Readers share colloquial headlines
After reporting on award-winning colloquial headlines in a recent issue, I asked you to share your best quote, colloquialism or sound bite headline and deck.
Twist a phrase.
Most of you shared clever, creative headlines that I’d call twist of phrase headlines, not sound bite headlines. (This is obviously my report card for clarity in the original article!)
Here are the best of that bunch:
Opportunity Knocks! On Wood?
Conservative company finds liberal growth
in an untapped wood market.
— Raymond E. De Vries,
communicator at The Timken Company
Eagan Police Take It to the Tweets
In an effort to better serve the public,
the Eagan Police Department announces
the creation of an Eagan Police Department
Twitter page.
— Joanna Foote,
communications coordinator
at City of Eagan, Minnesota
What the Cluck?
A University of Missouri professor
created a vegetarian chicken substitute
good enough to fool carnivores
and hatch a company
— Loring Leifer, chief copywriter, WordsWorth
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 MINUTES
A trip across the globe would be very expensive.
Fortunately for our families and community,
Central Kitsap School District
provides one for free every year.
— RandaLyn Novick, district spokeswoman
for Central Kitsap School District
Seeing the writing on the wire
Synchrophasors give BPA a glimpse
into the future of the grid
— Kristel Turner, public affairs specialist,
at Bonneville Power Administration
I love them all! But a true colloquial headline is a sound bite or quote. It sounds like something someone would actually say in this situation.
And the winner is …
‘No, Webex, we can’t be friends’
Our Webex contract with Verizon
expires at the end of July,
so it’s time to start thinking
about an amicable split
— Hillary Dobbs, senior copywriter,
Publications, at Black Hills Corporation
Hillary, I love this sound bite headline. The only piece of advice I’d share is to avoid repeating words from the headline in the deck.
Still, this is a textbook example of the form, and I hope you really ran it in one of your publications. Please watch your mailbox for a little headline-related gift from me.
And thank you all for playing!
Are your headlines getting the word out?
“Readers” don’t read. Even highly educated web visitors read fewer than 20% of the words on a page.
So how do you reach “readers” who won’t read your paragraphs?Want to learn how to reach people who spend only two minutes — or even just 10 seconds — with your message. If so, bring Ann in to present Catch Your Readers — a persuasive-writing course — to your team.
There, they’ll learn how to write headlines that put their key messages where their readers’ eyes are. They’ll discover how to deliver their ideas to people who don’t read the paragraphs. And they’ll find out how to draw even reluctant audience members into their message.
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