Headlines that are relevant to your readership

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Now that you've created headlines that pull your readership into deeper content, you need to make sure what the headlines offer is relevant to your readership. The automotive headline above is an example of relevancy. Here are some more:

"Create an Active Video Audience for Your Brand" is good. What could make it better is providing an idea of what's involved. Something as simple as "Three Steps to Creating an Active Video Audience for Your Brand" sets reader expectation before the headline is clicked. The "Three Steps to" provides a clue about length of article, amount of involvement, whether the creation process is going to be doable by JoeAverage or if special skills are needed.

"Bring Visitors Back with Web 2.0" -- a recent subject line from the iMedia Connection daily newsletter --  is similar to the above. It's good, but what might be better is "Three Steps to Bringing Visitors Back with Web 2.0." Let's add a sidebar piece with its own headline that pulls readers into the sidebar and keeps them there for the full article, "Is Web 2.0 for You?"

The great thing about "N Steps to..." titles is that it addresses a basic human need for finding order in the chaos. Whether or not people like lists, most people appreciate someone else creating order from the chaos and providing that order to them. "N Steps to..." tells readers that there is some order, some process in place.

You're basically freeing readers up, giving them back the time they would have used to create the list. You're also giving them a good reason to get something done they would probably put off because, if they're like most people, they don't want to take the time to make that list and address the issues therein.

Just a few more in this section: "Sony Spins Spider-Man's Marketing Web." Yes. Anybody who's been alive the past month or so knows this. Better is "Why Sony's Spider-Man spun a multi-million dollar web". This "why" is very different from the previous "why" example and…uh…here's why:

• This is "Why something over there happened". The previous headline was "Why YOUR…" By directing to an "over there" item flight or fight responses don't occur
• I went from "spin" to "spun". The use of past tense is another linguistic cue to the reader that they're not on the hook for what's to follow

In other words, I'm not asking the reader "why?": I'm answering the question for them. You could also use "How Sony's Spider-Man spun a multi-million dollar web." In either case readers have a reason to go for deeper content because the headline has the promise of answers to questions the reader might find entertaining and useful in their own work.

The subject line "Turn Prospects into Loyal Customers" is different than the article headline, "4 Ways to Turn Prospects into Customers". The article headline has the number of steps I'm advising, but we could even kick it up another notch with, "Turn Prospects into Loyal Customers in Three Proven Steps." This both pulls the reader in and gives them a reason to read critically with "Proven."

Notice that I never use "Easy" in the "N Steps to..." form? The reason is that people are jaded. You can tell them something is easy, but if they decide it's not then you've lost them this time and down the road. NextStage does a training that demonstrates with audiences as small as 7 to 10 people that what one person considers easy the next person might consider very difficult and vice versa.

"Proven," though, can be couched in the deeper content with some basic elements. "If your company isn't starting from these basic elements, these steps might not work for you" is more compelling than one might think, especially if you can offer the reader an idea of how to get from where they are to where they need to be in order for the "proven" steps to work.

Headlines that clearly define a benefit
This is the "What's in it for me?" factor.

"'The Matrix' Guide to Brand-Building" may conjure up images of Keanu Reeves bending over backwards in your office, but unless your readers have an affinity for "The Matrix" brand to begin with this headline could push more than pull. Something like "'The Matrix' Guide to Brand-Building and How to Use It" states the benefit of the article in the headline. Readers will be given a tool and instructions in its use. Nice and simple.

Another example is "Don't Get Shut Out of the Customer's Inbox." Headlines like this really address issues of whether people are designed as Towards or Away-Froms, something I discussed in a previous column.

Is your readership comprised mostly of people who avoid risk? The "Don't Get Shut Out of the Customer's Inbox" is fine. Otherwise, this would work better: "How to Get Into Your Customer's Inbox." Again, let's up the ante with, "How to Get Into Your Customer's Inbox and Stay There." This headline promises action that achieves a specific goal. What's in it for the reader? The ability to be recognized as relevant and necessary in their customers' lives.

Summary
Catching and keeping people's attention is getting harder and harder these days.

Some quick ways to get through to people is to make things relevant to them and to offer to help them (people at my Emetrics presentation may remember the 10 Messages. These are two of them; "This is Important to You" and "We Can Help You").

Do these things in a familiar environment or setting (your interface), and your messages will get through every time.

Additional resources:
Usability Studies 101: Redesign Timing
Emetrics Summit
Using Sound and Music on Websites
NextStage Training: Using the 10 First Contact Marketing Messages
NextStage Training: Techniques of the Marketing Whisperer
NextStage Training: Mastering Push and Pull Writing

Joseph Carrabis is CRO and founder of NextStage Evolution and NextStage Global and founder of KnowledgeNH and NH Business Development Network. He was recently selected as a senior research fellow and board advisor for the Society for New Communications Research. Read full bio.