How to choose the right headline for an article

“On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar. “—David Ogilvy

A couple of weeks ago, I was working on an email newsletter for an organization I’m engaged with. Now I needed the right subject for the newsletter; something that would make people want to click to read. I mean of what use is great content if no one reads?

A colleague of mine suggested a subject I thought was too cliché. I said, ‘Everyone has heard this before. Won’t that make them roll their eyes and mark the email as ‘read’, or worse delete it, or even worse unsubscribe to the newsletter?

This was his response to me ‘Maybe it’s cliché because everyone uses it. Maybe everyone uses it because it actually works. Have you thought of that?’

I decided to give it a try (Oh but I made him aware that if anything goes wrong, I was going to pin it on him). Surprise surprise, the newsletter recorded more clicks than the previous weeks.

Finding the right headline for your newsletter or a title for your article can be a headache. You need to make sure it’s nail on the head, smart, and carries your story in few words possible.

Below are a few guidelines to help you choose a clever headline for your writing purposes.

 

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I hope you find these helpful. If you have any tips to writing a good headline you’d like to share, please do in the comment box below.