My SaaS Product and the Neighbourhood Cat: Episode 2
Making headlines…
“The title to this article is lame.” The cat proclaims.
“Does it matter?” I ask.
“Of course, it does. 80% of your audience only read your headline….”
“Fine, but what’s wrong with the title? I think it’s quite catchy…” I respond.
“Catchy isn’t enough. Content marketing headlines have become a field of study unto themselves. And by that, I mean that you need to approach writing your headlines scientifically.” She stares me down, daring me to disagree.
I have no intention to. In a world of information overload, what she’s saying makes perfect sense. I take out my trusty pad and pen to take notes.
She starts, straight to the point.
“There are 4Us of content headlining. It’s simple. Your headline must be useful, unique, urgent and ultra-specific. Let me explain that.
So, first and foremost, you have to be useful. You have to tell your reader how they will benefit from what you’re writing. Will they find an answer to a question, solution to a problem, relief for a need? You must make it unique by using a combination of unusual words and phrasings. Write in a way to convey urgency, driving for immediate satisfaction. And above all, make it ultra-specific by adding artifacts like numbers, facts, etc. to communicate focus and trust.”
“That sounds like an impossible goal.” I retort. “More like a paragraph rather than a headline, no?”
“Well…”, she mused thoughtfully, “You’re right. But it provides a nice framework to think in. Doesn’t it?”
I shake my head. This was not very helpful.
“Okay.” She continued. “Let me break that down for you. Remember this formula and I will walk you through it…”
Headline = Number + Adjective + Rationale + Promise
“Rule number one. Try and put some numbers into that headline. Numbers are like sugar for the brain. They make your article seem better researched, more focused and promise not to ramble.
Now, collective wisdom suggests that you should be a single digit odd number. I have a slightly different opinion on this.
If you are headlining something written for casual reading, meant to create awareness, stick to the single digit odd number. You know, like ‘7 reasons why cats make great pets’.
But if you want to appeal to a person doing research in your space, somebody further down the decision process, go with large, odd numbers. Like ‘37 things to know before getting a cat as a pet’. Makes the article seem more thorough and useful.
But in both cases, go with an odd number. Use digits. Ideally, something with 7 in it.” She finished.
This is fascinating. “What’s the next point?”
“Next point is defining what your content is providing and making it compelling. So, what are you giving? Reasons, Tips, Ways, Lessons, Ideas, Things, Questions, Points…. These are called rationales. While rationales are mostly positive by nature, otherwise called white hat, they can also be negative or black hat like Secrets, Mistakes, Fallacies, Blunders that you can provide. Fear works as well as greed, sometimes better.
Once you have your rationale, find a screaming adjective to add in front of it. Like Essential, Easy, Critical, Important, Unmissable, Unmistakable, Fool-proof, Epic, Expert, etc. It must trigger the lizard brain of your audience. Let me give you an example. The 7 horrific things….” She stops and stares at the dark corner, her voice catching in her throat mid-sentence.
“What?” I look at the corner. Was there something there!
“…your cat can see in your room.”
I look again. I can’t see anything there.
“What?” I ask again.
She smiles. A smirk, really. That was mean!
She continues. “These rationales and adjectives aspire to be what are called Trigger Words. Trigger Words help you grab and keep attention because they strike a nerve with your audience. You know, trigger an emotion.
This is interesting because you can also just use trigger words like ‘How’ and ‘Why’ instead of numbers to great effect at the beginning of your headlines. Like: ‘What no one tells you about making money from cat poop’….”
I almost interject, but she gives me a look and continues.
“As a writer, you need to understand the nuances of how to trigger your audience. The difference between “A Solution” and “The Solution” is massive when it comes to your audience clicking through. There has been a lot of research done on Trigger Words, so you can go through all that on your own….”
“Okay.” I look up at the top of the page. “Number, Adjective, Rationale done. So now we talk about the Promise.”
“Yes. This one is a little tricky, so pay attention.” She sits up.
“What are you selling?” She asks, clearly rhetorically. “Your content. Who’s buying it? Your reader. What are they paying with? Their time. So, if you want them to buy your content, you have to promise them something. And it better be unique and interesting, else they won’t buy it.
Now, this is where you need to learn about Trigrams. These are three-word phrasings that have been researched to be common to the most shared articles on social media. Like ‘…will make you…’ and ‘…shocked to see…’.
But avoid clickbait. The era of clickbait supremacy is over. Audiences have caught on. If your headline over-promises and under-delivers, your audience will leave disappointed and never come back. So none of that ‘You will be shocked by what happened next’ nonsense.
Instead you should focus on making the promise relatable by flagging the user - which is a technical way of saying that you should use second person active phrasings with clear connections being drawn to your audience’s demographics. For example, consider the title: ‘If you are from Scotland, you must…you know, whatever…try this scotch’.”
She starts licking her butt, a clear indication that she has started to lose interest in the conversation.
“Hey, this is great stuff.” I try to encourage her to continue. “ What else?”
“What else? What else? Oh, from now on, I want you write a 100 possible headlines for each article. There is something called the Rule of the Third Thirds that I read a while ago…
The first third of the ideas will be predictable and crap. The second third will have some momentum in terms of creativity, but it will still not be sharp enough. Coming up with headline ideas for the third third is tough. You will have to stretch and push your creativity to the limit. Pick from this third third. This is where the winning headline would be.”
“A 100 headlines?” I ask.
“Yes.”
“Per article?”
“Yes.”
“That’s too much. I am not going to do that.” I state firmly.
“Your funeral.” She replies, puts her head beneath her paws and purrs herself to sleep.
100 headlines. Per article. That was just too much. Maybe if there was a list of templates I could work off…
