Catchy headlines No. 1 reason people read stories
While presenting a headline-writing workshop at Farm Credit Bank recently, I was charmed by one participant’s rewrite.
The story was about the fact that, in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, banks feel more comfortable giving 15-year mortgages rather than the traditional 30. The original headline certainly captured the story:
Market Risk
Drives Shorter Loan Terms
But Kristin Mattox, FCB marketing director, rewrote the headline and deck to catch attention and make readers want more:
15 is the new 30
Market risk drives shorter loan terms
Catchy headlines draw readers.
And that’s important. Because a catchy headline is the No. 1 reason Americans choose to read a story in full, whether in print or online (54%), according to a recent Harris poll.
Brainstorm catchy headlines.
To write a catchy feature headline, do your homework.
Before Upworthy, a newish site that shares “things that matter,” posted this headline …
“What Are Selena Gomez And Justin Bieber
Doing In The House Of Representatives?”
… the team brainstormed 25 alternative titles, including:
Would The Founding Fathers
Be Proud Of The Fact
That Our Political System
Has Come To This?
What Do Geraldo Rivera, Selena Gomez,
Jeremy Lin, And Sonia Sotomayor
Have In Common?
Why Isn’t Justin Bieber
Proud To Be American?
One simple way to come up with better headlines is to come up with more headlines. Get tips for better brainstorming meetings.
Build better headlines.
That’s one reason the writers at Wylie Communications develop several headlines before sending copy to our writing clients. The last ones we come up with are usually the best.
For instance, here’s a twist-of-phrase headline Dawn Grubb wrote for a piece about Saint Luke’s Hospital’s Auxiliary:
Goodwill Hunting
Our dedicated volunteers raise funds to help
Saint Luke’s thrive and care for area patients
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How can you write catchy headlines that sell your stories to your readers?
Lift Ideas Off the Page
Reach nonreaders with display copy
Once you’ve written your headline, David Ogilvy famously said, you’ve spent 80 cents of your advertising dollar. That’s right: Display copy — headlines, captions and callouts, for instance — gets the biggest ROI of everything we write.
That’s why I’m often amazed that the same folks who spend hours polishing the analogy in the seventh paragraph of their message toss off a headline in the 17 seconds before happy hour on a Friday afternoon. Most of your readers will never read the seventh paragraph. But many more will read your display copy.
People don’t read. So how can you reach them with words?
At Catch Your Readers — our two-day hands-on persuasive-writing master class on Oct. 2-3 in Dallas — you’ll learn how to put your messages where your readers’ eyes really are — to use your display copy to pull readers into your message, make your piece more inviting and even communicate to flippers and skimmers. Specifically, you’ll learn how to:
- Reach “readers” who spend only two minutes — or even just 10 seconds — with your piece.
- Avoid dropping the piece of display copy that 95% of people read — but that many communicators forget.
- Run a simple test on your message to ensure that even folks who will not read your message no matter how well you write it still get your key ideas.
- Make your copy 47% more usable by adding a few simple elements.
- Pass the Palm Test to make your message look easier to read. Because if it looks easier to read, more people will read it.
Learn more about our Dallas master class.
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