KEY POINTS:
Headline writing for articles is like witchcraft.
You have to know the spells and chant before you can create awesome headlines, right?
Nah. What you really need is factors of "new" and "knew".
"New" is kinda obvious. If you have something "new" in the headline, then the reader is instantly interested.
The curiosity trigger is launched and the reader wants to know what's next.
But if your entire headline was only "new" you'd cause anxiety, not curiosity.
Let's look at a few examples to see what I mean. Let's go back into the last century to the year 1999.
Being 1999, you've heard nothing about the iPod. Or podcasts. Or RSS.
Your headline reads: "How to create RSS podcasts with the iPod".
It's all "new" information, if you're still stuck in 1999, right?
Running into all new is like running into an InDesign toolbar with 500 palettes. Or a strange city where you don't quite know your way around.
Notice what I just did? I put two scenarios in front of you:
1) An InDesign toolbar with 500 palettes.
2) A strange city where you don't know your way around.
If you know InDesign, you'll have coasted through both the analogies in a few seconds. But even if you didn't know what the heck InDesign or palettes are, the second example of the strange city would be something you could quite easily relate to.
The concept of the strange city is the factor of "knew". "Knew" is something you know. While "new" is something that's kinda unknown.
So how do we use this magic spell for article headlines? We mix the "new" and the "knew". Throw in a bat wing or two and some shiitake mushrooms. And we have a bunch of headlines that look like this:
1) Why the "yes-yes" factor helps you raise prices.
2) Is there too much sugar in your testimonials?
3) The critical importance of sandwiching your articles.
4) How segues reduce friction in sales.
5) Why consumption is more important than attraction and conversion.
You noticed, didn't you?
There were "new" elements in the copy. And there were "knew" elements.
The factor of "new" attracted you, but equally important, the "knew" signalled what topic was being covered.
So you can clearly see that the five topics are about:
1) Raising prices.
2) Testimonials.
3) Something to do with article writing.
4) Reducing friction in sales.
5) Something that's more important than attraction and conversion.
Too much "new" and the headline is intimidating as hell.
Too much "knew" and a yawn and a siesta comes to mind.
So do you need to write every headline with "new" and "knew"?
No. There are other ways to get curiosity.
A smart way to write article headlines is to mix and match. Headlines with a "how to" factor do really well. Headlines with questions do really well. But headlines with "new" and "knew" have a certain magic, and cast a spell. But use the spell sparingly, OK. *
Sean D'Souza is chief executive of Psychotactics and is an international author and trainer.
