12 tips for writing titles for new media operations!

Writing a headline is like having a difficult labor, and most people aren’t pregnant yet.

Classical theory tells us that the title should have selling points, differentiate from competitors, and increase sales...

Yes, all of these are correct.

But what really makes the title work? 80% of copywriters don’t know.

If this problem is ignored, all the efforts of the copywriter may be meaningless.

1. The Patrol in Your Mind

Faced with infinite information stimulation, attention is the screening mechanism evolved by humans.

Most of the information will be judged as useless by the brain and filtered out directly.

Essentially, all of our efforts for the title revolve around these five words: exchange attention.

Titles about escaping death often know how to utilize the two major attention mechanisms.

Let’s talk about the first attention mechanism first. It is very common.

Why do men always like to look at beautiful women when walking on the street?

Why do women can't help but take a photo of any mirrored object they pass by?

This is because there is a patrol team in our brain.

If you have been thinking about buying a red car recently, you will find that there are suddenly more red cars on the streets. It’s not that red is popular, but the patrol in your mind has collected a lot of relevant information, so you feel it is everywhere.

The "Brain Patrol" will help you search for what you like and what you pay attention to.

Media such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Toutiao use big data and algorithms to act as patrols outside your brain and control your attention. In Li Dan's words, this technical method based on human nature "is like a straight punch hitting you in the face, and you can't dodge it."

How can you attract the Brain Patrol? Typically, the brain patrol team pays close attention to these three points:

1. Does it have anything to do with me? If yes, pay attention to it, otherwise filter it.

2. Is it good for me? If there is, care about it, otherwise ignore it.

3. Is it what I am paying attention to right now? If yes, pin it, otherwise ignore it.

2. Does it have anything to do with me?

We often say that copywriting should resonate with people and make users feel "related to me".

The degree of relevance of information to people determines the attention of the brain patrol.

So what is resonance?

There are usually two reactions to resonance:

My heart was shocked, "Ah, are you talking about me?"

Or smile knowingly, "Yes! This is me!"

Where does that resonance come from? It’s very simple, it comes from “common”.

1) Common Background

Xxx underwear, everyone on earth knows

1.3 billion Chinese people

Anyone can hold Xxx

…

How many people will pay attention to this information?

These false crowd words are like firing a shot into the sky and waiting for the elephant to fall.

A first-class title is like a sniper, accurately targeting the crowd.

Target age, generation:

Come on white shirt - Tmall

Young people go for SUV - Encore

Target Gender:

Women never say what they really mean, they only wear it on their bodies - Taobao women's clothing

Tastes like more than a girl, but less than a woman - RIO

Compartmentalization:

Be a trendsetter in the crowd - Dewu

People who love to think are lonely, until we met Sanlian - Sanlian Life Weekly

2) Common language

By asking a question that makes people subconsciously answer "yes", you can establish a sense of dialogue with the user and make them feel that you have a common language and common views.

Commonly used sentence patterns are:

How long has it been since you... ?

Do you want to . . . ?

Is it always...?

For example, a financial product wants to be promoted to married women. Instead of saying: Moms, pay attention, this way of financial management can increase your returns. It’s better to find a common topic. When mothers think to themselves: Yes. Naturally, they will feel that this has something to do with them.

Similarly, if you want to propose growth plans to your clients,

Original title: How to increase sales by 50%.

How about changing it to: Want to increase sales by 50%?

3) Shared Experience

If we all have similar job backgrounds, or are both "Shanghai drifters", then we have common experiences. The more common shared experiences are similar behaviors and feelings that most people have on a daily basis.

For example, an article is titled "Resignation letter from Huawei's vice president: my 12 insights."

The vice president of Huawei shares his experience with you, just like Wang Shi telling you about the excitement of climbing Mount Everest, or your boss telling you about the sense of accomplishment after hiking in the Gobi Desert. It is difficult for most people to imagine that feeling.

If you want more people to read it, you can look for the fears, anxieties, confusions, etc. that most working people are experiencing.

