How to Write Effective Headlines

Doing Background Research

Research the product if you're writing an advertisement headline. If you're writing a headline for an ad, your headline will also have to serve to promote a product to a reader. Learn what the product being advertised does, what benefits it can bring to readers, and use this information to write an alluring headline. For example, if the product being advertised is used to treat chronic back pain, your headline should be written to target those who suffer from back pain and mention this potential benefit (e.g., Get immediate relief for chronic back pain with one simple product!).

Identify the target audience for your headline. Understanding your target audience is the first step towards writing an effective headline. If you attempt to reach everyone, you'll come across as vague and impress no one. Keep your intended audience in mind and try to target them specifically in your headline. Having your target audience in mind will ensure that your headlines are always written with purpose and direction. For example, if you're writing a headline for a magazine whose readership falls into a specific demographic, cater your headline to that demographic (e.g., 17 ways to study abroad for free during your sophomore year of college).

Learn what others have written on the subject of your headline. Unless the subject of your writing is incredibly niche, it's likely that yours will not be the first headline on the topic. If others have written headlines around the same subject as yours, research how they wrote them and make sure yours is unique. This is very important for making sure that your headline attracts readers. If it doesn't stand out from the thousands of other headlines readers see every day, your chances of having readers actually read your article will go down.

Consider what your article will offer the reader. You want to promise your reader something of value in exchange for reading past the headline. Emphasize the end result in and around your headline to seduce the reader into reading your article. For example, if you're promoting a cookbook, don't emphasize the raw ingredients or the amount of time it takes to cook a meal. Instead, show a presentable meal served on a set dinner table to “promise” the reader that that's what they can have in exchange for reading past your headline.

Choosing the Words for your Headline

Follow the “Four Us” rule when writing your headline. Many writers stick to the “four u's” when writing their headlines; they write them to be unique, ultra-specific, useful, and to convey a sense of urgency. Write your headline along these lines to more effectively lure in readers. You can easily make your headline unique by making it a little unusual. For example, you might write an article on cost-effective travel methods and use the headline “4 ways to see the world even if you can barely afford that avocado toast you know you want.” In addition to being unique relative to your competitors, your headline should be ultra-specific so that readers can know whether the content is targeted to them. An example of an ultra-specific headline might be “7 Amazing Methods for Dunking Your Double-Stuf Oreos in Whole Milk.” Headlines should be useful in the sense that they communicate the value of your content to potential readers. It's helpful to think of your headline as “selling” your actual content this way. An example of a useful headline would be “How you can turn your Instagram photos into cash!” An urgent headline would be one that communicates potential negative consequences for readers who don't read your content (e.g., “Avoid THIS Common Wedding Mistake!”). This is the trickiest “u” to implement and it ultimately may not be applicable to your content.

Keep it simple and easy to understand. Avoid using technical jargon or words that are hard to understand. Readers will be turned off by words that are bland, uninspiring, or generally unknown. Aim to write your headline, as well as the following copy, at a grade 7 reading level. Use language that is simple yet powerful and that calls reader to action. For example, include action verbs like “try” or “click” and address the reader as “you.” At the same time, don't insult your reader's intelligence. People won't appreciate being talked down to.

Be as accurate and concise as you can. Your headline should set clear expectations for your readers and do so in an efficient way. If your headline sets up readers' expectations in a way that your article doesn't deliver, you can upset your readers and damage your and your product's brand. For example, instead of saying “5 Clothing Brands That Every Celebrity from Jennifer Lawrence to Johnny Depp Loves,” try simply saying “5 Clothing Brands That Celebrities Love.” When it comes to headline writing, you should always aim to respect the reader's experience. If you're overly wordy, confusing, or dishonest, you're creating a bad experience for the reader. Avoid writing "Blind Headlines" that reveal nothing about your offer. A headline must stand entirely on its own merit, without the reader being forced to read on to discover what the headline was meaning.

