn the four functions of a headline. A successful headline has 4 very important jobs to accomplish:
    • Get attention.
    • Select an audience.
    • Deliver a complete message.
    • Draw the reader into the body copy. Most people skim-read, so your headline has only an instant to capture your reader's attention.
  2. Avoid using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. On a subconscious level, we have learned to recognize the "shape" of words. If your words are all in capital block letters, they appear as RECTANGULAR BLOCKS OF PRINT, and a person quickly skimming a page will miss your entire message.
  3. Avoid all punctuation. Periods, commas, explanation marks, quotations and even question marks act as "full-stops" to the reader. You don't want anything to stop the reader's flow from advancing from your headline directly into the main body of the ad. The best headlines will appear as though the headline is merely the first half of a longer sentence, thus the reader does not stop reading to discover more. You do not win awards for proper prose and grammar in advertising. Your goal is to keep the client reading to toward a decision concerning your offer.
  4. Keep it very simple and understandable. Do not use abbreviations, technical jargon, or hard to understand words. A well written headline and the following copy, should be written at a grade 7 reading level.
  5. Do not insult your client's intelligence. Deciding to spend one's hard earned dollars is serious business. People demand precise facts and a guarantee that one is receiving the best merchandise for the dollar. Today's consumer has zero patience at any hint of a condescending, dancing, juggling, singing entertaining sales person.
  6. Don't clown around. Do not be fooled into believing word-play, puns or "cute" copy has any place in a headline. Humor is exceedingly difficult to pull off in advertising with profitable results.
  7. Don't get fancy. The best typeface for both headline and copy, are fonts people are already accustomed to reading. These fonts include the Century family, Caslon, Baskerville, and Jenson, to "mirror" the exact same font as the editorial content of the publication in which you are advertising. If you get creative with fonts, colors, negatives (white type on black background) plus the vast array of other options now available with computers, you will only "lower" readership, and by a great margin! It is a myth that fancy headlines get seen above the crowd, and thus increase readership. If your headline screams out "Advertisement", it jumps to the front of the "Mental ignore list".
  8. Target your exact audience. Try to target your customer specifically in your headline. If you attempt to reach everyone, you'll come across as vague and impress no one. If you have a remedy for kidney stones, then mention kidney stones in your headline.
  9. Be Precise. Avoid writing "Blind Headlines" that reveal nothing about your offer. A headline must stand entirely on it's own merit, without the reader being forced to read on to discover what the headline was meaning. They won't read on.
  10. Tell more; Sell more. Headlines containing 10 or more words with factual or newsworthy information, outsell short headlines. "At {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock". This 18 word headline of a highly successful full-page ad, composed by David Ogilvy (Ogilvy & Mather) was followed by 719 words of factual copy. "The more you tell, the more you sell" is true of both headlines and copy.
  11. Engage the senses. Engage as many senses as possible (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste) to vividly engage the readers imagination, both in the headline and the ad copy. Remember, "Don't sell the steak, sell the sizzle". It's not merely a chunk of meat sitting there, it's the fragrance of hickory, of searing juices spattering and hissing upon the red-hot coals, the succulent aroma of tender Make Sirloin Marinara dripping with flavor and the barbecue sauce staining the front of proud "Dad's the Cook" crisp new Birthday Apron.
  12. Story Tell. The knack of skilfully weaving a story through an advertisement helps to greatly engage both the reader's imagination and focus. When the reader identifies with the main character's dilemma, curiosity will carry the reader to the conclusion of the story to seek "their own" solution. You want the reader thinking "I have this exact same problem. Just how did this woman get rid of her annoying allergy?"
  13. Use Captions to Spark Curiosity. Always include a captivating caption directly under every photo. People always look at the pictures, and a great photo with an intriguing caption, will draw the reader's focus back to either the headline or the main body of the ad.
  14. Consider the end result. A presentable meal served on a hot plate greatly out sells raw ingredients lying on a counter top. If your promoting a cook book, don't show the raw ingredients in a sink. Show the finished product on a set dinner table, with a glass of wine and a fork in hand, and reflect this in your headline. The lead selling benefit is the end result, not all the prep work, cooking and clean up that come first. Keep this in mind for any situation or product.
  15. Leave your pride at home! Do NOT use a headline or even the top three quarters of the ad space to say anything about yourself, your company, your business name, Logo or anything else related to the vanity of wanting to see your name in lights. A headline's purpose as the gateway into reading an advertisement's copy, must contain a leading benefit; intriguing wordage; spark curiosity or ask a thought provoking question. Nothing else. Save you name and contact info for the fine print hidden down at the bottom of the page. If your ad succeeds, your client will seek you out. The sad truth, is your customer does not in the least care about you or your business. The customer is selfish, self centered and very impatient. Don't allow your grand-standing to get in the way of a client and the job your headline and ad copy must do first.
  16. Do Your Homework! Gather as much information as you can about both your product, and your target audience to discover the "hook" that can be used in your headline. The best headline is often discovered while working through all the information in the creation of the advertisement it's self. Writing great copy and a winning headline takes work and lots of Use Research Sources on wikiHow.
  17. Use a Thesaurus. When composing a headline, look up every word of your headline in a Thesaurus to find better words, then look up each of the new words you have found to find even more.
  18. Write and re-write. Keep reworking the headline, rearranging the words, and write several versions of a headline always trying to tweak and improve upon it. Then select the best one. A great headline will often take longer to compose, than the entire ad to follow. Try to find a new angle, direction, or twist at looking at your subject matter from the readers perspective, so your headline is not boring and engages the reader.
  19. Try to connect to your reader's self-interest on a level of emotion. A great headline should contain a leading benefit that triggers some level of excitement. This could include any of the following:
    • fear
    • a need
    • want or desire
    • curiosity
    • factual news or statistics of interest
    • or a gripping question.
  20. Copy the Masters. Creating an entirely new blockbuster headline is no easy task. Successful copy writers stay close to proven formulas that work, by reworking classic models that have weathered the test of time. The following list of successful headlines, can be used as a foundation to fit most any situation:
    • "Dear Lord, Please Give Me the Strength to Go On" (fear/curiosity/great for selling insurance)
    • "Please God Help My Children Through This"
    • "How to get your cooking bragged about" (vanity/curiosity)
    • "How to save over 15% on auto insurance before Nov 20th" (precise facts/dead line/incentive to act)
    • "How to increase the value of your retirement portfolio by 14.55% this year"(precise statistics)
    • "Save Money on Homeowner's Insurance by up to 28%"
    • "Quick Relief for Tired Eyes" (precise solution to a common problem)
    • "When Doctors Feel Rotten This Is What They Do" (expert testimony/curiosity/authoritative figure)
    • "How A Man of 40 Can Retire in 15 Years" (precise numbers & facts)
    • "How to noticeably get six pack abs, and leave your relatives envious" (engage the vanity of others)
    • "Can You Spot These 7 Common Advertising Errors?" (curiosity)
    • "Are you guilty of these 7 common dating Sins?" (curiosity)
    • "Does Your Husband Brag About Your Cooking?" (vanity)
    • "How to Win Friends and Influence People" (double benefit)
    • "Here's a Quick Quiz for Pregnant Woman" (engages a specific audience through curiosity)
    • "They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano, But When I stated to Play..." (curiosity, story appeal)
    • "My best friend was so envious after I used this simple facial cream technique" (vanity/curiosity)



Tips

  • Although this article refers to "Space or Display" advertising, these guidelines are also valid within all printed formats including wikiHow, the classified pages, magazine articles, journals, web pages, direct mail, news letters, and most any vehicle where the printed word is used to engage the reader's attention.

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Sources and Citations

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