The headline must work harder than ever to get customers to notice, read, engage with or act on your brand’s message. It may be your only chance to be heard and considered.
This is true whether you’re creating advertising, writing and pitching news stories, sending emails or developing website content.
This was true decades ago when David Ogilvy said, “five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy of our advertisement,” meaning five out of six people only read headlines.
The stats don’t get any better as we fast-forward to today’s marketing landscape, where there is even more clutter and chaos that must be penetrated to reach the time-starved, over-stimulated, omni-channel, hyper-scrolling consumer. Consider these stats:
- The average consumer, according to The Radicati Group, in its 2021 Email Statistics Report, sent and received a combined total of 319 billion in 2021. And the volume continues to grow with forecasts anticipating the number to grow to over 376 billion by the end of 2025.
- Only 22% only read the headline of an online news story, according to data from the Rueters Institue for the Study of Journalism.
- In a 2016 study by computer scientists at Columbia University and The French National Institute, revealed that six of ten links shared in social media have never been clicked – shared, but never read.
All of these truths mean your headline has more jobs to fulfill than grabbing attention of the reader and touting the unique selling proposition of the brand. It may seem like an impossible task for a line that may be as few as seven words, but today the headline has five tasks to complete for your brand.
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The five jobs a headline must accomplish
- Capture the attention of the reader. Still a mission-critical job, considering the volume of messages directed at and consumed by your customers in multiple channels, on multiple devices.
- Keep the reader’s attention. The time-starved consumer’s attention span is fleeting at best, putting even more burden on the headline. Now the headline must tease the plot of the story and assure your audience the copy is worth staying for.
- Arouse eager anticipation with the reader. Stop the reader, pique her curiosity and now fuel that interest. A good feeling spurs a sense of expectation and a desire to discover more, to click the link and read your blog post.
- Simplify the learning curve. Great headlines and subheads enable readers to quickly and easily understand and remember the key message about your brand, by distilling the message to its essence and turbocharging it with the power of emotion.
- Get the job done upfront. Remember, the headline may be your only shot at connecting with your audience, so make it count. It should be clear in the headline what problem you’re solving and for whom.
If the goal is for your brand’s message to break through the ever-increasing chaos and clutter, to capture and hold the attention of the consumer, then craft and hone the headline, to ensure it accomplishes all five of its jobs. Because at least 60% of the time, it’s the only thing your customer reads.
A coy, clever or obtuse headline often excites and amuses those of us writing it. In reality, it annoys and repels today’s consumer. Clear and compelling make for a better, harder working headline.