Tell a story with your headline. Readers don't relate to facts and figures as much as they relate to stories. When the reader identifies with the “main character's” dilemma, curiosity will carry the reader forward past your headline and into your article. Describe in your headline what your product or content of your writing is, what problem it addresses, and what benefit it brings. For example, if you're writing a headline for an advertisement about scar removal cream, consider describing in your headline how the cream removes people's “unsightly blemishes” and leaves them feeling more confident as a result. The knack of skillfully weaving a story through an advertisement helps to greatly engage both the reader's imagination and excitement.

Try to connect to your reader's self-interest on an emotional level. A great headline should contain a leading benefit that triggers some level of excitement and appeals to your readers' emotions. These can include overcoming a fear, meeting a need, want, or desire, or satisfying their curiosity. Use emotional adjectives to describe how your article will solve a reader's problem. Examples include “effortless,” “painstaking,” “fun,” and “incredible. Follow the “5 Ws and H” rule for understanding your audience: identify the “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” “why,” and “how” of your content, decide which of these factors is most relevant to your audience, and emphasize that factor in your headline.

Ask a strange or funny question to pique readers' curiosity. Questions are a great way to attract potential readers' attention; they create a so-called “curiosity gap,” a need to know more. Use a particularly strange question in your headline to pull people in. For example, if you're writing an article about domestic cats' natural hunting instincts, you might consider starting your headline with “Does your cat want to kill you?!”

Designing and Writing Your Headline

Capitalize the first word of your headline and any proper nouns. Although some publications may ask that you capitalize each word in your headline when submitting content for them, most will tell you to avoid capitalizing each word in the headline. You should also capitalize the first word used after a colon, in most cases. For example, write “It's just their nature: Why your cat wants to kill you.”

Avoid using all capital letters. If you use all capital letters in your headline, readers may feel like you're yelling at them and will not want to read your copy. Additionally, words in all capital block letters appear as RECTANGULAR BLOCKS OF PRINT and a person quickly skimming a page will miss your entire message. You should definitely use capital letters at the beginnings of certain proper nouns, like the names of people and places. Just don't go overboard with it!

Use punctuation and numbers in your headlines. Research shows that readers prefer headlines with numbers over headlines without numbers by a significant margin. As well, Internet headlines that use hyphens and colons receive more clicks than headlines that don't include punctuation. If your headline is for a clickbait article, place your main keyword(s) before the hyphen or colon, then write the clickbait portion of the article after it. If you include a number in your headline, place it at the very beginning (e.g., 30 Tricks You Can Teach Your Cat).

Use a simple font to avoid putting off readers. The best typeface for both headlines and copy are fonts people are already accustomed to reading. If you get creative with fonts and colors, you may end up discouraging people from reading past your headline and lowering your readership. Some examples of fonts to use might include the Century family, Caslon, Baskerville, and Jenson. Although you want your headline to remain unique, you should aim to make it unique through the actual content and not solely through its visual affect.

Engage your readers' senses, if possible. Engage as many senses as possible (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste) to vividly engage the readers imagination, both in the headline and the copy. Include vivid descriptions of your product (if you're writing for an advertisement) and its benefits that will stimulate readers' imaginations as if they were actually experiencing the product. For example, if your headline is about food, use words like “delicious,” “spicy,” or “smoky” to engage readers' sense of taste.

Stick to formulas commonly used in headlines. There are certain formulas for writing headlines that advertisers and writers commonly use to lure in and positively engage readers. Consider using these formulas to ensure that your headline will have a similar effect. For example, a simple headline-writing formula is “Number or trigger word + Adjective + Keyword + Promise.” An example of this type of headline might be “7 delicious snack options that will help you lose weight fast.”

Write and re-write your headline to make it as perfect as possible. Keep reworking the headline, rearranging the words, and write several versions of a headline always trying to tweak and improve upon it. Then, select the best one. If possible, try and get other people to vote on different versions of your headline to see which one is the most popular. A great headline will often take longer to compose then the entire ad to follow. Try to find a new angle, direction, or twist at looking at your subject matter from the reader's perspective, so your headline is not boring and engages the reader.