The Statistic That Terrifies Marketers

Posted on by

You’ve probably heard this before…

And ignored it before. Why? Because you didn’t know what to DO about it.

“8 out of 10 people will read your headline, but only 2 out of 10 people will read the rest of your landing page.”

Ouch.

If you’ve got a lousy headline, then you’re going to have lousy conversions. And the only way to fix this – the ONLY way – is to work on that headline and test it against other headlines to see what works better. This gives you your control, and from there you continue to test your control against other headlines until something beats your control and becomes your new control and…

…you’re exhausted already, aren’t you?

I understand.

Headlines are HARD because of the immense pressure we put on ourselves to GET. IT. RIGHT.

With that in mind, here are a few headline rules to help you get a strong headline out of the gate. Using these doesn’t mean you don’t have to test; it just means you can start with a fairly strong headline and work from there.

1: Numbers increase click through rates.

  • 3 Stupid Mistakes that…
  • 1 Rule You Absolutely Must…
  • $450,954 Per Year without…

2: Odd numbers usually work better than even numbers, with the exception of the number “10”.

3: Negative words work better than positive words.

‘If it bleeds, then it leads’ doesn’t just apply to the news. Warning someone they’re about to lose all their money will typically result in more click-throughs than promising to show them how to make more money.

4: Make your content flow. The subheadline should flow naturally from the headline, the first sentence should flow naturally from the subheadline and all the way down the page. If the headline doesn’t match the content, you’ll confuse and lose the reader.

5: If possible, make your headline 5 to 7 words. Use the subheadline to elaborate on the headline.

6: Avoid words with multiple meanings. No one wants to decipher what you’re saying.

7: Include power words and heart-stopping adjectives. You can search for a list of power words online and find multiple sources to choose from. Sites like https://inspirassion.com/en/ can help, too.

Here’s a few adjectives to get you started: Essential, weird, incredible, strange, surprising, effortless, unique and so forth – you get the idea.

Bonus: Keep your headlines under 65 characters for the purpose of getting organic search traffic.

Double Bonus: Read “Can’t Write Headlines?” in this issue for the one word that’s creating dynamite headlines for online marketers right now.