3 Tips for Writing the Perfect Headline

“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 Ogilvy

While the way we read and gather information has changed since the 1960’s, writing a good headline for a blog, an email, webpage tab or any type of marketing is just as important today as it was during Ogilvy’s era. After all, if your headline isn’t compelling and interesting no one is going to read the rest of your content.

Here are some top tips to help you keep your headlines on track.

• The best headlines let your reader know the value/benefit of reading your blog, your ad or your email.  Keep your headlines straightforward and concise. Using a number like I did in the title for this article tells people they are going to receive 3 valuable pieces of information and that they won’t not need to invest a lot of time to get that information. The best headlines convey a value/benefit and incorporate an important keyword or keyphrase. One way to do this is to ask a question in your headline which conveys to readers that you are answering the question in the content that follows.

• Be compelling and interesting. Instead of using a generic title try something that will peak the reader or website visitor’s interest.  So many websites use “About Us” as a title for a page.  “How We Started & Where We’re Going” is much more interesting.  Being creative has its limits for professionals. For example, don’t use puns, foul language or metaphors.

• Be Specific. If your law firm has 150 five-star reviews online, don’t say several or lots of reviews, say “150 Clients Have Given Us Excellent Reviews”. Today’s readers don’t like to dig for this kind of information, they want it easily found so they can determine if they want to invest more time learning about your business.

Once you believe you have a compelling headline, use a subtitle to further define your content. Subtitles are an excellent way to work key words into your content titles. Experiment with different titles and subtitles and always be testing your content effectiveness. To refresh old content you can take these tips and go change the headlines of your old blogs.