Did you know that on average, eight out of 10 people will read your headline, but only two out of 10 will read the rest of your story or email? In other words, even if you sold your soul to the devil in exchange for the greatest press release ever written, if your headline stinks, no one will read it.
At Laura Burgess Marketing, we don’t want you to waste your press release (or your soul) and we have some wicked good tips for writing killer headlines.
Be Brief and To the Point
Try to keep your headlines under 65 characters. There’s a few reasons for this. If you go over 65 characters your full headline won’t show up in email or search resu… and then it will just look funny. Also, let’s face it, no one likes a blabbermouth. Your headline shouldn’t stutter; you want it to get to the point as soon as possible. You should front load your headline and put the most important words at the beginning. Let’s take the “Dam Nearly Finished, But Much Left to Do,” headline as an example. If you reversed it and it read “Much Left to Do, But Dam Nearly Finished,” it wouldn’t be nearly as eye-catching.
Cheat Using Lists and Odd Numbers
People love lists and numbers because they are visually different. We are bombarded by so much of the same-old, same-old day-after-day, it just about makes our eyes glaze over. If you can throw in a “five tips to…”, or a “three reasons…” into your headlines you’ll be sure to get people to open their eyes, wake up and say “Holy Cow! Is that a number? That’s different!” and then read your well written and punchy content. Interestingly enough, odd numbers perform better than even numbers in headlines. So be odd…
Make it Pop by Taking the Time to Take Risks
“Everybody likes headlines that are dry and boring and don’t have an ounce of creativity,”- said no one ever. Your headline shouldn’t be an afterthought. If you want to have headlines that pop you need to spend time on them and be willing to rewrite them a few times. Some people feel they aren’t creative enough to write a good headline. That’s quite simply not true. They’ve actually done studies that have proven that creativity can be taught. So be persistent, teach yourself to be creative and you’ll come up with a zinger. A creative headline like “Dam Nearly Finished, But Much Left to Do,” isn’t afraid to take risks. I guarantee you nobody is that terribly interested in reading about the nuances of dam construction, but that headline is a winner and I’m sure that article got read more times than it had any right to.
Ask a Question
Curiosity is why readers are reading your content in the first place. So why not ask a question in your headline? Research has shown that headlines that ask a question perform better than those that don’t. When you ask your readers a question they’ll want to know the answer and will read your article to satisfy their curiosity.
Sprinkle in Verbs and Adjectives to Spice It Up
Verbs and adjectives are your friends. Sprinkling one or two into your headline will really bring out the flavor of your article and make it too appetizing for your readers to resist (see what I did there, mmm… headlines… nom nom nom). Here’s a few good ones to give you a taste: best, brilliant, epic, essential, great, important, killer, know, most, simple, success, ultimate, useful, valuable. Really there’s a smorgasbord (I can’t help myself) of options to choose from. This is where a thesaurus can come in handy.
These tips aren’t the end-all be-all of writing a good headline, but they’ll get you started. To be frank, writing a good headline comes down to putting some serious brain power into thinking one up. Don’t worry though, if you’ve got steam coming out of your ears and you need a little help writing your headline or press release you can always contact us at Laura Burgess Marketing. I’d be happy to write it for you.
Very Helpful Tips!