7 tips to teach you how to write a title that catches readers' attention

Advertising guru David Ogilvy once expressed his views on titles in Confessions of an Advertising Man : "The title is the most important element in most advertisements and can determine whether readers will read the ad. Generally speaking, four times more people read the title than the content. In other words, the value of the title you write will be 80% of the entire advertising budget."

Copywriting master Robert Bly also expressed a similar view in "The Complete Handbook of Copywriting": "No matter what kind of advertisement, it depends on the reader's first impression."

For copywriters, a sufficiently attractive title directly determines the lifeblood of the work. If the title of the copy cannot catch the reader's attention at the first time, then such copy is very likely to face failure. The title of a copy is so important, so how can we write a title that attracts readers' attention?

7 Tips for Writing Great Headlines

1. What are the functions of a title?

In order to write a good copywriting title, we must first understand what functions a good title has? What are the criteria for a good title?

Four functions of a title

(1) Attracting attention

Since attracting readers' attention is the first mission of the title, you must understand what kind of title will attract readers' attention?

• First, by providing benefits to the reader, providing valuable or useful information. You can refer to the following example: Teach you how to bake delicious potatoes in 5 minutes (teaching valuable experience).
• Second, gain attention by providing new information to update readers' cognition. Such titles often contain words such as "new", "launched", and "major discovery". For example: The new video teaches you how to sculpt sexy thighs.
• Third, it can arouse certain emotions of readers and resonate with them. For example, a title that was very popular some time ago: Did your mother force you to get married?

(2) Screening the audience

It is difficult for a copy to meet the needs of all readers, so when creating a title, try to screen the target audience and eliminate non-target readers.

(3) Delivering complete information

David Ogilvy believes that 80% of readers only read the ad headlines and not the content. Assuming this point of view is valid, then your title must be able to state a complete fact so that readers can roughly understand what you want to express even without reading the text?

(4) Guide readers to read the main text

Many people may just read the headlines when reading a newspaper, but for copywriters, we must never allow this to happen.

Joseph Sugarman said in "The Copywriting Training Manual": "All the elements in an advertisement exist for one purpose: to make readers read the first sentence of the copy - nothing more."

In fact, if a copywriting title cannot guide readers to read the text, it will be difficult to achieve the purpose of copywriting communication, let alone persuade readers to buy your products.

2. Five basic principles of title writing

Five rules for writing headlines

(1) Authenticity

Although the new term " clickbait " is very popular, it is recommended to use less exaggerated and false information in writing titles in copywriting. After all, readers are smart people, and they will see through you sooner or later.

(2) Accuracy

An accurate title means it must be able to accurately convey the author's attitude or point of view. It is often easier to achieve the author's goal if appropriate elements such as data, labels and conflicts are added to the title.

(3) Creativity

A good title is pleasant and interesting to read. If you can add new elements to the title, it will greatly enhance the title's quality.

(4) Emotion

When writing titles, try to inject emotion into them, and be sincere and warm to everyone. It is recommended to use fewer tricks and be less pretentious.

(5) Excitement Points

Some title masters can always cause changes in readers' emotions through the titles when they come up with titles. These emotions can refer to surprise, pain, sadness, happiness, anger... In short, it is best to have a hot spot in the title that can excite readers, just one is enough.

3. Eight common types of titles

It’s said that the best copywriters achieve success by breaking the rules, but before you break through, you must first understand what these rules are? Next, let’s take a look at eight common headline types that have stood the test of time.

(1) Direct statement

This type of title states the purpose directly, without playing word games or beating around the bush.

(2) Suggestive

This type of title usually arouses the reader's curiosity first, and then attracts the reader to read the original text through subtle hints.

(3) New knowledge

Directly delivering new information to readers in the title has the effect of updating readers' cognition.

(4) “How”

Use a "how to" headline to make some promises to readers and provide them with valuable information or useful advice.

(5) Questioning

This type of title should resonate with readers or tell them some answers they want to know.

(6) Imperative

This kind of title will directly tell readers what they should do? Most of them require readers to take action with practical advice.

(7) Goal-oriented

Write a headline with a clear goal in mind to guide your readers down your list.

(8) Witness

This type of title is usually named after events that happened in real life, using a natural and popular tone to testify to certain facts and changes.

4. The 4U formula for creating effective headlines

Now that you have learned the above eight common types of titles, how should you test whether the title you choose is effective in the next title writing? The "4U" formula introduced below will solve this problem.

4U Formula

(1) Urgent

Urgency gives readers a reason to act immediately. When you add the element of time to the title, you will find that the effect will be completely different.

(2) Unique

A powerful title either describes something new or describes something from the past in a new way.

(3) Uitra-speacific

The title should not be vague or lack focus, which once again emphasizes the role of the title. Clever use of numbers will make the content of the title more specific.

