Headlines and Subject Lines

Headlines and Subject Lines “We all need to attract our audience into our content. We might call this session 'hooky headlines' as we attempt to cut through the noise and entice our audience into our messages and stories.” Examples of Headlines Email subject line Advertising strap-lines Brand statements Blog titles Social memes et al The Purpose of a Headline To encourage a reader to pause for just long enough to gain their attention and entice them into an action: open post, click through, read further… The Power of a Headline Effective headlines must appeal to the head, the heart and the search engine Satori Method of Headline Building Step 1 - Identify the Pain, the Outcome, the Solution Step 2 - Copy what others are doing for your persona Step 3 - Call out your persona “Top Content Tips for Busy Marketers” Step 4 - Use odd numbers “73% more….” Step 5 - Promote Time, Money or Effort saving Step 6 - Key words, “Tips, Tricks, Secret, Insider…” Step 7 - Power words, “Free, Hurry, Effortless, Latest…” Secret Headline Tip “Including a single hyphen or colon in the headline increases click-through rate by 9%” Content Marketing Institute What Do The Headline Pros Say? http://wix.com/blog Benefit from a title generator  Know your target audience  Be informative Keep it simple Implement keywords Add interesting adjectives Use the active voice Make a specific promise Provide accuracy  Align it with your content Inspire curiosity Incorporate numbers  Create urgency Write diverse variations Test it out What Do The Headline Pros Say? https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/headline-writing-tips Include Numbers “Social Media Marketing Mistakes” becomes “9 Social Media Marketing Mistakes” Add an Adjective “Formulae to Write a Catchy Headline” becomes “Simple Formulae to Write a Catchy Headline” Call to Action “Formulae to Write a Catchy Headline” becomes “Try This Formula to Quickly Write a Catchy Headline” What Do The Headline Pros Say? https://mailchimp.com/en-gb/help/best-practices-for-email-subject-lines/ Be Descriptive not trendy and include a Call to Action Keep it Short and no more than 9 words or 60 characters Limit Punctuation to no more than 3 marks per headline to avoid spam filters A/B Test your headlines Emojis or Not? “Use no more than 1 emoji at a time”  http://mailchimp.com Top Headline Tip http://sproutsocial.com “Answer the question of “Why bother?” or “So what?” with a compelling title that stops readers in their tracks. Remember: your audience's time is valuable. Your headlines should promise a payoff in exchange for their click or tap-through.”  For more content like this, visit Neil Wilkins Online