How to Write Attention-Grabbing Headlines for Your Marketing Content

Content marketers, advertisers, and publishers agree that headlines are absolutely critical. A key player in modern advertising, David Ogilvy, highlighted the importance of the headline. According to Ogilvy, on average, five times as many people read the headline as the body copy.

That was in 1967. Nothing has changed.

If the headline doesn't stand out, people won't click on it and read the article. Then no one will read your content, and all the time and money spent creating that content will have been a waste.

However, if you know how to create the perfect headlines, your clickthrough rates will soar.

Source: Giphy

Upworthy's Peter Koechley emphasized this relationship between a good headline and traffic. According to Koechley, the right headline can increase traffic to your site by as much as 500%.

The goal of a headline is to cut through everything else and make people focus on what you want to say. This is crucial. The more attention-grabbing your headlines are, the more people will read your content. If you can get five times more people reading your work, that creates the opportunity to get five times as many customers.

After that, you can begin looking at other ways to drive traffic, but it's important to remember that your headlines are your first potential pinch point.

Structure of a Persuasive Headline

If you take a look at winning headlines, they are basically composed of three elements:

• The prehead - This is a short sentence or fragment at the beginning of your headline. This typically includes a direct address to the reader. For instance, “Attention Book Lovers.”
• The main headline - which communicates the value on offer within the article. For example: “There’s a Book Sale In Town.”
• Decks - which are sub-headings which explain additional benefits. For instance: “Hemingway, Austen and Murakami books half price.”

Combining the examples above, you will have a headline that looks something like this:

The three elements are effective as a whole because they guide the reader step by step until they reach the first paragraph of your content. When you ease users into any decision, it's less of a leap for them to take the action you want.

The prehead, for example, catches the reader's attention. The main headline describes the gist of the article, and the deck provides additional details. By this point, they're basically already reading your article, so there's no reason to scroll past.

This is the most common headline structure.

On the Internet, sometimes, though, some of these elements can be scrapped. This works as long as the remaining elements compensate for the absence of the others. This brings us to the other types of headlines you can use.

Other Types of Headlines

In each of these types, the deck, prehead, or both are missing. However, that doesn’t make the headline any less effective. Instead, each of them offers something that entices the reader to continue consuming the content. 

Let’s look at them one by one.

The Classic Formula: This is what copywriters typically use. They usually follow either one of these structures:

Here’s an example of a headline using that template:

The title will catch the reader's attention for several reasons.

One, there is a deliberate attempt to hook the reader. When you read the headline, you're left hanging as to what writing those guest posts has actually taught the writer about blogging. In short, you want to know more.

Two, the topic itself is interesting.

Here are other variations of the classic formula:

For example: “Secrets of Stock Market Investors Revealed”

For example: “Warning: The new law can make it hard for you to sell cars. Here’s how you can still increase car sales.”

The Simple Benefit Headline: As the term implies, this type of headline emphasizes the benefits of the product or service that is being offered. It follows this structure:

Here’s an example of a headline using that template: 

The headline hooks the reader because it basically says that there's a way for knee pain to go away. This is a fantastic example of using a headline to show your content will solve readers' problems. 

Adding 'in 15 minutes' to the end of this headline shows the solution is timely. People like quick fixes.

The Discount Headline: In this type of headline, you also offer a benefit to the reader, specifically a discount. It follows this structure:

Here’s an example of a headline using that template: 

The headline is effective because everyone likes a good discount. The headline also creates a sense of urgency. The reader is pushed to consume the content by giving a timeframe within which the discount is valid.

Following a Process

Although there are headline templates, it doesn't mean you have to stick to them. It's always good to let those creative juices flow to come up with your own.

When writing that headline for your marketing content, though, don't just settle for the first group of words that cross your mind. As in any other artistic activity - yes, writing headlines is an art - you have to follow a process and be systematic, as contradictory as that may sound. 

The same applies if you're outsourcing the writing to a person who uses a time tracker app. When coming up with a work schedule for the day, give your writer sufficient time and clear instructions so they can be systematic in his or her approach.

But what process is this exactly?

Determine Your Audience

To come up with a good headline, the first thing you need to do is to determine who your target audience is.

For example, are they baby boomers or millennials? If you have an older audience, you might want to avoid words such as “YEET” and “Avocado”, since they will obviously not understand contextually what you mean. 

Obviously, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point.

Source: Giphy

But you don't only have to adapt your choice of words to your audience. You also have to strike the right tone.

If you're targeting professionals, for example, you might use a more serious tone, like this one: "How to Run an Affiliate Marketing Email Drip Campaign."

If you're targeting the youth, you might use a more lively tone: "Want to Learn How to Drive Like a Pro? Read This!" 

Decide Your Most Important Benefit

Once you’ve determined who your audience is, your next step is to figure out how to communicate value to them. The key to this is identifying the key benefit that you can offer.

This most important benefit, after all, is what you will include in the headline so the reader will be enticed to click. 

To illustrate how important this step is, take a look at these examples:

• How to Fill in a Tax Return
• How to Do your Taxes the Easy Way

Obviously, the second headline is more likely to be clicked. The first headline, after all, offers nothing new to the reader.

Jot Down Your Possible Headlines

At this stage, you probably already have possible headlines for your content in mind. 

Write all of them down on paper. At this point, you want to come up with as many ideas as you can.

If you’re stuck, try and fit the key points of your article into the formats above. Alternatively, you can use a headline generator to help you come up with some great ideas.

Test Your Possible Headlines

You could do this manually. Just show the list of your potential headlines to several people, and ask them which one they are more likely to click. Whichever headline gets the most votes is your final headline.

The problem with this method is that it may not reflect real life since you will most probably ask the opinions of only a few people.  It’s also time consuming, and annoying for everyone around you.

If you’re smart, you’ll A/B test using a conversion testing tool. There are plenty of these on the market.

Source: VWO

Split testing tools will reveal which headline has a better click-through. Repeat the process for the other potential headlines until you have the one that resonates the most. Since this method relies on real-time data, it is more reliable than just asking your co-workers or your kids.

How to Write Attention Grabbing Headlines

In this article, we saw the importance of headlines in any content. Headlines are basically the first thing that a person sees, which means that if it is not right, your content will most likely not be read. You want your content to be read because otherwise, you’re wasting your time.

Three elements typically make up a persuasive headline: the prehead, the main headline and the decks. Some headlines, however, are still effective even if one or two of these elements are lacking. 

Examples of these other headlines are the simple benefit headline, the discount headline, and the classic headline.

This is not to say, however, that you should follow existing templates. You can write your own headlines, but make sure to follow a process. Determine your audience first, and then the best benefit you want to offer your audience. 

Once you have those, you can A/B potential headlines.

Now it’s over to you. Don’t worry, though. If you follow these tips, you’ll see how coming up with attention-grabbing headlines for your marketing content can be a walk in the park.