(4) Useful

Good headlines appeal to actual benefits to the reader and provide tangible benefits.

After you write a title, why not use the "4U" formula to test whether it is effective? You can evaluate each U using a score, with a full score of 4 and a poor score of 1. But if your title can't get 3-4 points on at least three Us, it means that your title is not strong enough and will be better if you rewrite it.

5. Nine headline writing techniques

Everyone has their own unique way of thinking and habits, and being good at using some common writing techniques to assist will achieve better results.

(1) Celebrity Effect and Labels

In real life, celebrities attract more attention than ordinary people, so adding the word "celebrity" when writing a title can increase the appeal of the title. If there are no celebrities, you can add some relatively well-known tags.

As shown in the example below, if the tag " Guokr Editor-in-Chief" is removed, the number of clicks on this article may be greatly reduced, because readers will think: "There are so many people who can write "millions of +" articles, why should I click on your article?"

(2) Use numbers wisely

Numbers can make the content of the title clearer and more specific. Adding numerical elements to the title will make it easier for readers to understand.

(3) Set of relationships

The term “building relationships” here does not mean to get close to someone, but to resonate with the reader by putting yourself in their shoes, making the reader feel, “Hey, this is related to me, I have to click on it and take a look.”

(4) Hot Topics and Current Affairs

Follow hot topics and current affairs to present the latest and most informative content to readers.

(5) Shaping the scene

By creating a familiar scene to resonate with readers, it is easy to trigger resonance.

(6) Digging Deeper into Pain Points

Titles that dig deep into readers' pain points and hit the nail on the head can easily touch readers' nerves, but it is best not to use too extreme language.

(7) Create suspense

Curiosity kills the cat, want to better attract readers? You might want to try creating suspense in your title.

(8) Design conflict

The unconventional conflict is like a big man with an unpredictable temperament, which can arouse the reader's curiosity.

(9) Supplementary explanation

Supplementary explanations often add keywords such as " dry goods ", "in-depth article", "highly recommended" and "XX must-read" at the end of the title, but the content of such titles should be as true as the title, otherwise it would be tantamount to deceiving readers.

6. Six steps to writing a title

Combining the above title writing skills, we can summarize some common title writing steps.

6 Steps to Writing a Headline

Step 1: Decide on the topic

Before you come up with a title, the first thing you need to do is determine the theme of the copy, that is, what kind of information do you want to convey to the readers? What is your purpose?

Step 2: Questioning

Think with open-ended questions: What is special about your content? What value can you deliver? Who is your target reader? What actions will your target readers take? Why do this? The purpose of asking questions is to find out the selling points that customers need and write them in the title.

Step 3: Determine the type of title

Next, you should decide which of the eight headline types to use? Do you want to use them in combination?

Step 4: Make a list of vocabulary related to the topic

Use a piece of paper to list all the words related to the topic, and then randomly group them together. For example, the relevant words for the title of this article can be listed as: copywriting, title, attract, write, eyeball, secret, technique...

Step 5: Inspection and polishing

After writing a title, you can use the four functions of copywriting titles and the "4U" rule to test whether a title is effective? And think about whether the title you wrote meets the basic guidelines of the title?

Step 6: Rewrite, rewrite, and rewrite again

Use the fifth step to test the title. If it is invalid, it is best to rewrite it several times and repeat the above five steps until it works.

Good titles come from constant revision and rewriting. Ogilvy would rewrite a headline more than 16 times; Hopkins would spend at least 2 hours writing a headline.

7. Tips on writing titles

(1) Repeated questions

Before writing a title, it is recommended to clarify your purpose by asking questions and understand what your characteristics and selling points are? Understand what readers need? After writing the title, you should also use critical thinking to ask questions and check yourself, asking yourself whether the title you chose is effective?

(2) Dare to try and fail

Few copywriters can write an attractive headline in one go, but need to revise and rewrite it constantly.

(3) Make good use of checklists

It always works to make a text list of keywords related to the topic and then randomly combine them into a new title. The vocabulary list method can stimulate your thinking and use your imagination.

(4) Proper shelving

Sometimes, after trying many things, you still can't come up with a better title. At this time, you might as well put the title aside for a while and come back to write the title after you have finished writing the content.

(5) Practice diligently

For good titles, it is recommended that you copy, recite and decode them. For example: spend 15 minutes every morning and evening to go to the homepage of a professional portal website to read the titles of selected articles, because the articles on the homepage are carefully selected by editors.

If you see a title that stimulates you to click on it, it means that the title has a certain appeal. You must carefully analyze what attracts you and study it appropriately.

In particular, it is best to use formal standards to require yourself in your daily training and form your own title writing style through continuous training.

at last

Generally speaking, a good title is one that can interest readers. The only secret to writing a good title like this is to rewrite, rewrite and rewrite...