What Every Headline Knows

Words all have their jobs. The headline’s job is to get you to read the subhead, and the subhead’s job is to get you to read the copy. Sometimes a caption or bullet list stand in for these.

These are the gatekeepers to the message—so pick them with care, test them on innocent bystanders, and then rewrite them until you’re sure they work. Here's how it works.

Start with a killer headline.

{Like that. See, you want more.}

Make them a promise they can’t refuse.

{Want more?}

OK, I’m going to stop there—I don’t want to spoil the fun by writing the whole story, but I think you get the point. Make those headlines do their job, or send them to headline heaven and spare the reader the yawn—and your client a wasted encounter.