Headlines are the first text that visitors see when they open your website. When headlines are effective, they urge your visitors to explore the rest of the web page. This increases the likelihood that they will continue reading and take action.
Here are three types of headlines to promote your product or service: the How To, the Question and the Command headline.
The How To Headline
This is a great one to build up your headline writing muscles. Once you feel comfortable with How To headlines, you can experiment with other types. Or if you prefer, you can decide to use only How To headlines. They work!
People are always looking for answers about how to do something. How to choose a financial planner. How to wind surf. How to prepare for retirement. And so on.
You can use a simple How To headline, such as How to Housetrain Your Puppy. The implied benefit is "no more messes," "no more getting upset," etc. You can make the headline much stronger by adding a timeframe or something unexpected. For example:
Timeframe: How to Housetrain Your Puppy in 10 Days
Something Unexpected: How to Housetrain Your Puppy Without Losing Your Temper
You can make the headline even stronger by using both a timeframe and something unexpected. Here's an easy and powerful how to headline formula:
How to (do X) + Timeframe + Something Unexpected
Using this formula, we can enrich the housetraining headline to read like this:
How to Housetrain Your Puppy In 10 Days Without Losing Your Temper
The Question Headline
An effective question makes your website readers answer it in their minds and want to read about the solution you offer. Be aware that a question that has a yes or no answer is double-edged. If the purpose of the answer is to weed out visitors who are not within your target market, then use it.
For example, an online business that sells stylish, trendy shoes for women might have a headline that says, Are you looking for an exciting variety of shoe styles and colors? The headline summarizes their product line. Those visitors whose shoe interest matches "exciting variety of shoe styles and colors" will say yes and continue reading. Those whose shoe interest does not match will say no and deselect themselves. Both the business and the visitor win.
However, if visitors are potential clients and the headline question causes an answer that suggests to them your service isn't what they are looking for, your headline is not effective. For example, let's say the same shoe business uses this home page headline: Are you looking for stylish red shoes? The visitors may conclude that this business only carries red shoes. If their answer is yes, great. They will continue reading. But if it is no, they may deselect themselves and click on to the next website. The business lost the opportunity to show them all the variety they offer.
The Command Headline
Command headlines boast big benefits. You can find great examples on magazine covers, such as Invest in Your Future, Make More Time For Your Kids, Double Your Income, and Increase the Resale Value of Your Home Lose 10 pounds in 10 days.
Notice that in addition to focusing on a big benefit, the command headline automatically speaks directly to the reader because you is understood in the content of the verb. For example, (You) Double Your Income.
Now it's time to practice writing headlines for your product or service by starting with these three headline types: How To, Question, and Command.
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