7 types of headlines for sales text and tricks for creating them

And other important points to consider when writing it

The headline is an important part of the sales text, because 100% of your potential buyers pay attention to it. That is why it should interest your target audience in something, “hook” people. This can be done using various methods. For example, using a question, adding numbers, some kind of intrigue, etc.

Some authors first come up with a title, and then write the text, while others, on the contrary, create it at the very end. Both options are correct, so it doesn’t matter how you do it. The main thing is how your potential buyers or customers will react to it, that is, what will be the conversion to the action for which the page with the selling text is “sharpened”.

7 main types of headers

For each text, you can come up with dozens and even hundreds of different headings. Some of them will be successful, others will not. It is almost impossible to determine this accurately without testing. But every experienced author or copywriter will be able to intuitively choose successful ones and remove deliberately unsuccessful options, putting himself in the place of the target audience.

It is rare when you manage to come up with a good title for a sales text right away. Often you have to select options, weed out obviously unsuccessful ones, and then test those that remain. If you’re having trouble creating headlines, try writing 1-3 headlines for each of the seven main types based on the topic of your sales copy:

In the form of a question

How? What? Who? Where? How much, etc.

For example: How do you get people to line up and beg you to take their money?

Focused on TA

“For those who…”

For example: How to look at 27 at 45?

Containing reasons

The number of errors, paths, answers, tips, tricks, signs, etc.

For example: 7 tips for starting a successful real estate agency.

As news

Innovation, novelty, sensation, etc.

For example: New arrivals… that no one knows about yet!

With a call to action

Read, learn, improve, etc.

For example: Buy a laptop, get licensed Windows as a gift!

In the form of a quote

Choose a small, complete thought that may be of interest to the target audience. Unlike other types of headings, this one is always marked with quotation marks “”, which makes this type more advantageous in relation to other options, since it additionally helps to attract the attention of a potential target audience due to interest in the author of the quote.

For example: “This intensive helped me earn twice as much on my texts.”

Paraphrasing famous phrases and names

For example: 11 friends of the promotion, or how to make the coolest advertisement.

Snippet and announcement for a sales text posted on the Internet

If you are writing a selling text for placement on the Internet, then you should figure out how the page of each site is formed. In addition to the title itself, which potential buyers or customers will see later, it contains: title and description, an announcement, the title itself and the main text with illustrations for it.

Conditional diagram of the structure of the web page

˂Title>…text… <Title˃

<description>…<description>

<h1>…<h1>

Announcement

<read more>

Main text

Title

Title is for search engines. Most often it is prescribed by SEO specialists. It is this “headline” that potential customers see when searching for information on the Internet through search engines. On the page itself, the title is not visible to users. But you can view it in the browser line, or when typing the source code, which opens when you press the Ctrl + U buttons.

Often, SEO specialists are not able to create an attractive title for potential customers. Therefore, the task of a copywriter or business owner is to come up with an interesting, original, eye-catching title for search engines, which will differ from the title of the entire article and at the same time contain the main keyword. It will be prompted by a person involved in the promotion of a resource in search engines.

Directly the title of the selling article in the scheme of the web page will be located not on the first line, but somewhat lower, after the title and description. It is distinguished by a different font and a special first-level heading code – h1.

Description

The description, like the title, is hidden from the user’s eyes when viewing the page directly. A potential buyer sees them only when viewing the issuance of search engines. You can view the description in the source code of the page by pressing Ctrl+U. Since the snippet, the description of the page that the user sees in the search engine results, has a limited amount of information displayed, this should be taken into account when creating it. So, for example, the recommended length of title is 60 characters, description is 180 characters. At the same time, they should be interesting enough for users to provoke them to go to the page to view more detailed information and read the selling article, and also contain keywords for promotion, which are usually selected by an SEO specialist.

The title, as a rule, has more influence on the correct display of the site page in the search, so you should listen to the recommendations of the promotion specialist when writing it. The task of the description is to interest and encourage a potential site visitor to go to the page even more.

Announcement

Announcement – a brief description of the article. Sometimes the announcement and description can be the same, but in this case, the first one will be an “enticing” piece of content with more characters than the description. The announcement can be a small part of the main article or a specially written small unique passage. This is done in order to avoid duplication of content posted on different pages of the site, for example, on the page with a general list of all articles and on the page with the article itself. The goal is to achieve uniqueness and good ranking in search engines.

After the announcement, the page scheme usually contains <read more>, that is, the “read more” tag, which navigates to the main article or reveals hidden text.

Recommendation: if in doubt which type of heading to use in the finished copy, you can use one of the methods favored by marketers and conduct split testing. Its essence is as follows: a control group of users, consisting of representatives of the target audience, chooses the best option for the title. To do this, you can use Google AdWords contextual advertising with ad rotation on a small budget. At the same time, you can change not only the main title of the article, but also other parts of it in order to determine which option is the most conversion.

