,

I'm kind of in a rush to write today's mail because I'm currently preparing for a church programme.

So I want to quickly answer the next Marketing/Copywriting question I was asked.

But before that, let me ask you this.

Have you ever tried selling anything before? 

What was your experience like? 

Was it physically or online? 

Reply to this mail and let me know. 

That said, here's today's question. 

"My most burning question on Copywriting is 'How to write a captivating headline'..."

And here's my answer. 

Writing a captivating headline can be tricky, 

Especially in this age where attention has become a currency. 

The average attention span of an individual is around 8 seconds according to Google (I personally think it's much less than that though). 

Which means now more than ever, to capture your audience's attention, you have to put in more effort. 

Generally in Copywriting, there are 4 elements that make a headline compelling and captivating. 

I call them the 4 Us of a Great Headline.

A GREAT headline should be:

1. Useful: The headline should contain information that is directly useful and relevant to your target audience. 

The best way to do this is to make sure it is benefit-driven i.e it includes a direct benefit for the reader. 

If this element is missing in your headline, they will skip past your headline and move on to the next "shiny object". 

2. Unique: Chances are your target audience has seen a lot of copy and marketing messages about your product in the past. 

So for you to capture their attention, you need to put in extra effort to make your headline unique. 

You also need to make it curiosity-driven to achieve this. 

You could be talking about something pretty basic or something they have heard before. 

But then you present it in an entirely new, creative and interesting way. 

That way, it seems fresh and unique to your audience, and makes them pay attention. 

For example, instead of saying "sleep better with this green tea", you could say "four cups of this 'Chlorophyll smoothie' will have you sleeping like a baby in no time.”

See the difference? 

We're still talking about the same thing. 

But one sounds more interesting than the other. 

3. Ultra-specific: Always try to be specific in your headline. 

Use specific numbers, mention specific places, call out your specific target audience, be specific with your bold claims. 

This makes your headline capture more attention and makes it sound more believable to your audience. 

Using our example above, I could say... 

"Fall asleep in less than 10 minutes with this ‘Chlorophyll-smoothie’..." 

Do you understand now? 

Good. 

4. Urgent: You can include elements of urgency in your headline to make your audience pay rapt attention. 

You can use words like "now", "immediately", "limited", et cetera to infuse urgency into your headlines. 

This element is the most tricky to apply. 

Because there's a thin line between sounding urgent and sounding desperate. 

Also, some people have seen lots of copys with urgency elements, so they are usually not too moved when they see stuff like that. 

But if used correctly, it can work pretty well. 

If you can learn to incorporate these four elements (or three of them at least) into your headlines, 

I guarantee you they will be a lot better and capture more attention. 

But there's a whole lot more to writing headlines that captivate. 

And certainly, there's so much more to writing copy that sells. 

So if selling out your products is something you're interested in, 

Then watch this space. 

Because I might have something for you soon. 

Stay tuned. 

Meanwhile, I hope you learnt a thing or two from this email. 

Don't forget to answer the question I asked you earlier. 

See you tomorrow. 

Yours "captivating headline Copywriter", 

— KD™