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19 Jun 11 What Are the Different Types of Headlines?

Headline of advertising commercial or a book or marketing collateral is supposed to be the most important and attention grabbing part of the same. A headline is supposed to make the thing stand out from the clutter, draw immediate attention of the viewer. The copywriter can grab attention of the viewer with a wide variety of headlines. There can be several types of headlines as given below.

Questioning

There can be headlines that put forth questions like – ‘Did you know 80% of women love our shampoo?’ or ‘How often do you need to de-tan your skin?’, ‘Are you spending too much in Insurance?’ These questions not only grab attention fast, but also stir interest and provoke thoughts. People soon relate to such questioning headline and move on to the next segment of the advertisement to find out the solution.

Testimonials

There are many advertisements that put forth its customers’ words to sell the products or services. This trick always works, as people consider it as a proof of the brand’s credibility. Not all provide testimonials of real customers, but when used such strategy can be effective. It may go like this ‘This oil has lessened 70% of our health problems’. Put name, location, age of the customer speaking to make it appear more credible. You may take permission of that particular customer.

Straight on face

There are headlines talking straight to the viewer, in a direct tone. These are effective at times. Special offers, heavy discounts, inauguration – such announcement oriented advertisements adopt straight on face tone. Examples, ‘Grab last few days of 50% discount’, ’50 free laptops with Bike purchase’.

News headline

Then there are headlines, which announce some news like ‘Finally, A detergent is here which actually works’. Such announcement of news – like something new has come up always works.

Commanding headline

There are headlines, which ask you to do something. Such headlines are strong and are developed to encourage the action towards some benefit. They mostly start with a verb. Like, ‘Say no to plastic’, ‘stop drinking while driving’, ‘Stop abusing the minor’.

Let me know which one is your favorite.

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14 Nov 10 Writing for Web – Things to Keep in Mind

Writing for the Internet is different from writing for any other media, as there are far more distraction here than you can see anywhere else. There are so many things vying for your audience’s limited amount of attention that the attention is too thinly distributed among all the tempting elements.

Your copy or content has to perform in this chaotic world. Wouldn’t it be too much to ask your content to do without providing it the weapon necessary to cut through the clutter? Those weapons are scannability, keywords, and short paragraphs. You need to keep following things in mind when writing for the web:

  1. Keep the paragraph short. You are not creating a literary piece, so there is no need to make the paragraphs long. 3 to 4 sentences long paragraphs are enough.
  2. Divide your articles using headings and subheadings.
  3. Use important items as bullet points.
  4. Use keywords in H1, H2, H3, and other heading tags.
  5. Use primary keyword as early in the title as you can.
  6. Use important keywords in the first 50 words, or at least in first 100 words.
  7. Use headings and subheadings to communicate key ideas.
  8. Use standard font in the blog or article you post on your website, so that most of the people can read the items.
  9. You can also insert images and tables in an article or blog post to make the article scannable.
  10. Keep the sentences shorter.
  11. Do not confuse your readers by addressing too many issues in a small article. Keep it simple.

Your article or blog post should be constructed in such a way that your audience gets the central idea in the first 30 seconds. This is the amount of time one has for any online item. The visitors may stay longer if you succeed in retaining the audiences’ attention within this time limit.

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