Whatever the purpose is, would it be for a sales letter, an article or a landing page the headline is still the most important part of your work. It is based on the headline only that the reader will decide whether your “content” is worth reading or not! You have just a few seconds to grab your potential reader’s attention, and this by the mean of a powerful headline.
Here’s the method I personnaly use to generate proven attention-grabbing headlines.
First step :
A strong headline needs ideally to answer 3 of the 5 W’s - What? Why? When? Who? Where?
Let’s say you’re selling Insulating Paint, it could be something like this:
What – Warmcoat Insulating Paint
Why – Save on your heating bills
When – Now
Who – Householders
Where – Let’s say Dublin!
The most important part being the “Why”. Here you need to bring the most powerful benefit to your reader’s attention (benefit, not feature). The “Why” is the trigger. Your reader wants an answer to “what’s in it for me?” and “how can that profit myself”. These questions are your reader’s only concern, and need to be answered immediately.
I’d like to emphasize the difference between features and benefits. A feature is for instance “Call forwarding” and the benefit is “You’ll never miss another important call”. A benefit is way stronger than a feature. All you need to do then is to turn your best feature into a strong benefit.
Second Step :
Now you need to generate few headlines based on your 5 W’s. Still the most efficient is the “How To” headline. By far the most popular, easy to get and straight to the point. Nonetheless, there are many different ways like “Discover...”, “At Last...”, “Amazing New...”, “Little Known Secret...”, etc ...
Let’s keep our example above:
“How To Save Directly On Your Heating Bills With Warmcoat Insulating Paint...”
“Discover New Warmcoat Insulating Paint... The Paint That Reduces Heat Loss Immediately!”
“At Last A Cheap Solution To Insulation...”
“Amazing New Insulating Paint Helps You Save On Your Heating Bills At No Cost...”
“Little Known Secret To Save On Your Heating Bills With Advanced Insulating Paint...”
Some more proven tips :
Always state in your headline the most evident benefit your service/product provides. Start with a “How To” is always a winner. Do not exceed 17 words. Always put your headline between “quotes” and centered. Do not write your headline all in UPPER CASE but instead use a Capital Letter On Each First Letter Of The Words.
