Showing posts with label English. Show all posts
Showing posts with label English. Show all posts
6 Practical Tips for Effective Headline Development
Outline your article.
The headline and the article body feed off each other. One must reflect, promote and support the other in order to be effective. As such, it's important that you build a relationship at the very beginning so your readers won't be confused at the progression.
To make sure you don't get lost, write a short outline of the article. This can be in the form of notes to help guide you on the topics you will be covering for the article and the succession of these topics. That way, you will have a reference on how the article will appear, something you can use for effective headline development.
Decide on the tone you will use
The tone of your article should be reflected by your headline. An optimistic, happy headline may not work with an article that is written in a serious, businesslike tone. Conversely, a formal headline may seem ill-conceived when used with an upbeat article.
Develop your headline based on the type of article you will be using
Ever read headlines developed by researchers for a certain scientific or medical study? They're not exactly the kind of headlines you'll find in a write-up for topics such as sports, personal care or relationships. These headlines tend to be formal and technical and there are no colloquial or slang terms used with them.
When developing headlines for your article, make sure it's a good match to the type of write-up you will be doing. If it's more technical, consider using a more structured headline. If it's more upbeat, then do the same with your title.
Offer an overview.
Your article has to compete with others in the market. This is especially true if you will be writing for the Web, where for a single topic alone, readers will find thousands of sources, all of them original.
For effective headline development, make sure to write a title that offers your readers a good idea of what the article contains – and then interest them enough so they read the rest of the article.
Headline too long? Consider a sub-headline
Sometimes in order to grab the attention of your readers, you will be stuck with a headline that's too long to be effective. If this happens, consider cutting the headline into two: one as the main headline and the other as the sub-headline. Readers can easily focus on these headlines and find the most interesting, salient points of the article.
Or, you could cut a long headline, use a provocative or interesting word or phrase followed by a colon and then write the rest of the headline. Some examples are below:
Game Hacks: How to Be a Master of Every Video Game You Play
Earth Angel: One Woman's Journey to Becoming a Celebrated Environmentalist
Birds of a Feather: How Your Friends Affect Your Luck in Life
Use intrigue
Notice how successful many of the marketing campaigns and promotions have been in the past? It's because the copywriter was able to stir up intrigue and grab attention by using their headlines well.
An excellent method of headline development is using teasers that create intrigue. Words such as 'secret to', 'little known ways' 'lazy man's guide to', 'beginner's guide to', 'you don't have to be ___ to be ___' and 'methods you never knew existed' can be quite effective for making the readers wonder and want to read more.
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Simplicity Rules in Copy Writing
To attract visitors to your site, being simple is good. Since readers are primarily interested on what you have to say, you may entice them to read on or discourage them and give up. Creating a simple yet concise and clear copy that is easy to read and comprehend is the best way to inform your clients of your point. Here are some easy tips to simplify your website and make it a winner:
1. Create simple and clean designs with a clear navigation system. You can repeat the images, colors, formatting and text throughout the site since guests will not wonder if they have unintentionally left your site.
2. For your background, use contrasting colors and avoid using light texts on light backgrounds. Dark texts are easier to read on a light background. Be careful with your background patterns since they can obscure the site’s content instead of flattering it. Avoid underlined or blinking texts. These texts may annoy and distract visitors. Your hyperlinks must be the only documents underlined on your site.
3. Make your copy easy to read, understand and use. Try your best to be lucid. Use simple words; those that are used for everyday speech. Use terms that are not to vague and very understandable. Don’t be too stuffy; remove pompous words and replace it with plain words. Minimize complicated gimmicks and constructions. If you can’t give the information directly and briefly, you must consider writing the copy again.
There are multi-syllable words that can be replaced by simple terms. For example, information can be replaced by a simpler word “facts”, demonstrate can be replaced with “show”, gratis with “free”, regarding with “about”, etc. Check each word and ask yourself if there are words that can still be simplified to lessen the syllable length. By this method, the words can easily roll off the readers’ tongue and they can easily remember them as they read.
4. Check your spelling and check spelling errors. This will not earn your site too many visitors. because this will make your page look unprofessional. You can utilize a spell checker such as the HTML Toolbox.
5. Don’t be over chatty and suspense killer. Surprises in the middle of one sentence is not informative, rather very irritating. Do not be too arrogant as well; don’t be too boastful in presenting your visitors of your intelligence and cleverness. This will not impress them but will surely bore them. Remember that your aim here is not only to present the readers of what you have but also to encourage them.
6. Do not be overly instructive. If you have so many words beginning with expect, consider, compare and imagine, the readers might think that what they’re reading are stylebooks or textbooks.
Writing a simple copy is vital since your goal is let your visitors understand what you’re trying to inform them with less effort on their part. The visitors wouldn’t want to spend long hours just figuring out what your site is all about.
You should aim to entice visitors to immediately click the order button without second thoughts. So write simple and win them all!
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