Another example is a work organization course launched on a certain knowledge payment platform. The promotional title is: "Organization skills that anyone can learn after watching it", which makes people feel unimpressed. You can find resonance in common details of life.

Original title: Anyone can learn the art of tidying up at a glance

After Improvement: For those of you who have a messy room without realizing it

3. What’s in it for me?

"After reading this article, for every typo you find, you will receive 100 yuan."

Will you finish reading it?

This is the title that direct marketing guru Jackman wrote for the spelling error checker. The response to the advertisement was amazing. Someone spent an hour and a half looking for typos, which is equivalent to watching a movie advertisement.

Let’s look at another title: How to Win Friends and Influence People? (How to Win Friends and Influence?) It made Dale Carnegie’s book sales second only to the Bible.

Why can these seemingly ordinary titles achieve such amazing effects?

Because when users scan a title, they just want to know: “What’s in it for me?”

An effective title will immediately tell users: "Here is what you want!"

This is also a common trick for titles, capturing the characteristics of human nature, such as: gourmet food, greed, laziness, jealousy, vanity, pride, etc.

Let me use my favorite magazine, The Economist, as an example. This elite publication, with both depth and breadth, captures the characteristics of human nature in a sharp and stylish way.

1) Greed

Everyone loves to read stories of rising to fame overnight and going from a rookie to becoming a CEO.

2) Laziness

Countless inventory-type titles take advantage of our desire to gain something quickly. For example, the in-depth article "How to Understand "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind"" is definitely not as read as this title: "If you don't have time to read "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind", you can just read these 50 book excerpts."

So, The Economist tells you directly that reading a magazine is equivalent to reading so many subjects at the same time. Aren’t you tempted?

3) Pain points

A working person’s nightmare is to suddenly run into a big boss in the elevator and be speechless.

The Economist tells you, don’t be afraid, with me, your career will be on the fast track.

When I meet my boss in the elevator, I never get stage fright and we are always able to chat and laugh.

4) Vanity, recognition and respect

Everyone is eager to shape and strengthen their own image of "high social status". The Economist seizes on this little vanity and tells you that our professional insights can make you laugh and talk happily in social situations, making people think you are wise, interesting and insightful.

Do you want to sit next to yourself when you eat?

(Meaning: Are you interesting enough for others to listen to you?)

5) Social comparison

Wherever there are people, there will be comparisons. It is so subtle that every time when grabbing red envelopes, everyone will secretly compare to see who gets more. This manuscript is so amazing. There is a term called "intellectual snobbery", which describes this kind of intellectual superiority.

There can be no more than 8 words on a poster.

Because this is the upper limit of what ordinary people can understand at first glance.

But this passage is written for the readers of The Economist.

6) Secrets: Everyone loves insider information

Money will tell you the secrets of making money, but sometimes it needs a good translator.

7) Fear

Negative appeals are always effective. No one wants to be poor and do hard manual labor. No one wants to be a management trainee at the age of 42 with no career prospects.

Wish I had read The Economist.

“I’ve never read The Economist,” said a 42-year-old management trainee.

Over the years, The Economist has produced countless excellent copywriting, which is inseparable from the hard work of countless brand people.

They always adhere to the brand definition and brand tone, and even have a strict list of regulations for language style.

Later, these lists were compiled and published in a book called "The Economist Style Guide", which became a must-have desk book for English writers.

Skillfully exploiting human weaknesses and making promises of benefits is just a technique.

What is more important than techniques and routines is to maintain the boundaries of the brand.

A professional copywriter understands human nature and knows how to have basic respect and kindness towards others.

IV. Current Tasks

Suppose it is 12 o'clock in the morning and you are a little hungry, so your brain patrol starts searching the world for information related to food.

You start to become more sensitive, you start to smell the aroma of food on the street, you start to notice the food advertisements on the street, you start to imagine what you want to eat for lunch...

The tasks you are currently or are completing in the near future will become the focus of the patrol team.

The red car effect mentioned above is also based on this principle.

Therefore, many advertisements are related to the present and bound to the context in which the user is completing the task.

