In today’s advertising market, you need to work harder than ever to catch the audience’s attention. You must remember if you use an attention-grabbing headline that this will grab the attention of its reader, by using a promise of a reward for reading on or even offering news to the reader. The goal is to prompt the reader to want to read more, to pay attention, they will want to continue to read. The headline is the first impression, so you need to make it a good one.
In The Elements of Copywriting Book, titled Headlines they gave some tips to make your headlines more effective & fascinating, I decided to list the tips so that we would always have a reminder of what to think about before making a headline.
Tip 1- Appeal to your audience’s self-interest
Tip 2- Get your audience’s attention
3. Use appropriate appeals
4. Speak directly to your audience
5. Deliver a meaningful message
6. Draw the reader into your body copy
7. Use direct headlines when writing about straightforward offers and high-interest products.
8. Express your sales proposition in a fresh and compelling way.
9. Inject news into your headline
10. Offer to teach the reader something useful
11. Ask a provocative question
12. Tell customers want you want them to do
13. Use the “reason why” approach
14. Put the headline in quotation marks
15. Make headlines and visuals work together
16. Avoid being clever for the sake of being cleaver.
I enjoyed reading this chapter it made complete sense and will help me and others (if we follow the “16 tips” from the book).