Think 80/20. Here’s why.
When embarking on any kind of writing-based task, it’s easy to get caught up in the finer detail. Like what’s our introduction? What descriptions will we use? Should we add visuals? When you brush away all the elements, ultimately it’s critical to realise that 80% of people, whether they’re looking at a web page, a news update, or even a social post, will never make it past your headline. Just 20% will actually bother to read on!
Read this far? Congrats. You’re one of just 20% that will.
From top down, whether you’re scrolling on a screen or viewing a printed page, having a strong impactful headline is vital. A hook, that brings in the fish. Your headline needs to convert readers so they join you on the path into what you have to say. And not be click-baity about it either! Advertising guru and original Mad Man, David Ogilvy was a firm believer in the 80/20 rule. He once said: “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” David’s words are decades-old, but remain true to this day.
Headline writing tips, that you can actually use.
There’s no magic bullet to writing awesome headlines, but many themes in headline writing remain constant. Like knowing your audience, the media environment you’re using and hinting at the main subject. What can also assist you is being genuine, relevant and offering some kind of value to the reader. Great lines with the best hooks are often helpful, useful, interesting, informative, surprising, newsy, amusing, shocking, or show empathy and understanding. These are all human factors that you can use to build out great lines. Just don’t use them all at once!
Need more headline writing inspiration? Here it is.
There are loads of articles out there on writing great headlines. It’s easy to go down the rabbit hole and come out the other end completely confused as to what truly is effective. To make it easy, I’ve bottled all the hints and tips I’ve found for writing great headlines over 20+ years into one little list. Many of these depend on whether you are writing an ad, an internal presentation, an article, or a sales item, but all in isolation can be helpful or inspiring:
- Demonstrate real value, or an offer or benefit.
- People love statistics, so use them.
- Hint at content to follow so you draw a reader in – just like the title of a great novel does.
- Use news or recent events (even the weather, seasons or festive occasions) to add relevance or interest.
- Speak one-on-one in your reader or user’s language, not above or beneath them.
- Keep it simple and easy to understand.
- Don’t be overly lengthy in your headline – they still need to read the rest!
- Emphasise a win, success or result.
- Be useful or relevant.
- Create a sense of urgency (particularly when you’re selling something.)
- Convey something unique the reader might not realise.
- Imply a reward for reading on (even if it’s just learning something new, it doesn’t have to be dollar-based.)
- Create intrigue or leave something unsaid to make your reader work for it.
- Get your reader nodding with a truth or reality of life so they’re immediately on-side.
- Bolster and support your headline with a subhead (or several).
Get someone that can stitch a great headline (and weave stunning copy around it.)
Headline writing doesn’t seem like too hard a task at first. However when you realise that 80% of readers won’t get past that first important headline, you begin to realise just how important an investment they are. Getting them wrong, or just copying down something random can impact reader and user engagement, conversions, sales and ultimately your marketing spend. With over 20 years’ experience in this area, I can assist you with meeting your goals, and give you lots of headline options for your project.
If you’d like to give it a try, then let me know! I think you’ll find that together, we can capture the interest of your users and readers in great ways, and really smash it!
Cheers,
Gus at Copywise.