Writing headlines is, more often than not, the most overlooked part of copywriting and, if you happen to be one of the people who take headlines lightly, you have come to the right place, as you will understand their enormous importance and their great power to impact one’s business.
You may think that a headline is not as important as the content of your copy, regardless of whether it is your blog post, your homepage, your email subject line, or your ad, since the text of your copy is what contains relevant information to your target readers. However, if you do think so, you have never been more wrong.
A headline is what captures the attention of your readers and makes them actually want to continue reading your copy. In a world overloaded with information, it is exactly what will draw your readers in and compel them to check out your offer, read your blog post, or visit your website to find out more about you and what you do.
A headline can make or break your entire copy, so it is crucial that you devote both time and effort into making your every headline as catchy as possible in order to ensure your readers are instantly hooked in. You need to make sure your headlines don’t push your readers away, but instead, engage them and create the best first impression.
Therefore, take a look at the following tips that will help you write attention-grabbing headlines that will not only convince your target audience to read your copy, but also convert them into your customers.
Make Your Headline Unique
Nowadays, people are used to seeing commercial after commercial that says exactly the same thing over and over again and they are not amused. They easily tune out until something new and refreshing appears that captures their attention and makes them interested in the offer.
This is why you must strive for uniqueness. You must differentiate yourself from a number of competitors to ensure you stand out. If you are just like everyone else, your potential customers will not be interested in doing business with you, since there will be no reason why they should buy your products or hire your services instead of your competitors’.
Being unique is the key for everything you do and, when it comes to writing your headlines, it is the absolute necessity. A unique headline will result in people being intrigued and actually being interested in reading your content. If you don’t stand out in the noise of your competition, your target audience will simply move on to find something that will not put them right off and that will actually grab their attention.
Therefore, steer away from boring headlines that read the same as thousands of others out there. Instead, try and be creative in your headline writing and give your each and every headline a personality. Personality is what will make it unique and what will attract your target readers, so don’t be afraid to take a risk and try something new. After all, people are likely to connect more easily to businesses that show personality so, by doing that, you will most certainly hit the bullseye and get more conversions.
Make Sure Your Headline Is Specific
Your headline may be unique, but if it is not specific, you cannot expect your target customers to know whether or not the content you are presenting them with is relevant to them. Being specific in your headline will help them determine if they are interested in what you have to offer or not and it is exactly what will help you get higher click-through rates, as well as increase your conversion rates.
For instance, the “you-will-not-believe-this” headlines, that everyone is, unfortunately, familiar with, are the ones that will never really pan out. They are the real content killers that you should avoid at all costs and we cannot stress this enough.
On the other hand, if you write a headline such as “Reduce Your Abandonment Cart Rates and Increase Your Sales by 30%”, you will immediately grab the attention of ecommerce business owners who have a problem with high abandonment cart rates, while informing them that you have a solution that will help them increase their sales by 30%, at the same time helping them increase ecommerce conversion rates.
Therefore, by being specific in your headline, you will succeed in attracting your ideal customers and, thus, have better chances of increasing your conversions. Otherwise, your target customers will not know whether or not your content is targeted to them and your every effort, not to mention your money, will go down the drain.
Make Your Headline Useful
This is perhaps the most important element of an effective and successful headline. But, what does it actually mean to make your headline useful? It means that it needs to show that the rest of your content will provide them with benefits and useful information that will help them solve their customer pain points.
If your headline does not convey a benefit, your target customers will have no reason to continue reading past your headline. That is why you need to ensure that it is useful to them and actually deliver on that promise in your copy.
For instance, a headline such as “5 Easy Tips to Improve Your Blog’s Content” will promise your target audience, that is, bloggers, that they will improve the content on their blog by following the tips you provide them with. Therefore, ensuring your headline is useful will help you drive a lot more conversions.
Many copywriters think that the main point of writing a headline is to come out as smart and clever and that the readers will immediately be drawn in that way. However, trying to do something like that and not providing a single benefit to the readers is the primary reason for their failure, as they do not provide them with a reason to continue reading.
Therefore, make sure you don’t make such a mistake, but instead always show your target readers how they will benefit from reading your copy. You will definitely have many more customers that way and you’ll succeed in getting higher click-through and conversion rates.
Instill a Sense of Urgency
Making your headline instill a sense of urgency cannot really always be done, but when it can, it can really step up your game, as this tactic proven to work fairly well.
A headline that conveys a sense of urgency will compel your target audience to read your content in order not to miss out on any potential opportunity to learn something new that can help them improve their business or solve any particular problem they may have.
For instance, if you write a headline, such as “3 Tips for Adding Urgency to Your Headlines Right Now”, you will instantly grab the attention of the people who don’t want to miss out on the opportunity to make higher-quality headlines that will help them drive more conversions. They will be intrigued by your headline and compelled to click through and read more about what you have to say.
Therefore, urgency is an excellent way of getting higher conversion rates, so try and use it in your headlines whenever possible.
Conclusion
Including one or two of these elements will certainly help you produce better headlines that will pull in your target customers, but if you can include three or even all four of them, you can be certain that you will hit a home run and succeed in not only making your target readers actually want to read your copy, but also in converting them into your customers.
Therefore, make sure you always follow these tips when writing your headlines, since even a single word in your headline can make a huge difference and impact your entire campaign. It is your responsibility to make sure that impact is a positive one.
