Posted by Carole Mahoney on Tue, Aug 24, 2010
Why Good Headlines are Important
Back when I was a cub reporter on the police beat I had an editor explain to me what makes news. He said simply, “If a dog bites a man that’s not worthy of your time but on the other hand, if man bites dog, then you got a story.”
Translation: no one cares about what is expected to happen. They only care about things when something unusual happens. That’s why you need spectacular headlines to move the crowd to view your links, Tweets, Facebook ads and updates.
So how can you to write great headlines that grab attention and show up in search engines?
Guidelines for Great Headlines:
- Try to keep them short, sometimes less than 7 words.
- Include an action verb.
- Make them quirky, off beat or somewhat funny.
- Summarize was is to follow.
- Present an offer (especially for business content).
And most importantly....
USE THE KEYWORDS THAT YOUR AUDIENCE IS USING!
On the surface, headline writing may seem quite easy. But can really be the most difficult part of writing. Anyone can write War and Peace, but it takes a real genius to write “Headless Body In Topless Bar,” one of the most famous headlines in newspaper history.
And speaking of the New York Post, often tabloids and gossip rags have the best headlines. Eye-catching headlines, like Michael Jackson Faked His Death, are why Weekly World News gained more than 43,000 Facebook fans in four days.
How to Write Your Eye-Catching Headline
Making your headline short, less than seven words is tough. In the age of Twitter and 140-character counts this gets a little easier but it’s still difficult to parse your eloquent prose into short burst of “read me,” power.
So here’s a tip:
Don’t start by limiting your word count. Write your headline – no matter how long it is – and then cut words. Cut adjectives, articles and just leave verbs and nouns. You’ll be surprised at how efficient your wordplay is.
Include an action verb. Action verb or active verbs as your English teacher probably called them are one-word stories. They have the subject doing something. Some of the greatest are: eject, crash, whirl, launch, hurl, bury and vent. Action verbs are usually in the present tense (meaning they don’t have an “ed” on the end) and are active voice so the subject of the sentence precedes them. Example: Dick Punches Jane in Hill Battle. Get a list of action verbs here, courtesy of Coherent Visual in Hollywood. Here are list of great action words in action from Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox site.
- Italy buries first quake victims
- Villagers hurt in West Bank clash
- Mass Thai protest over leadership
- Iran accuses journalist of spying
Offbeat and quirky (read clever) – is popular on YouTube as well as online writing. But it’s often the most difficult thing to pull off. Here’s a tip: If you aren’t normally the funny guy in the room, steal from someone who is. Rip off Caddyshack lines, or others your favorite comedy series and use as a foundation for your headlines. Just don’t plagiarize!
Summarize – make sure your headline actually does its job – tells the reader why they should click, or continue reading. The headline is the road but the copy is the destination so get them there. You can use gimmicky language like: How to Win Friends and Influence People, (still a popular seller) so you might take a rift from that like “How to Clear Your Debt in 30 Days,” or whatever services your business provides. Or you can engage with a question:
- “Do you need more hours in the day?” (We all know that we do.)
- “Want to lose weight by eating all day?”
- “Want to be famous in 30 days?”
Just make sure your copy answers these questions otherwise you’re pulling a “bait and switch,” and readers hate that.
Present an offer: While news headlines just have to reflect what’s happening business headlines should offer some sort of benefit to the reader. Give them an offer they can’t refuse. You can combine questions and offers as well. Try mixing and matching and see what you come up with. But keep it short and simple.
- 10 Ways to Avoid Common Tax Mistakes
- Drop 10 Years Off Your Age in 10 Minutes
- The Secret to Weight Loss for Black Women
- How to Get a Husband and Keep Him (OK that one is from 1950.)
So headline writing isn’t a whim, it’s a science. If no one reads your headline, it’s a guarantee they won’t read your copy. So don’t shirk this duty. Use these tips to write stellar headlines followed by content relevant to your customers.
Still daunted by writing compelling headlines and need a push over your writers block? Contact MiM for help creating your compelling SEO copy.
Post By Guest Blogger Ovetta Sampson, Write Way Writing
Posted by Carole Mahoney on Fri, Jun 18, 2010
Harnessing the herd without going over a cliff.
"If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute solving it." ~Albert Einstein
Unfortunately for many business owners and marketers, this is the stage where they start. There is a distinction between strategy and tactic. Step 3 is all about the using the strategy as the guide book for the tactical.
Your investment in steps 1 and 2 will more than return to you in the amount of time saved going back and forth with design, copy and functionality changes.
The implementation phase of your internet marketing is where you take the 'how' and turn it into the 'what'. With step 1, you have identified the influences your competition, business and industry have on your prospects as well as how they go about their search. In step 2, you have figured out how to navigate the landscape, tied it into your business goals, set the plan of action and figured out what you need to make it happen.
How to keep a clear head during your internet marketing implementation.
