The most important sentence while writing headlines making headlines is: what would the reader get when he clicks? What value would it bring to him? If you write headlines for your media or your company, you should always ask: what would it bring to my readers, customers?
Good test is always this thing: What would you say to your lasiets, most flegmatic friend, if you wanted to excite him, to make him read? What is so awesome about your information to wake him up?
Remember to always look for the information that woul be specific. Do not build your headlines on adjectives – they rarely work. If you think that your product or article is „interesting, efficient etc“, please, dont say it. If you dont specify why your article is worth reading, and why your product is worth getting to know, adjectives will always be just empty advertising words. And there are too many of them around us – so many that people dont react to them.
When you write your headline, try to follow two step approach. In the first step, always try to approach very specific group of your readers, based on demoghraphy, interests, region, sex....
But your product can be bought by people that you would never expect. And your article might be read by people that you would never expect – in fact, this will amount in quite a big group of people. If somebody ignores the culture, it does not mean you should forget about him while writing the headline for the article about new Depeche Mode performance in Budapest.
So, try to build upon the step 1 and make your headline appealing to masses. Try to underline what is important and what is exciting for most of the people. And people, they get excited by stories-
By valuable information.
By curiosities.
And of course, they get excited by emotions. Try to find one of these things in your article – or your product – and bring it to the world.
Warning: if you dont know how to make it appealing to the masses, dont force it, or else you will screw it up.
Internet media is not really your city halls bulleting board. It is not the document that you get from lawyer. The language of headline – whether it is markeitng or media headline – should use plain language, language that many people understand. To be understandable to your reader, to your customer, it must be readable for schoold kid and for the granny, too.
How do you make your headline readable? First, you avoid any technical terms, at all costs. If it is something that is well known in your industry or field does not mean that the others will be familiar with it, too.
Always use verbs, verbs are the magic sticks that will bring life in the boring title. Verb makes your headline more understandable, it makes it closer to everyday language, and brings action to the headline. Here are some examples: Good: Obama: We will bring some soldiers back from Afganistan (fact, information) Better: Obama showed which soldiers will come back from Afganistan (action) Exceptions : If you have interesting quotation in your headline, there is no need to have verb, colon would be ok. If you write headline for video, colon is forbidden.
I have never heard of headline that coudlnt be made better with verb. Every headline loves verbs. At least one of the basic verbs, such as to be....
To have
Or to want
But it is much better to use active verbs
Once again, people love stories, people get excited by action. And they hate simple boring information. How do you bring story to the title? In quite a simple way. First, you name the character – who was doing something? Second, you name the action – what was he or she doing? Hurray, you have the story in your headline
Ok, here we are, at number 5, and it is quite simple: good title does not make you think, at all.
You visit the website of the internet medium in the middle of your daily job, to see what is new in the world. How many articles are there? How much time can you give to one of them? Two seconds? Or one?
Your reader, your customer, is not stupid, not at all. He just does not have enough time to think about something that he doesnt want to think about. Please, forget all the metaphots, word puzzles, hidden meanings. If they dont understand, they dont click.
It does not mean you should stop being creative, quite opposite! But please, do not try to hide some meaining, second meanings, in your title.
Your headline is like the shopping window of the shop – oftentimes, it influences the way we see the article once we click on it. Since headline is very often the only way how the customer will get on the website of your company or your online article, it sets expectations for the article. If the website does not fulfill the expectations, the customer will leave. And the unfulfilled, maybe slightly pissed leave, is sometimes worse than no visit at all. Here is a short example from the movie industry. There is a movie by czech author Milos Forman claled the Goyas Ghosts. The title of the movie set expectations: it will be the biograpgy of this famous painter. „It was the biggest mistakes of all, to name the movie after Goya“, said forman in one of the interviess. Goya is only the side character , and people expected something else. So be cautios of this – your title can change the way people see your article. Never promise something that the article does not deliver or someting that is not really important part of the article. You will catch attention of many people – but most of them will be dissapointed and never click again.
And here are two more sentences to remember: Half-truth is lying, too. Omiting important fact is also lying. Example from newspaper: Police discovered 100 kilograms of cocaine. If it happened in Budapest, it will be sensation. If it happened in Colombia, so what? Who cares?
In the second part, I will show you 4 common nonsenses about good headlines.
Many people say you dont need any verb in your headline
´Well, let me tell you that this is complete and utter bullshit.
Many journalist – print journalist – told me that you only need verb in news headlines and if you have commentaries or reports, you dont need any verb. Well, this might be good for print, where the reader can be catched by many things – title, second title, third title, perex, photo, quotations... But there is nothing except for title – ususally nothing – on the internet. The magazine might have two words as headline in the print version, but this is a luxury on the internet.
Use the verb as often as possible. Doesnt matter which form, what kind of article do you have, what kind of product do you sell, there is nothing that you can screw up by adding a verb to the headline, and many thing that you can make better,.
Second popular myth is that Title should simply describe what the article is about
Well, most of the time, this is really dead end.
Generalizing the content of the article and using it in headline is probably the most common mistake people do. In theory, it works beatufuly and the logic is simple. You say what the article is about People that are interested would click
In reality, they do not click.
Often times, we overestimate the value of our article or our products. We think they are so exciting that the pure mention of the content of the article will make people jump of their chairs and read out loud.