1) Deliver the latest changes and news

"Get the full text of the latest New Year's Eve speech", "It's amazing, Raytheon makes the world's first transparent smart mask", "Just now, the suspected iPhone 14 real machine was exposed"...

These titles have one thing in common: they include timely words such as latest, first, and just now, so they easily carry a news aura and attract attention.

Other commonly used instant words include: brand new, new model, latest arrival, introduced, launched, announced, exposed, finally, breakthrough, discovered, invented, became popular, all the rage, etc.

2) Binding the current year and current node can also make the title enter the focus circle of the current task

2020 is a well-known year, and a certain hair care cream is tied to this difficult year:

In 2020, I managed to save my love and my job, but I couldn't save my hair.

Before the winter cold wave hits, a children's cold medicine will remind mothers:

The most feared thing when children catch a cold is that it affects their studies.

As the Spring Festival approaches, everyone will pay attention to topics such as Spring Festival travel, going home, and buying New Year's goods. Be & Cheery found a topic:

The king of sketches Chen Peisi returns with his first Lunar New Year film "Selling New Year's Goods".

3) The brain can copy homework

What does it mean to copy homework with the brain? There is a very vivid paragraph.

An old lady waited in line for three hours for nucleic acid testing, and finally couldn’t help asking the person in front of her: What are you queuing for?

Following the crowd is everyone's instinct.

We desire to fit in, and our brains pay attention to what others are paying attention to.

Therefore, your title can be related to the current hot topics that the public is concerned about.

For example, the topic that women's products are generally more expensive than men's products may not attract widespread attention under normal circumstances. This title is tied to the recent hot event and reached over 100,000 views.

"Discrimination is not limited to Quanmianshidai, there are also countless "pink taxes""

For example, antibacterial chopsticks made of aviation materials are not likely to arouse interest, so you can consider attaching them to some hot spots, such as Mars, Silicon Valley, Tiananmen Square, etc.

"Having landed on the moon and visited Mars, the most hardcore bodyguard in Zhongnanhai is actually this pair of state banquet chopsticks"

You can also associate with celebrities, famous KOLs, etc. For example, in 1999, a Sichuan restaurant launched a dish called "Bombing the Embassy", which was actually stir-fried pork intestines. Last year, a restaurant launched a dish called "Candied Trump", which is actually golden candied sweet potato.

In short, in order to attract the brain patrol, your title needs to be tied to the current task and current hot spot.

5. Summary

The article is very long. Congratulations on reading this and completing a high-quality thinking.

If you can only remember one sentence after reading the whole article, I hope you remember this:

The title is essentially an exchange. Exchange your value promise for scarce user attention.

The title is the decisive first moment. To attract the brain patrol, you can try writing headlines from these three angles.

1) A first-class title that is relevant to me

Zuckerberg once said: People care more about a dying squirrel on their doorstep than they do about refugees in Africa. This is the reality. People tend to be more sensitive to information that is highly relevant to themselves and are unwilling to miss it.

2) A first-class title that understands human weaknesses

When people browse, they just want to know: "What's in it for me?"

A first-class title knows how to take care of the interests of consumers and tells them at the first time: "Here is what you want!"

3) A first-class title that inspires the present

Everyone likes to watch the news, much more than watching advertisements. A good headline knows how to provide the latest news and changes and tap into people’s current concerns.

It is actually very simple to use some techniques to come up with a good title and obtain short-term traffic.

But in this era, the cheapest cost is traffic cost, and the most valuable cost is brand cost.

After learning the skills, I hope you can remember:

Skills are just ferry boats, and brands are our vast sea of ​​stars.

Do you remember? At the beginning, I mentioned that attention has two operating mechanisms.

That’s right, this article only talks about one of them: Brain Patrol.

We all have things we care about and pay attention to, so the brain will send out a patrol to search for relevant information in a targeted manner. It is an inside-out attention mechanism.

In fact, there is another mechanism in our brain, which is an outside-in attention mechanism.

You can think of it as the Jinwu Guard or security team in your brain.

How to deal with the Guard and write a headline that everyone wants to read?

Author: Panda Copywriter

Source: Panda Copywriter (creatwriter)