Four Qualities of a Good Headline
PDF It’s not a mystery that a good headline will undoubtedly draw your reader into your marketing piece. The real puzzle is, what type of headline will actually do the job. As a marketer, you’re taught to test your marketing message until you discover what works and generates sales or leads. However, testing your message can be costly, especially if you’re a small business just getting started.
You can eliminate some of the guess work by following the four qualities of what makes a good headline, below. All four are categories that have been tested over time and have been proven to work.
Four qualities of a good headline:
Self-Interest – A self-interest headline is one that grabs the readers attention because it relates to their needs rather than yours, the business. It’s considered the most important of the four qualities of a good headline. Remember, you are trying to sell or get your reader to act. The best way is to make your headline about them.
An example of a self-interest headline: “You Can Win Groceries For A Year!”
News – Newspapers have perfected this quality. Their very survival has been based on the front page headline. However, advertisers and marketers have used this second most important headline quality to their advantage.
An example of a news headline: “Famine Sweeps Across America, Many Starve.”
Curiosity – You’ve heard the idiomatic expression, curiosity killed the cat. Well, the cat is not the only thing curiosity can kill. It can “kill” a readers desire to pass on reading the headline. While curiosity is an important quality of headlines, when used alone as a headline, it is not as powerful as the first two and therefore should be combined with another headline quality in order to be effective.
An example of a curiosity headline: “Seven Reasons Why People Fail At Business.”
Quick and Easy Way – We live in a fast paced society where we expect everything RIGHT NOW!. Take a look around you, we have fast food restaurants, quick check-in’s at airports, and even drive-thru marriages in Las Vegas. We want everything NOW! Headlines that demonstrate something is quick and simple or easy will also pique your readers interests. Tell them how they can achieve or receive something quickly and easily, and you’re on your way to increasing your responses.
An example of a quick and easy headline: “Give us 10 minutes of your time and we’ll show you how to make extra income in 3 easy steps.”
One final note, you can dream up great headlines using all four qualities of a good headline, however, one thing is certain, you must make your headline credible. One simple way to create credibility in a headline is by using statistics or numbers. While not every headline will be able to accomplish this, you should certainly strive to create a headline that will be credible by your readers. If you make it so outrageous and unbelievable, your chances of success will diminish and your credibility with your readers will deteriorate.
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Hey, thanks for this. I was writing a report on advertising and came across your blog on headlines. Perfect timing and very useful! Thanks!
I’m glad you found this post useful. I will be adding more on headlines in the future.