At some point in your business word of mouth from your small client base will not be enough. The growth of a business rests heavily on how effectively you can advertise and a large part of that will be with the written word. Be it bus ads, print ads, a billboard, or even what you have written on your website, they all need a headline. A headline grabs the reader’s attention just long enough to pick up what you are putting down before they move on.
The headline, the title, and the words printed on the advertisement matter a lot. Your written content lives and dies on the headline. Since the headline matter so much the same compelling power has also been applied to both longer written content and shorter advertising copy.
This compelling power we speak of, essentially gets you to read it and then creates the feeling that you need to know more. When we take this compelling power into the current digital age, the headline shifts from an art to a measurable science, and now we understand even more about what makes a compelling headline tick because we now know what people click on. If you have clicked on it, that means it grabbed your attention. So, by knowing what people click on, we can use that to then increase the number of customers buying from us. It goes beyond the headline as well, even the body text is something you can optimize for by making it as active and engaging as possible and deploying certain mental tricks.
After all, a headline is the title of the article/book or the focal point of your advertisement/blog/news article is the big bold letters on the front page of the newspaper. It is the first thing you will read so you need to make it count.
The eye is always drawn towards the biggest block of text, we have been trained since kids to read this way, big to small, top to bottom, left to right. Headline crafters exploit this subconscious process and entice those who look, and get them to read it.
Headlines help attract prospective clients that you would otherwise miss and if you follow the larger market formulation, you realize very few people are willing to buy from you. Here’s the market formulation in the HVAC industry:
The idea behind a headline is to grab the attention of clients not ready to buy.
There are a basic set of rules that apply to writing headlines:
These above standards ensure the headline looks like a headline and not a sentence and it also makes it more likely that someone will read it. Before you write your headline there are certain types that have been identified and learn which ones are the most effective.
The internet has given us a ton of data on what kind of headlines work and which ones are not as effective in getting clicks. 8 out of 10 people will read something but only 2 out of 10 will reach out or click on it. This is why your headline needs to take advantage of what works because even world-class headlines still have a less than 40% click rate. On average, well-written headlines still only yield a 20% click rate.
If we think of it in terms of a customer pool, most businesses will have about 2% of customers who are ready to buy, around 18% who can be convinced, leaving 80% of them who have no idea who or what your company does. Therefore, a good headline is about reaching into that 80% of customers and converting them.
Let’s first start with the different kinds of headlines you could write for both long-form and short-form content. We have rated how effective the headline is by how likely the reader clicks the headline.
In this headline, you are using a smaller odd number:
7 Fixes for ACs | 5 Heat Pumps Myths Busted | 3 Ways to Reduce Heating Bill
According to research, odd numbers seem more legitimate than even numbers perhaps because they are more believable. As a top 10 feels fake but 11 reasons why headline seems more plausible. We also use small numbers as they are more digestible by the brain and quickly processed, unlike a larger number that is hard to imagine.
The active style of writing takes the reader into the text and makes it about them. By using the pronouns ‘you’ ‘your’ or ‘we’, creates the effect that the author is speaking directly to the reader. It feels like it is written for them.
Your Heat Pump Is Not Saving The Earth | You Desperately Need A Duct Cleaning | We Reveal How Your Heat Pump Actually Works
In our above examples, the goal is to tailor the headline for a specific target. In the hopes, that they have a heat pump and feel compelled to read about it or to create a feeling we are missing out. The kids these days call this FOMO, The Fear of Missing Out. We will look more into manipulating emotions a little later.
This headline is quite effective if it is a common problem, you know the reader will have. The reader has a problem, and your article is the solution.
How To Program Your Wireless Thermostat |How to Self-Check Your AC | How to Shut off Your Gas Line
It becomes a far less effective headline if there is no problem to solve. If your customers are seeking advice and knowledge about your services, by offering them useful answers, you retain them and keep them coming back to you. Eventually, when they need the service, they reach out to you.
When you do give advice in a How-To article, always deliver it in steps and remember it needs to be useful they are not there to be sold something. Instead, you are building a relationship and hoping it converts to a sale at a later date.
When using this headline type, your goal is to be controversial, and edgy and to leave out important information. This headline is harder to rank with on the search engine because you often leave out the keyword. This is best used in social media or advertising because you do not need to rely on SEO ranking. That is why its effectiveness is low because the numbers are based on search engine click volume.
Make sure the headline does not answer the question or tell the reader the whole story. This lowers the chances they act on it because they already got what they needed from the headline.
There is no reason for me to click this headline, it gives me everything I need to know.
