5 Tips for Writing Headlines That Convert
October 2nd, by MyBestWriter
You have just seconds to grab your reader's attention. Fail, and they move on, promptly forgetting about you and your product. It doesn't matter how good the rest of your copy is if your prospect doesn't read it. Writing a headline that rivets your ideal customer is the best way to increase your conversion rate.
Follow these 5 tips for writing headlines that convert and watch your profits spike:
Your potential customer wants something that your product or service offers, but they don't know you offer it yet. By figuring out what this desire is and putting it in the headline, you give your prospect a reason to read the rest of your copy.
Imagine you've always wanted to make your own beautiful dresses but have no idea where to start. If you saw an ad whose headline read "Jill's Dress Making Guide, 4th Edition", it might grab your interest. But it sounds like it could be hard to learn from this guide, and there's no guarantee they'll be the kind of dresses that you want to make. You don't have endless hours to devote to a new hobby, so you turn the page of the magazine without even glancing at the body of the ad.
But what if you saw this one?
"Make Stunning Dresses at Home, Even if You've Never Picked UP a Needle Before."
Would that grab your interest?
Both headlines sell the same book, but by focusing on the benefits your prospect gets from reading the book, you immediately grab their attention. For your ideal prospects – the ones who will actually take action once they understand what's on offer - those benefits represent the fulfillment of their desires. That makes them pay attention and hungrily devour the rest of your message.
This principle applies whether you want your prospect to buy a product, click your webpage in the search results, or sign up for your newsletter. Tell your prospect how you'll fulfill their desires and watch your conversion rate soar.
You could formulate your headlines in hundreds of ways, but pro copywriters repeatedly return to the same few that are proven to convert.
Some examples:
As an added bonus, working to a formula makes it easier to write them. Instead of having to worry about how to structure your message, you only need to focus on finding the elements of your offer that will hook your prospect.
A quick search online for headline formulas will give you some more good ones.
The key to most of those formulas is that they promise to fulfill the reader's desire with minimal effort. Words like "how to" and "tips" make a task sound manageable, while promises to eliminate an objection remove a hurdle from your prospect's mind. With your promise to sweep the difficulties aside, your prospect dares to hope that your product will finally fix their problem.
Short and snappy headlines grab attention. The shorter your prospect's attention span, the quicker you need to grab their interest. A prospect who's flicking through a magazine, for instance, might only glance at an ad for a second, while a piece of direct mail might receive a couple of seconds more. Either way, your window of opportunity's small.
Study the headlines you see in ads, and you'll notice that many of them aren't grammatically correct. Usually, it's because they delete words from their statements to make them shorter and get to the point quicker. Take the example given below:
Firm Breasts in Only 30 Minutes per Week, Even if You've Been Through Menopause">
What about firm breasts? More properly, we could write, "Make your Breasts Firm in…" But that wastes the first two words of the statement. Worse, we could write, "Increase the Firmness of Your Breasts in…" But then the benefit isn't clear until word 6 of the headline! Who knows how many sales you've lost by then?
There are many ways of saying the same thing in English, but the words you choose have a huge impact on the emotional response of your reader. Look at these two headlines:
i. Eliminate Nocturnal Crying in Your Infant
ii. Stop Your Baby Wailing all Night
The first headline sounds cold and impersonal. Its language is perfectly suited to an academic paper, where the goal is to provide impartial information. But people make buying decisions based on emotional desires.
The second headline uses the same emotional words that sleep-deprived parents use to themselves. As a result, it compels them to read on.
The best converting headlines are those that quickly address your prospect's desire and promise to fulfill it with minimal effort. Deliver that, and you're already halfway to a sale. Fail to do it, and you've already lost half your conversions.
Follow these 5 tips for writing headlines that convert and watch your profits spike:
1. Focus on a Benefit
Your potential customer wants something that your product or service offers, but they don't know you offer it yet. By figuring out what this desire is and putting it in the headline, you give your prospect a reason to read the rest of your copy.
Imagine you've always wanted to make your own beautiful dresses but have no idea where to start. If you saw an ad whose headline read "Jill's Dress Making Guide, 4th Edition", it might grab your interest. But it sounds like it could be hard to learn from this guide, and there's no guarantee they'll be the kind of dresses that you want to make. You don't have endless hours to devote to a new hobby, so you turn the page of the magazine without even glancing at the body of the ad.
But what if you saw this one?
"Make Stunning Dresses at Home, Even if You've Never Picked UP a Needle Before."
Would that grab your interest?
Both headlines sell the same book, but by focusing on the benefits your prospect gets from reading the book, you immediately grab their attention. For your ideal prospects – the ones who will actually take action once they understand what's on offer - those benefits represent the fulfillment of their desires. That makes them pay attention and hungrily devour the rest of your message.
This principle applies whether you want your prospect to buy a product, click your webpage in the search results, or sign up for your newsletter. Tell your prospect how you'll fulfill their desires and watch your conversion rate soar.
2. Use a Proven Formula
You could formulate your headlines in hundreds of ways, but pro copywriters repeatedly return to the same few that are proven to convert.
Some examples:
- How to X: How to Eliminate Weeds from Your Lawn in Only Ten Minutes.
- Achieve benefit despite common objection: Firm Breasts in Only 30 Minutes per Week, Even if you've been Through the Menopause.
- X Tips: Five Tips for Writing Headlines that Convert.
As an added bonus, working to a formula makes it easier to write them. Instead of having to worry about how to structure your message, you only need to focus on finding the elements of your offer that will hook your prospect.
A quick search online for headline formulas will give you some more good ones.
3. Make it Sound Easy
The key to most of those formulas is that they promise to fulfill the reader's desire with minimal effort. Words like "how to" and "tips" make a task sound manageable, while promises to eliminate an objection remove a hurdle from your prospect's mind. With your promise to sweep the difficulties aside, your prospect dares to hope that your product will finally fix their problem.
4. Be Succinct
Short and snappy headlines grab attention. The shorter your prospect's attention span, the quicker you need to grab their interest. A prospect who's flicking through a magazine, for instance, might only glance at an ad for a second, while a piece of direct mail might receive a couple of seconds more. Either way, your window of opportunity's small.
Study the headlines you see in ads, and you'll notice that many of them aren't grammatically correct. Usually, it's because they delete words from their statements to make them shorter and get to the point quicker. Take the example given below:
Firm Breasts in Only 30 Minutes per Week, Even if You've Been Through Menopause">
What about firm breasts? More properly, we could write, "Make your Breasts Firm in…" But that wastes the first two words of the statement. Worse, we could write, "Increase the Firmness of Your Breasts in…" But then the benefit isn't clear until word 6 of the headline! Who knows how many sales you've lost by then?
5. Use Words that Trigger Emotions
There are many ways of saying the same thing in English, but the words you choose have a huge impact on the emotional response of your reader. Look at these two headlines:
i. Eliminate Nocturnal Crying in Your Infant
ii. Stop Your Baby Wailing all Night
The first headline sounds cold and impersonal. Its language is perfectly suited to an academic paper, where the goal is to provide impartial information. But people make buying decisions based on emotional desires.
The second headline uses the same emotional words that sleep-deprived parents use to themselves. As a result, it compels them to read on.
In Closing
The best converting headlines are those that quickly address your prospect's desire and promise to fulfill it with minimal effort. Deliver that, and you're already halfway to a sale. Fail to do it, and you've already lost half your conversions.