Chips by title

The headline is of great importance when working on a sales text, because it will be visible to all potential buyers of the product. Although there are many options for writing it, it still causes difficulties. It is conditionally possible to single out several topics that are of most interest to people.

Formula 5 C and 1 D

Templates and platitudes do not surprise people now. But in the case of a successful heading, the chance will increase that the main message of the article will be noticed by the user, and the entire main part will be read or at least viewed. All this, in turn, will increase the conversion.

A boring, unattractive title can be equated to a waste of money for the entire project. It is for this reason that it is worth choosing from those options that are based on the above topics of 5S and 1D:

• “Sensations” are relevant, as there are always people who are interested in some kind of innovation, revolutionary discoveries, developments and innovations. For example, “The amazing discovery of scientists has solved the problem of infertility in a completely new way.”
• “Scandals” are an integral part of the social and public life of people, which is of interest to many because of the resonance. Therefore, the use of intrigues, revelations, scandalous facts is always a 100% hit in the corresponding target audience. An example of such a headline might be: “Even Trump suffers from this disease along with 70% of the world’s population.”
• “Sympathies” is not the word itself or its derivatives, but, for example, the name of a person who, presumably, evokes sympathy from the readership, being an authority for her, an example to follow. For example, the headline “Who does Dr. Komarovsky treat his children for?” or “Why Do Dentists Around the World Recommend Blend-a-med Toothpaste?” The formulation of the question certainly inspires confidence in the text. But you should pay attention to such a nuance: when using a surname or some other personal data, you may encounter copyright infringement or a ban on the disclosure and use of personal information without the permission of its owner.

What to do if you want to use a sonorous surname, but there is no big budget for it? You can, for example, act like the heroes of the famous film Election Day 2: find an ordinary person with an outstanding celebrity name and sign a contract with him to use his personal data for advertising purposes.

If there is no budget for such actions, then you can try not to use the surname in the title, but limit yourself to only the name with which persistent associations are associated. For example, “Do you want a voice like Alla’s?” or “Want muscle like Arnold?” Even without specifying the names of celebrities, it becomes clear who exactly they are talking about.

• “Sex” is another of the burning thematic areas that always attracts the attention of the public. Headlines with a sexual tinge tend to look catchy, bright and non-trivial. For example, an announcement on a board near the entrance of a high-rise building: “SEX. A decent family will rent a cozy one-room apartment in this house.”

With the help of a non-standard, defiant title, you can draw attention to the content of the page or the selling text, even when they are completely unrelated. Although then reading can cause a negative reaction, since a person will not find what he was looking for.

Although the topic of sex is quite popular and it has numerous supporters, there are people who are ardent opponents of such advertising manifestations, experiencing discomfort and irritation towards them. Therefore, it is worth considering all the pros and cons before using this method of drawing attention to the text.

• “Themselves” suggests a direct connection with the personalization of the title. For example, “You should know this if you are Alexander.” There are many possibilities to do this automatic name adding using various additional tools (for example, auto-completion in email marketing or using the dynamic content technique on the site pages).
• “Money” is something that will always be of interest to potential buyers. Everything related to money, banknotes, badges, earnings is a win-win option that will 100% find its target audience. For example, “You can save 40% on utility bills.”

What to do if there are no good ideas for the title of the selling text? Use the Spam folder of your email to “peep” the options in the letters sent to you. But for email marketing texts, this method will not work, because the headlines have already been spammed due to stop words. But for use in other areas of publications, such a rethought and interpreted option for your product or service and the target audience can be quite viable. Examples of such headlines that can attract the attention of a potential buyer: “We have a list of your lost customers”, “Do you make such mistakes in English?”, “24 ways to earn 24 thousand in 24 hours”.

How to make a catchy title for a sales text

To make the title or subheadings of a sales text more visible and eye-catching, you can use some special tricks:

1. Use “magic” words in headlines: perfect, amazing, free, etc.

It should be noted that these additional words, for all their simplicity, really “magically” affect potential buyers. For example, the word “free” often prompts a person to learn more about the company’s offer. But it is worth remembering that this method will not work for mailing in Email marketing, as filters redirect an email with such a header to the Spam folder. Other words from the “magic” push you to understand the features of the product or service that the company offers.

2. Make the title countable, measurable, time-bound, or all at once.

A good example of this method is “24 Ways to Make $24K in 24 Hours”. It uses “visual hooks” that grab the reader’s attention.

3. Address the problem by making it worse.

Compare two headlines: “Are you bald?” and “Suffering from baldness?”. The second hits harder on the issue that concerns Central Asia. The main thing is to “feel” exactly the problem that causes the greatest worries and fears. Only in this case, the appeal will evoke emotion and be taken seriously.

4. Amplify your impact through visualization.

For this you can use:

• larger font;
• color highlighting;
• capitalization of all words;
• quotes;
• other effects, i.e. underlining, italics, etc.