Help With Headlines

Great question Kelly, only if we had the one right answer.

I see it as very case specific, meaning no one answer fits all.

There are guides and our own stored memory of what's worked before and combining two thoughts together which haven't been joined before to make the new.

Where the product or service seems best to have a news approach, then you can learn from the news media.

Example: A high percentage of news headlines start with a factual beginning then use an action word which ends with an s.

"Dell slashes 4,000 of it's work force"

"Trump rips into Obama"

Then you see how Gary Halbert created his news headline which went "Wife Of Famous Film Star Swears Under Oath Her New Perfume Does Not Contain An Illegal Sexual Stimulant"

It has the factual beginning then has the action word ending with an s{swears}.

That's how you can handle an ad that is news worthy.

Next is an ad that deals with the reader wanting to achieve a specific outcome...say passing a certain exam.

You can call in the use of authority and intrigue to match their desire.

"When The Top 1% Of X Exam Students Have An Exam To Pass ...And Don't Have The Time To Study, This Is What They Do..."

You'll notice this headline came from "When Doctors Feel Rotten, This Is What They Do..."

Then there is a straight out offer headline where the product is very straight forward to understand.

"Corns Gone In 8 Days Or Your Money Back"

So to summarize, you have to join the state of mind of the reader with the best approach for the product you are dealing with.

Best,
Ewen

I've always thought great bullets often worked as great headlines. I posted a thread on here that gives you many different types of bullets - you can use the same ideas to create your headline.

After you've been at this for a while, the various headline types become ingrained in your thinking. If you're not at that point yet, get Robert Boduch's book, "Great Headlines-- Instantly!". He teaches 22 different types of headlines.

The next thing to learn is word use. Headlines should use proven words (discover, you, free, etc), eye-catching words (secrets, amazing, shocking, etc) and words that create mental imagery (also known as power words).

Also, headlines should use specifics and be pithy.

Now you're ready to write a great headline.

Gary B's attention-getting formula I = B + C is a good one. Interest = Benefit + Curiosity. He talks about it here...

Marketing Bullets | Bullet #23

Alex

I'd like to respond to this for a second. Ripping off or swiping headlines is never a bad idea. Obviously you don't want to plagiarize, but there isn't all that much new under the sun. If something aint broke, don't fix it the cliche goes( don't use cliches or cleverness in headlines!)

For instance Bob Bly says that when he has trouble coming up with a headline, he'll put "How to" directly in front of it. A how to headline will work in many different scenarios. i.e. "How to get rid of acne forever." or "How you can gain access to this tightly guarded secret that most wall street brokers don't even know about."

Attention is the name of the game.

You want to pull people out into your copy with it.

When I write my headlines, I always try and think about how people are going to respond to it. I want to make sure that what I'm writing is something that will lead them into the copy. I want my headline to be Interesting and useful

Michael Masterson offers the 4 Us. Unique, ultra specific, useful, and urgent. If a headline contains 3 or 4 of the Us, then it's most likely going to be read, and probably will drive people into the copy.

Hope that helps

Adam

Current thinking is that when it comes to keyword tags, less is more. Overloading your keyword meta tag with many keywords only reduces their impact on your rankings. List all the keywords your main clients might use to search for your web page. Then use only five to seven of the most relevant ones on each page, and use different ones to describe the content of different web pages

Kelly,

When I write my headlines... I usually aim for putting down the big idea.

I hang my hat on the hook or USP in the copy... sometimes both.

Not all the time, of course. But it's a good starting point, IMHO.

-Daniel

Have you been trying to figure out how to create better blog headlines that not only captures readers' attention, but makes them want to stick around and subscribe?
I've had people compliment me on the titles of some of my blog posts and have even had people ask me for suggestions. When I'm put on the spot like that I can rarely deliver anything of value.
The problem is first of all, I'm no headline expert - then on top of that my methods are unorthodoxed - I have no methods! I generate headlines after I've written the content and many times they could be a lot better. Sometimes, I've had to revise headlines after someone else has suggested a better one.