Dean Evans - Write Great Headlines Every Time

Write Great Headlines EveryTime

Dean Evans

Published by The Good Content Company (UK) Ltd atSmashwords

Copyright 2013 Dean Evans

www.goodcontentcompany.com

twitter.com/goodcontentco

Notice of rights

All rights reserved. No part of this ebook may bereproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,mechanical, photocopying, recording, telepathic projection, orotherwise, without the prior written permission of The Good ContentCompany (UK) Ltd. Excerpts may be used for the purposes ofreview.

Disclaimer

This ebook is designed to provide time-savingstrategies, techniques and information in regard to writing greatheadlines. It does not guarantee success. While every attempt hasbeen made to ensure that the information presented here is correct,the contents of this ebook are the views of the author and aremeant for information purposes only.

Acknowledgements

Where possible, the original sources of the headlinesfeatured in this book are credited in the appendix.

For Kate, Olivia & Jacob, who make me laugh outloud every single day.

Zombies & The Two Things Every Great HeadlineNeeds

If part of a web headlines job is to grab yourattention, then Miami Police Shoot, Kill Man Eating AnotherMans Face is one that absolutely nails it. True story.

So does the headline: Two Game-Changers ThatHelped Transform My Online Business. And: 6 Reasons WhyBacon Is Better Than True Love.

But grabbing a reader squarely by the eyeballs isonly half the challenge that a headline faces. For a headline to beconsidered great, it also needs to engage and convince thatreader to click through to your content. Thats the whole reasonfor its existence.

Crucially, a great headline needs something that areader identifies with or finds interesting. This could be arelevant product, a person, a place, an event, a hot topic, orsomething more abstract, like a mood, an opinion or a beliefsystem.

This reader relevancy is the ATTRACTIONelement.

But a great headline does more than simply attractattention. It needs to be clear and compelling, combining what thereader is interested in with an outcome that they want (or didntknow they wanted).

This might simply be more information. Or a solutionto a frustrating problem. It might also be something that willentertain them and educate them, intrigue, surprise, worry or shockthem.

Like that real-life zombie headline I mentionedearlier. Or this lengthy example swiped from the web pages of theMail Online: Threat From New Virus-Infected Emails Which TakeOver Your PC Even If You DONT Open Their Attachments

A great headline ATTRACTS, then itENGAGES. And its typically got to do both of these thingsin a single sentence with a time limit of only a few seconds.

Why You Should Spend More Time Writing Headlines

I used to underestimate the importance of writingheadlines. Instead, I focused most of my efforts on the contentthey badged; the writing and rewriting of that content; choosingthe right image; providing useful links; choosing appropriatekeywords; then diligently spell checking and grammar polishing.

I believed that a headline was a sign post tocontent. But its much more than that. Its a gateway.

Yes. The quality of your content is vitallyimportant. It needs to be well-presented, useful, valuable,actionable, and as near to perfect as you can craft it. Butconsider this quote from advertising legend David Ogilvy:

On the average, five times as many people read theheadline as read the body copy. When you have written yourheadline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.

In other words, while 80% of potential readers willlook at a headline, only 20% of potential readers will typicallyclick through to read the article.

Its a sobering statistic. If headline is the first(and often only) chance to grab the attention of potential readers,I wasn't spending nearly enough time writing good headlines, letalone anything that could be considered 'great'.

My initial approach was hit and miss. I didn't have aplan. I didn't really understand which titles worked and whichdidn't. All that time I was spending creating good content wassometimes going to waste.

Maybe this is where you are right now.

Writing A Great Headline Can Be Tricky

Where do you start? Youve got lots of options. Youcould try one of the more populist headline formulas like theclassic list or how to? Or maybe you should try posing aquestion? The most popular post on The Good Content Company websitefor a long time was Can You Ace Our Quick Proofreading Test?(As it turns out, not everybody can).

To give yourself the best chance of success, its agood strategy to write several potential titles and then pick thebest one. Think of them as prototypes, necessary experimental stepson the road to your final published headline.

But how many headlines should you write?(Professional copywriters often write hundreds). And should youwrite your headline before you create your content or afterwards?(There are arguments both for and against)

And, as were working online, there are alsokeywords to deploy. Where do you put them? Is searchrelevancy more important than readability? How long should yourheadlines be?

Theres a lot to consider when youre writingheadlines. Get it wrong and you risk readers never clicking throughto read your content. This means no clicks, no views, no adimpressions, no leads, no brand building and zero sales.

A bad headline can kill good content stone dead.

Even The Professionals Can Get It Wrong

When The New York Times published a lengthy excerptfrom Charles Duhigg's book "The Power of Habit: Why We Do What WeDo in Life and Business", it didnt put much effort into theheadline that went with it. The chosen headline was: HowCompanies Learn Your Secrets.

Although this headline hopes to intrigue you with theword 'secrets', its a ho-hum title for what is a fascinating (andscary) story about how US shopping giant Target collects data aboutits customers, analyses what they buy, and uses the results to sendout laser-targeted marketing messages.

One statistician even worked out how to identifywhether a female shopper might be pregnant. The data was soaccurate that Target knew a high-school girl had a bun in the ovenbefore shed told anyone.

So along comes Forbes writer Kashmir Hill, who zeroesin on the juicy part of this story and writes a curated/summarypost with the headline: How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl WasPregnant Before Her Father Did

Genius. But dont just take my word for it. Thearticle has had over 1.5 million views on the Forbes website. Itsalso been shared over 70,000 times on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit andLinkedIn.

Thats the power of a great headline.

You Can Write Great Headlines

Some people seem to be able to write great headlinesright off the bat. Some websites consistently produce killer titlesthat have an almost effortless ability to attract and engage. Forthe rest of us, it takes a bit more work.

In most cases, we just need a prod in the rightdirection. Or a little voice saying: "hey, why don't you trythis?"

This book is for anyone who needs that little voice.This book is for anyone who craves a quicker, simpler way to writebetter performing titles.

This book is about using what already works.

Over the following pages, Ill lay out a simple buteffective process for headline writing. Its one that offers asystematic approach, provides a solid place to start and gives youproven ideas to work with.

Its a process that can save you time anddeliver better results. Heres what youll learn:

What makes a great headline

The 12 things you can do right now to improve yourheadlines