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3 Tips for Writing Headlines

By Michael Stelzner

Who says first impressions don’t matter?

A good headline means success or failure for your white paper, blog entry or any other form of writing.

If you don’t grab readers, you won’t ever get to tell them your story.

David Garfinkel at World Copywriting Blog (a never ending fountain of insight), recently wrote about three important tips for writing headlines (from his mentor Don Hauptman).

1. Hauptman’s Law: Start with the prospect, not with the product.

This is something I have been preaching for years. Simply said, focus on the pain of your readers rather than the features of your product or service.

2. Grab attention instantly.

The example David gives here is “Get rich slowly.” The intrigue of such a headline should grab readers or at least stop the in their tracks. Another option might be, “A Fact Your Mother Doesn’t Want You to Know.”

3. Bolster every generality with a specific.

This means (in my humble opinion) that you should employ a specific subheadline that fills out the story. For example, “When Beauty Hurts: Stories of Judgment.”

Let’s hear some of your thoughts on tips for writing headlines.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 at 5:28 am and is filed under Writing White Papers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

  • Bob - Thanks for stopping in. You are right about the power of white papers.

    You might want to check out the new study I just wrote about.

    See http://www.writingwhitepapers.com/blog/2007/05/10/white-paper-registration/

    Mike
  • Bob
    kind of "The medium Is the Message" dilemas, but aired. interesting though. nice info's and definatelly v.v.v.v.v. interesting advices. can't wait to read the book.
    in past 16 years of business development on cee and emea i've often come to white papers as the most successfull way to promote, inform and creat "secure" leads to my projects.
    ideally would be that evey new lead is already informed on the "what&how" things. white papers do that... too pity there are lots of BDD which undervaluate the marketing power of WHITE PAPERS.

    Catch you later,
    Bob
  • Green - thanks for coming by (all the way from Turkey!). - Mike
  • Nice tips, thanks for sharing.
  • Was in my car, listening to the radio and heard this:

    "If you to much money, stop listening."

    What a great example of an attention grabbing headline.

    It was an add for a foreclosure company
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