Purpose of Implementation
Well that seems rather obvious doesn't it? Or does it? Inbound marketing is a fundemental shift for marketers and business owners. It means that your prospects are voluntary participants in your sales process and studies have shown that they more likely to buy. Being in the right place, at the right time, with the right message has been made all that much easier with the internet.
The tactics you use for your inbound marketing is likely to be a combination of things, such as:
Process for Implementation
1-Identify the necessary elements of your persuasive copy. Taking what you know about your prospect's buying mode and your sales process, your goal here is to align your sales process with their buying process using all of the inbound marketing tactics available to you.
2-Create the mock-up. How does the layout come together visually? Elements to consider here are navigation (UI), branding, page titles (SEO), header graphics, etc. Each element should have a function and priority in the conversion process. By giving elements priority it is easy to decide which ones need the most emphasis and where they should belong on the page.
3- Design without color. I know of some designers who will spend weeks deciding on just the exact shade of blue to have the right emotional impact. That is fine, however at this stage you want to be able to look at the mock up to decide without emotional influence. If it looks good in black and white, it will be fantastic with color. This will make your design decisions easier and faster.
4-Add color. I leave this to my designer experts. It is an art and a science all of it's own. The right use of color should create consistancy and a positive emotional response.
5- Development. It's alive! Now begins the HTML development. (Again, something I leave to the experts!) Things to consider here are download time, compatibilty with multiple browsers, CSS that is compliant with Web standards and fonts that can be easily read on a screen.
6- Testing! Before your site or campaign goes live- test that links go where they should, forms work, copy is proof-read, etc. Even though a website will always be a work in progress, it doesn't hurt to put your best face forward.
By first creating a persuasive wireframe that lays out the processes that are fundemental to your business goals and to conversion, you create a structure that your designers and developers can work within and support.
Imagine cowboy Joe and how much time he would waste (and cattle going off a cliff) because he did not know the landscape, where the preditors lurk, or ended up on a route that was impassable. He just trotted out and followed all the other cowboy's paths, because they must know where they are going right?
Now imagine cowgirl Nellie with a GPS, topography map, and a heat sensor to see where animal activity is happening. Which one do you think is more likely to make it to their desitination (goal) safely, on time, and within budget? Does this mean that Nellie won't encounter issues and dangers? Of course not, but she is less likely to be overwhelmed by them, is able to keep her sanity and cool, and deal with issues swiftly and decisively when they arise.
Does internet marketing overwhelm you? Do you feel like part of the herd headed straight for the cliff? Download the presentation I did with the Maine Marketing Association where we will talked more about how you can take the reigns of the internet for your business.
Posted by Carole Mahoney on Wed, Jan 20, 2010
I know... it is a phrase that has been beat to death and held up as a banner to internet marketers everywhere. It is the elephant in the room wearing a tu-tu, so I felt I had to address it at least once.
Mark Jackson sums the meaning behind this phrase very well in his Search Engine Watch article last year, but I would like to take it one step further and focus on his first point- engaging your reader.
During a phone call this afternoon when the all-too-famous phrase came up I could not help but add that "Relevant" content is king. When you consider that engaging your reader is probably the single most important thing your content can do for you, relevance is king. And you can only be relevant when you know who you are writing and speaking to.
For example, imagine yourself talking to someone who is between 25-30, lives in New Hampshire, and makes between 30-41k per year about your product or service. You can list all the great features, how it would benefit them, even tell them they can get a discount for ordering today. You would probably be pretty general and tell them everything you can, because you are not sure about what will stick with them. Some companies are so paralyzed by this fact that they can not decide what to put up on their sites, and so they never change their content.
Now imagine that you are talking to your aunt, or co-worker about your product or service. You know something about them, the conversation is geared to their way of thinking and you can address their motivations in relation to your offering. You know what is important to them, and that is what you speak to.
As a youngster I was a Girl Scout, and yes, I sold the cookies. All the Girl Scouts get the same cookies, and they all cost the same price. So one day as I was hitting up my family to buy cookies from me, my aunt responded to me, "And why should I buy these cookies from you?" I remember being dumbstruck, not because I was surprised she asked the question, that is just how she was, but because I did not know what so special about my cookies from anyone else's. So I went with the one advantage I knew I had with her. "Because I am your niece and you love me." She bought 5 boxes because I knew what would motivate her to buy from me and not the neighbor (that and I knew she could not resist the Sandies).
So how can you get to that level with the visitor on your website? How can you possibly know what will motivate that person to buy from you and not your competitor? How can you anticipate what questions they are asking, and know if you are answering those questions?
This is where personas come in. A persona should be much more than a character that represents the different user types for design. When used as stand-ins for the possible modes of behavior that people will interact with you and your business online you get an idea of what motivates them. When you can understand the different modes of behavior of your customers, you can anticipate their motivations and questions, and ensure that your website content engages them by answering those questions in a way that they prefer.