While it’s important to understand the rules behind good headlines (as I discussed in my last post), you probably just want an easy way to get started. The good news is, you don’t have to re-invent the wheel. The best way to write a good headline is to steal a good headline.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t recommending plagiarizing. But you should get yourself a swipe file. Collect headlines that get your attention and compel you to read the white paper. Many copywriters recommend looking at great ads, sales letters, and even tabloid newspapers. Then try to understand why these headlines work and apply those principles to your own headlines.
But when it comes to white papers, I again want to add a word of caution. As I mentioned earlier, white papers are successful because they deliberately take a soft-sell approach. People read them because they’re helpful—not salesy. So as you evaluate headlines, think about whether the approach will appeal to—or repel—your highly skeptical readers.
The following is a list of headline types and examples that you can swipe to write your own headlines.
1. State Your Biggest Benefit. My favorite approach to headlines is to transform the solution’s major benefit into a headline. After all, you want people to see your top selling point up front. This type of headline stands the best chance of selecting the right audience and preparing them to respond. Plus, if they read nothing else, they’ll still have seen your best selling point.
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The big advantage of this approach is that the headline practically writes itself. If you have trouble writing this kind of headline, it’s a sure sign you need to think more about the real benefits of your product or service. Most often, I’ve found that companies try to squeeze in too many benefits, which leads to an unwieldy headline.
2. How to. Copyblogger wrote a great post on How to headlines. In it, Brian Clark wrote that How to headlines for white papers are all about helping your reader improve in some way. (In the case of white papers for technology companies, the white paper will be about improving the customers’ business in some way.) The key is to focus on your audience’s real need—not on the process. For example, instead of saying something like: “How to Backup Your Hard Drive,” you’d want to say: “How to Make Sure You Never Lose Your Most Valuable Data.” In other words, you want to follow the words How to immediately with a benefit statement.
3. How to Variation Number 1. A successful variation on the How to headline is to use a How to headline with two benefits. The most famous double benefit How to headline of all time is probably Dale Carnegie’s: “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”
The reason this type of headline is so successful is that the first benefit automatically implies the second. Now this isn’t the case in “How to Win Friends and Influence People” because plenty of people have friends and no influence. But it will make for a more powerful headline if there’s a logical link between the two benefits. For example: “How to Achieve a Better Relationship with Your Suppliers and Improve Customer Satisfaction.”
4. How to Variation Number 2. Another variation is “How to [mundane task] that [rewarding benefit].” It’s often quite difficult to figure out how you really benefit from learning something. Often, you can make a normal How to title better by simply using the transition word that right after the subject matter of the tutorial. Next, state the top benefit of your tutorial. Then say it in a manner that’s as specific as possible: “How to Set Up an Information Lifecycle Management System that Improves Performance of Your Production Systems by 5X.”
5. The Secret. Another successful headline is one that says, “The Secret [blank]”; for example, “The Secret of Litigation Readiness.” This headline uses curiosity as a draw. It acts almost as a challenge to the reader to see if they’re missing anything.
6. What Everybody Out to Know. “What everybody ought to know about [blank]” is another proven formula; for example, “What Everybody Ought to Know about SaaS.” This works for the same reason as “The Secret.”
7. Pose a Provocative Question. Asking a question directly involves your reader. For example, “Are You at Risk of Compromising Critical Corporate Data on Your Laptop?” But your questions can’t be random or clever. They must relate directly and clearly to the major benefit of the product. It must also prod the reader to answer “yes” or at least think “I’m not sure, but I want to know more.”
8. Be commanding. Sales copy often is unsuccessful because it fails to tell the reader what to do. This headline type allows you to be direct, provide a benefit, and tell people what to do simultaneously: “Stop Wasting Money on White Paper Design: Use Publisher to Lay Out Your White Paper in Minutes.”
9. Do you make mistakes? No one likes to make mistakes, so this headline will grab attention. If you know your audience well, helping people avoid common mistakes is a sure winner. For example, “Do You Make These Ajax Coding Mistakes?”
10. What about the news? One commonly recommended type of headline is a news headline. You might use this when announcing a new version of your product. However, you’ll need to think carefully about the purpose of your white paper and where it fits into the sales cycle before you use this type of headline. If your white paper is strictly meant to be an in-depth description of your new product to go along with a product launch—by all means, announce it in your headline: “The First Laptop You Can Use Nonstop from Chicago to China.”
But remember, many white papers are meant to describe new ways to solve a business problem. In the excitement of the launch, you may be tempted to blow the horn for your new product in the title anyway. Be sure that your title reflects your focus and talks about the benefits of solving this business problem.
What are successful types of headlines you’ve used?
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