Headlines are for hooking your target customer from a sea of prospects. Once the header is hooked, the rest of the copy (the slippery slope) is to reel them in. And before you know it, your target will be forking over his hard earned cash to you (and he will thank you for it)
You should ideally be spending around 80% of your time writing your headline, because that accounts for 80% of your success! This is the lever you can pull to grow your results exponentially. Keep testing this, ruthlessly.
This article covers 7 tips for writing headlines that covert.
Before we dive in, have a look at these:
What do you feel when you look at these headlines?
Something about them makes you just want to “sneak a peek”, doesn’t it?
They hit *just* the right notes, inviting you to read more.
They take you out of your world and pull you into theirs, making you forget about your own life for a bit as curiosity takes over.
That’s how powerful headlines are.
Look, there are 2 things when it comes to selling.
- Your Product
- Catching your targets attention
No matter how good, perfect or life-changing your product may be, it means nothing if you don’t have a way to catch your prospect’s attention.
You cant help them if you can’t reach them.
That’s where headlines come in.
Your headline attracts your perfect prospect from a sea of people. It makes them stop and click.
The headline is the ad for your ad.
You just get ONE glance to make him stop and read.
Your headline has just about a moment of his attention to capture him.
If your headline can hold his attention, he will read the second line. If the second line holds him, he will read the third.
And if you can get him to read the fourth, he will probably read the rest of the page.
But how do you even go about writing headlines that hook?
Moreover, where do you start?
We cover all that in this article – and then some. Keep reading.
But first, notice your own thought process that led you to read till this point.
You saw a headline that addressed a problem you’re facing (not being able to write headlines) or a desire that you have (write better headlines) and you clicked.
You liked what you read in the first 2-3 lines and here we are 🙂
Being aware of your own buying decisions give you deep insight into how a customer thinks. That’s why, if something makes you STOP, and read – you better be making a note of it.
Anyway, enough chitchat. Let’s get down to it.
1. YOUR HEADLINE DOESN’T NEED TO SELL
See the thing is, there is only so much space for a headline. You can’t possibly expect someone to read the headline and buy.
It doesn’t need to sell. It doesn’t even need to mention your product.
What the headline should do, though, is catch the readers attention.
Invite him to read more.
And get him to read the second line. And every other sentence in your copy has the same job.
It’s just simple common sense – the more someone reads, the more likely you are to convince them.
Exception : For people who are brand aware, your headline need only mention the offer (discount) to catch their attention. Example: 30% off all Apple products
2. MEET THEM WHERE THEY’RE AT
You have to consider the stage of awareness your prospect is in to write the headline.
Here is the outline for this-
MOST AWARE : They know of your product, and they know that they want it. But, they just haven’t purchased. All the headline needs to do is show them the price – because that is the only point they need to be convinced of. Not much selling to be done here, and hence, not much copy is needed.
SOLUTION AWARE:
They know that solutions exist for their problem, and they want a solution. Here your copy needs to convince them why they should choose you instead of the competition.
Follow a simple headline format in this case. <Name of the product> + <why it is superior> / <introduce new mechanism>
Use the rest of the copy to prove your competence and superiority.
PROBLEM AWARE:
This is where you definitely need some copywriting muscle. You need to take your customer from knowing that a problem exists, to convincing them that the problem can be solved, and then convince them that the solution exists only with you! You’ll also need to convince them of value >Price of your product
The headline should contain the desire/problem, but cannot mention the product.
Example : how to win friends and influence people
the 5 unknown dangers of showering
who else wants a whiter wash – without any extra work?
UNAWARE
The market has a need that they are not aware of yet.
No use mentioning the price, desire or the product in the headline.
What you can mention in the headline is – YOUR MARKET!
You are just using an emotion to call out your target from the sea of prospects. Here, you aren’t selling anything – except the next line. You’re selling interest and attention. That’s it.
The reader must identify with the headline.
Then, you take them from understanding the emotion, to awareness of a problem, to understanding that a solution is possible, to believing it can be done, to being convinced on the price (IN THIS ORDER)
Your copy must keep them reading. They need to read more, because there is a lot of convincing to be done!
3. GIVE SPECIFIC NUMBERS
“How I beat the stock market by 37% last month” will get more traction than a simple “How I beat the stock market last month”
Other examples:
“How to get rid of back pain in 20 minutes”
“345 Headline ideas to knock their socks off”
4. PRE HEADING
You can use the pre heading to call out a market. For example –
Attention Dog Owners!
Are you giving you dog this XX ingredient in their food?
Attention Copywriters!
Struggling to write headlines? Here are 99 copy and paste, proven headlines
5. BE WILLING TO TAKE RISKS
No one wants to hear “Hey, Let me show you how to earn money” or “Hey this is how to lose weight” anymore.
These markets are sophisticated, and have already been exposed to some offers, so you need to stand out.
Test and keep changing. Don’t be scared to be different!
6. HEADLINE TEMPLATES
If you want to write headlines that hook, here are some templates you can just plug and play.
- The secret of getting [results]
- Who ever heard of [target market] having [results] without [objection]
- How I improved… [problem] without [objection] in just [time]
- Discover the [benefits] you get with [results]
- Proven: The most effective way to get [results]
- Do you have these symptoms of [problem]
- Guaranteed to [results] without [objection]
- To people who want [results] but don’t know where to start
- How much is [problem] really costing you?
- The right way to solve [problem]
- Are other [target market] secretly overtaking you?
- [X] proven ways to get [results] and [benefits]
- Are you ready to have [results] in just [time]?
- Five common [problems] faced by [target market] which one do you want to solve?
- What [industry experts] do when faced with [problem]
- Why it’s not your fault you have [problem]. And how to make it disappear in just [time]
7. POWER WORDS TO USE IN HEADLINES
These words attract attention and leave a powerful impact. You can use one or a combination of these to write headlines that hook your ideal customer. As always, keep testing!
Announcing… At last… Now… Now, at last… How to… Here are… 17-Ways to… The art of… The secret of… A startling fact about… Amazing… New…
8. WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?
Your ideal prospect is standing in line, waiting for coffee, scrolling Instagram.
What is he thinking right now? Is he wondering why he isn’t losing weight despite being in the gym all week? Or if there’s something missing from his workout regimen? If a coach would make all the difference?
You should know the prospect well enough to know what thoughts are on-repeat inside his head.
Now, answer this question:
What headline will make him/her stop and read the entire thing? What will make him raise his eyebrows and go “Huh, let me check this out for a minute”
Start from there, and your headlines will never miss.
BONUS:
This article would be incomplete if I didn’t mention these tips I came accross while reading Dan Kennedy’s books. Here they are, straight from the OG:
- You want your headline to stand out and be the very first thing readers see. Make sure it is at least 50% larger than the body text. You may even want to use a slightly different font than the body text to make it stand out even more.
- Tests have shown that capitalizing the first letter of each word can increase response rates.
- Quotation marks around the entire headline, or even bracketing specific words, sparks interest in what you have to say.
- Your prospect should never have to guess what your copy is about after reading the headline. If they do have to guess or are confused, you need to re-work the headline.
- Don’t “trick prospects into reading your ad
That’s about it! Follow these simple rules to craft headlines that make your prospects stop. And Click.
P.S. Want to read more? Check out this post on 38 ways to strengthen your headline, from Eugene Schwartz
Another good resource is this Gary Halbert letter explaining how to write killer headlines. Have at it!
Hope you have a creative day,
Ash
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