Inside the Mind of a Freelance Copywriter

How long should your headlines be?

There’s a big headline debate raging in the copywriting circles. It’s not about whether the clever-sounding ones are better at getting people to read the rest of the copy. They’re usually not, like I pointed out a couple of weeks ago. And that’s a fact.

The hot question is whether long headlines are more suited for the job than short ones – you know the kind I’m talking about. You probably have seen websites with a bright red headline that goes something like this one I made up:

Top businessman reveals 5 quick and easy marketing strategies that will supercharge your business and make you up to 132% more profit in just 20 minutes a day. (So that you earn tons of money and still have plenty of time to spend it!)

Long headlines like these are common in direct mail, where they often out-perform shorter alternatives, but you’ll find them on many websites too. So, do they really work better online than a five or ten word job? Or rather, when do they work better?

I have just come across this excellent article by Michel Fortin, titled The Truth About Mega-Headlines, which sheds some much-needed light on the topic.
 
If you’re in charge of writing or choosing online headlines, you really must read it. I know it thought me a thing or ten.

And don’t let the article’s length put you off. It’s all juice!

July 13th, 2006 TrackBack URI