Yes, some topics do that – for example, sports, especially the sports that have strong national teams, can do that. If there is a wordlwide championship going, any article that mentions this will be read by huge amount of people.
But if you, at the same time, publish the text on safety of baby car seats, you cannot give it headline like „do not underestimate baby car seats“
Remember – you should show people the value behinde their click-.
So, what is new in your article about the baby car seats? Something that nobody has said before? What is surprising about the facts that you brought to audience?
And say it very, very specificaly!!! No abstract art allowed!
The third myth goes like this: If I describe more than one thing, everyone will find something interesting in it
REALITY: If I describe more than one thing, everyone will find something that makes him uninterested
It might not happen so often in newspaper and media, but it happens quite often in advertising – especially if we talk about small businesses and their advertising. Why should you write something – and this is actual, real examples – something like „Horses, nature, strawberries and silence“? This is something that is really unclicklable – reader will not get it in 1 second, not in 2 seconds, not in a minute. Always talk about one specific thing in your headline
The only exception is if you want to get opposites into your headline.
Some poeple say that Questions will attract attention.
Well, not always, I would say.
Questions are, in fact, the direct opposites of call-to-action, and call-to-action is something that you definitely want to have in good headline
Otáznik predáva pochybnosti, vy však do titulku potrebujete dostať istotu - presný dôvod, prečo treba na článok kliknúť.
Nečakajte, že čitateľ chce/bude s vami spolupracovať. Otázku používajte len vtedy, ak si na ňu naraz odpoviete, alebo sa pri nej zaobídete bez otázniku a nezmení význam.
Ak sa niečo užívateľa pýtate, potom asi čakáte odpoveď. Na otázku sú dve možné odpovede: áno alebo nie. Otázkou ste si odrezali od článku polovicu čitateľov – tých, ktorý povedali, áno, kontrolujem si pneumatiky pravidelne. Prečo by ich to malo ďalej zaujímať? Preskočia k zaujímavejšiemu obsahu. Pritom článok určite hovorí zaujímavé informácie aj pre nich – vytiahnite tie do titulku.
Ak sa niečo užívateľa pýtate, potom asi čakáte odpoveď. Na otázku sú dve možné odpovede: áno alebo nie. Otázkou ste si odrezali od článku polovicu čitateľov – tých, ktorý povedali, áno, kontrolujem si pneumatiky pravidelne. Prečo by ich to malo ďalej zaujímať? Preskočia k zaujímavejšiemu obsahu. Pritom článok určite hovorí zaujímavé informácie aj pre nich – vytiahnite tie do titulku.
Dobrá otázka: Viete správne používať klimatizáciu?
Prečo je dobrá? Na rozdiel od prechádzajúcej otázky by sa táto totiž zaobišla aj bez otázniku. Je rovnocennou alternatívou k týmto názvom: Tri riešenia, ako lepšie používať klimatizáciu (rebríček) alebo Ako správne používať klimatizáciu (howto). Okrem toho je aj kontroverzná, vŕta v hlave. Ja že neviem používať niečo také jednoduché? Pche. A klik.
C. Dobrá otázka (s odpoveďou, dodatkom): Aj keď je tam otáznik, nie je to otázka v pravom zmysle slova. Diváka sa vlastne nič nepýtate. Je to len štylistická skratka.
Čím častejšie ich budete používať, tým menej budú funkčné. Šetrite si ich a skutočne používajte s mierou.
Päťnásť spôsobov, ako sa bránia zvieratá. Tri dôvody, prečo ísť voliť. Desať rád, ako vylepšiť svoj domov. Rebríček je populárny žáner. Dáva obsahu kostru, je ľahké odčítať, čo to užívateľovi dá.
Ako vábiť zver. Ako získať peniaze zo SkyEurope. Ako sa hýbu mladé divadelníčky (plus rýchlokurz pre nemehlá). Ako pochodovali nacionalisti v Prešove. Na otázke Ako? sú postavené celé weby. A darí sa im. Ľudia majú radi jednoduché návody.
Call to action slová Treba vidieť, Pozrite si, Tu je, Kliknite.... Príklad: Alkohol vás ovláda. Pozrite si ako. Priame výzvy fungujú. Len treba s nimi asi najopatrnejšie. Nič sa viac neokuká a nič nie je agresívnejšie ako ony.
Pomenovanie formy Reportáž: Rómovia sa schovávajú v lese. Anketa: Viete prepočítať koruny na eurá? (povolená pri anketách je aj otázka). Letecké zábery na miesto nehody (ak pomenujete typ, netreba nutne sloveso). Pomenujte presne, aký obsah môže človek očakávať.
„ Eurovízia je nuda. Toto je lepšie“. Akýkoľvek nadpis k relácii Svet Tomáša Hudáka je robený tak, aby sa viezol na niečom aktuálnom a robil si z toho žarty. Zoberte si jednu udalosť, o ktorej sa písalo najviac v poslednom čase a ktorá tematicky aspoň približne sedí na článok, a skúste udalosť spomenúť v titulku. Pozor – neklamte a nezavádzajte v prvom význame. Tento typ titulku sa dá použiť len pri voľnejších žánroch, publicistike, glose, komentároch...
A dalej vam povieme cosi viac o oboch druhoch PPC reklamy a o tom, ze Etarget je...
