OK, you’re surfing the net or snatching a glance at the newspaper over a hasty breakfast. What catches your eye? What makes you skim past articles and websites? The power of a well-written headline should never be underestimated. The success of a website, advertisement, article, blog, or press release will depend on it, and although each type of communication will have its own purpose, its first intent must be to seize the attention of the reader. Anything dull that fails to leap off the page will likely be overlooked, its copy ignored.

So the words of a headline need to be carefully chosen. They need to be words that will resonate with the target audience of the copy and generate the interest to read on. Analysis in UK discovered that there are four elements that excite public imagination and that used together would create the ideal popular press headline. The elements are:

• Sex
• Religion
• Drama. and
• Royalty

It was suggested that the headline which would promote greatest sales of popular newspapers would be something like:

SEX-CHANGE BISHOP IN MERCY DASH TO PALACE

Although this is obviously a tongue-in-cheek view, there can be little doubt that in reality if a story ever merited this headline no mass-circulation editor would pass up the chance to use it.

So important is the attention-grabbing role of the headline regarded, that about half the duration of any writing task should be given to its construction. This will give the finished copy a far greater chance of being seen. Remember that the greatest copy will go unread if not introduced by a well-chosen headline.

Here are some tips for effective headlines:

• Every headline needs to be of use to its readers, creating a sense that “there’s something in this for me”
• Stirring strong emotions usually attracts readers
• Headlines should intrigue the reader but always be believable
• Direct headlines present sales propositions in a straightforward way
• Indirect headlines use subtlety to provoke reader curiosity