[wizely]

Part 3 (for real!)
How to Write Killer Headlines



As a children's author, how do you make sure that you hear only happy shouts and giggles rather than restless fidgeting? First, you need to remember that children are not robots; like adults, they gravitate toward books with characters or situations to which they can relate.

What the #@%##@?!!!
Hands up who is about ready to throttle me by now? You want a dry textbook to learn lesson 1 then lesson 2? Nah you don't! Hopefully by now you're starting to notice the text around the points I'm making is serving more purposes than just to impart info?

With luck I had you hooked from Part 2 and you looked forward to 'How to write killer headlines'? So what just happened? Well, you've just learnt lots of things about headlines:

• Promise something juicy
  
• Deliver what you promise
  
• The power of the old hook-header combo
  
• Don't pull punches in your headline
  
• Headers fully describe the thrust of the section it heads

You're also absorbing plenty more – such as active writing, effective description, NLP, knowing when to harness cliché and heaps more that won't come as shocks later on (which is also a lesson in itself – it's called foreshadowing!).

The 'copy writer's secret' that will make your headlines more effective

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Don't sweat the headline - concentrate all your efforts on the first paragraph.

'Well that's just crazy talk isn't it?'

Oh my children I'm so disappointed in you! There wasn't anything wrong with this part's headline but I blew the whole point of a headline (to pull a reader in) with a paragraph that didn't carry-on the good work.

Remember in Part 1 all those amazing tips for analysing your copy to get design inspiration? They work for headlines too…
It's so much harder to write a headline before the actual content and is more likely to jolt the flow of your copy. It's like the difference between getting one of you talented folks to design a purpose-made site as opposed to fitting my content to a template.

And in Part 2 you got this pearl of wisdom:
Don't write anything…
… unless you know the following:

• Exactly why you're writing it.
  
• What you want to get across.
  
• Who is going to read it.

You can't write a headline first – now that is just crazy talk! Analyse your first paragraph and then write the headline knowing exactly why you're writing it and what you want to get across.

Give your visitors a piece of your mind – not the whole thing!
A good headline says one thing– no more, no less (echoes of Part 2 when we talked about focus and clarity). If you take a couple of seconds to scan the headers in this posting – you'll see I'm not afraid to write longer headlines.
The perfect length for a headline is determined solely by the minimum length needed for it to be effective. Avoid bloat (see how it's all clicking into place now?!) but don't destroy a headline's effectiveness just to make it short.
In my experience anorexic headlines seem 'navigational' and serve only one purpose – to tell me where I am. It's like design in reverse - a plain old link works just fine for navigation so why do you spend all that design time on them?


Are you ready to finally learn something?
Consider these headers:

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Business blogs
We do editing for business blogs and will ensure that you attract more visitors, build credibility and get more customers.

and:

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Business blogs are informal and don't need editing, right?
Wrong! A successful business blog must work harder than any other form of content, and all in very little space and to tight timescales.

The longer headline tells a reader more about what's coming and leads right into the content, keeping the flow and that reader's attention. See that jolt in the first example? Your brain must change gear from passive to active.
Can you see the importance of the first paragraph? I started with the paragraph before working on the headline and then took it a step further to form a strong link.
It also shows the technique of taking a common misconception – seemingly agreeing before abruptly correcting it. And there I do want a jolt hence the exclamation mark which should never be used! (lol).
This is all part of trying to get into the head of who's going to be reading your copy.

You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!
God I hate that film, but never mind… Now, don't go all 'Code Red' on me (damn it – it's in my head now!) but we're going to have to leave directly talking about headlines.

I'll give you a moment.

Managing to contain your disappointment? Don't worry you are going to learn lots about headlines and everything as we continue. But, for really effective headlines (like any other element of copy) you're going to need some of the tools of the trade. If you saw me working in photoshop you'd understand.

See how in just one example I could've written a dozen pages on what was going on? I want this series to be:

• useful!
  
• relevant to you and your work
  
• aimed specifically at you
  
• interesting
  
• more than quick fixes

To do that we're going to need some tools. Now, none of us (especially me) would look forward to grammar lessons – if you would then seek help! So we're going to get tooled-up in 'Part 4 - Bowel-looseningly funny copy writing howlers'.

Here's a little taster:

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If your baby doesn't take to fresh milk it should be boiled.