Headline Length
There will always be tension between adding excitement and controlling the length of a headline.
The answer all depends on where the headline is going to appear. Will it be on the side of a bus, on your website, or in an email campaign? There is always a maximum length the format dictates, so do your research and find out how many characters you have to work with and if you are going for short and sweet or long and enticing.
From this point on we will discuss how to write your own headline.
You want to hit as many of these dimensions as possible to make the best headline, one that is clicked on, one that is read, and one that gets the reader to reach out to you.
Unique
The google it method is a way to check if your headline is unique. Once you create a headline it is time to check how popular it is. You want something that is uncommon and if possible, never used. You can check this by typing it into Google using: “Headline Here” this will search and see how many other people have used this exact phrasing.
Useful
The headline should aid the reader in some way. It can be practical, helpful, valuable, informative, worthwhile, beneficial, advantageous, and be the answer to their question, maybe one they never knew they had.
Urgency
A headline that has the fear of missing out in it. It’s the feeling that you are letting a good deal pass, that life-changing information is passing you by. Harnessing these feelings is the making of a must-click-on headline. A must-buy book title, a must-act on deal—A feeling that you want to use this company before they are booked solid.
It is like when a client calls in asking for a quote, you give them the quote and the closing line, “I can only honor this price for the next two weeks.” What you are doing is creating a sense of urgency, it is no different with your headline. A simple way to do this is to add a time limit to the headline.
It is to better advertise a single product, not the entire line. Think of a TV commercial, they always focus on the brand in general or its products never both. A headline is no different.
A headline focuses on one topic, hitting on exactly what the reader is thinking about, bringing up the problem they are having, and then solving it. All in as few words as possible.
Let’s go over a few guiding principles and word groups that will push your headlines in the right direction. Since we are dealing with a bit of an art form here, a bit of play and creativity needs to come from you.
Also known as Rationales, are a set of words that offer advice and tell the reader what you have to say is valuable.
|
|
These are almost always paired with a number because of how easy it is to include them with these educational words.
What do you think is the best-ranking adjective used on the internet? By far highest search volume yielding adjective to include in a headline is ‘Free’.
The idea of an adjective is to spice up a neutral headline. In fact, a neutral headline outranks both a positive and negative one in terms of how often it will be shared. A quick glance at the data shows that neutrally written headlines get 10k more shares than positive and 15k more than negative.
A quick glance at the data shows that neutrally written headlines get 10k more shares than positive and 15k more than negative.
The only problem is neutral headlines tend to sound boring but nonetheless outperform their counterparts. However, when you add an adjective to a neutral headline something magical happens.
Take our first example of the word Free. Add it to this headline: Annual AC Maintenance. We go from a 1 to a 10. You can also inject emotion into your neutral headline, and it doesn’t always have to be an adjective. The Power Words in English act as a great list to inspire you when you go to write some marketing copy.
While you do not need to literally use one of the Power Words in your headline, you can ask yourself if your headline captures any of these feelings.
Remember you never want to mislead or trick your reader with a headline. If you cannot back it up, then do not advertise it that way.
COMMON COMPONENTS of a Headline
Let’s look at the different parts of a headline because there is definitely more than one way to slice it.
Present the problem, solve it, and then promise the future results.
Problem > Solution > Promise
Home Windows Fogging? Double-Pane Windows Save 1000s On Heating
Mix the up the steps:
Our Vent Service Clears Harmful Dust For A Safer Home
Solution > Problem > Promise
Another simple formula is the solution-action-problem template where you use the action word to sell the solution. This gives the headline a short and sweet look. The problem template and can be stretched a little it does not literally need to be a real problem.
Solution > Action > Problem
3 Simple Finance Options to Pay off Your Install
The Best Air Purification Systems Prevent & Kill Air Borne Bacteria
Adding an element of time into this Action Headline makes the problem seem even more problematic. Again, you can mix the elements around in the sentence.
Pay Off Your Furnace In 12 Months & Get Cash Back |Finance A Furnace Over 24 Months Even With Bad Credit
As you can see the headline can add a benefit or put a shortcoming at ease.
A headline is a piece of text that captures the reader or looker’s attention, but it is still only one part of the advertisement. You will also need a compelling visual, layout, and color to get them to look in the first place, and only then will they read it.
Mark As Complete!
Once you’ve finished reading a topic, be sure to mark it as complete to track your progress. There will be a toggle switch at the bottom of each topic page. The Service Guild page will log your total progress and each pillar section will log its corresponding progress as you go!
Toggle here to mark this section as completed!
