How to write a better headline than this one.
Headlines are just one of many skills that a copywriter and art director (or anyone) need in their arsenal. But it’s a big skill. A single headline can compel people to stop what they are doing, to think and act. That’s powerful stuff. A good headline can change the world.
Every ad, brochure, website, email, billboard, banner and electric bill insert is different. Which means there are a lot of ways to write a good headline. How many? I’ll get to that in a bit. First, however, let’s start by defining what makes a good headline, “good.”
A good headline acts like a counterweight.
Human brains like to move in a specific direction at a constant rate. They don’t like to “change set” to use a term deployed by developmental psychologists. For many people, being disrupted from this state is jarring — a fact we can use to our advantage in advertising. In a nutshell, a good headline causes that disruption and uses the jarring nature of it to get people to think and act. As a result, a good headline is unexpected. Surprising. It changes the reader. A good headline starts with an understanding of the target audience’s mindset and uses that mindset as a fulcrum to launch thinking in a new direction in the same way that a trebuchet requires a counterweight to launch a heavy object. (If you are not familiar with this medieval weapon, check this out.)
A good headline is deceptively simple. Yet often, a huge amount of thinking goes into the preparation and placement of five to ten words. A good headline can take two different ideas and smash them together to create something new in the same way a supercollider smashes atoms together to create new, rare, exciting particles.
A good headline often has a twist in it. It heads in a specific direction and the readers brain believes it knows where the headline is going, and just before you get to the end, something unexpected happens. Just like good comedy will make you laugh because the comedian says something you didn’t expect in a way that was novel, different, and interesting.
[Tip: Need an example? See the headline of this post.]
Then again, a good headline sometimes has no twist at all. In fact, sometimes the best headlines are those that deliver the message in a flat, ordinary, unassuming, simple way. But for these headlines to be good, they have to be married to a visual that injects the headline with some form of irony or double meaning. In effect, a straight headline desperately wants to be married with a bent visual and a straight visual often needs a twisted headline.
[Tip: a straight visual and straight headline together is snooze-worthy. A bent headline and twisted visual is usually too weird. Don’t go there.]
A good headline contains valuable information. It delivers the main idea as if it was gold, frankincense and myrrh being brought to a consumer target audience Messiah.
A good headline, when you write one, will be something that you will feel you must defend as if it was your child. It will create a lightness in your gut, and make you feel, at least for a moment, like you’ve done something no one else in the history of mankind has done. A good headline is worth defending. To me, the best creative people are passionate about the work they do and defend it with strength and verve. People get high marks from me for defending their work with intelligence and respect for their craft.
[Tip: be the most passionate person in the room when it comes to ideas. Unless you’re in the room with me. Then you can be the second most passionate.]
The logistics of writing a headline.
So back to the original question: how do you write a good headline? Let’s get into the nuts and bolts of it.
There was a time when I would start out every concept session with a pad of vellum paper, a smelly black marker, a handful of pushpins, and/or a roll of masking tape. These days, I will just as often ideate using my iPad, a stylus, and an app called Penultimate. A third way that I will often work is to create a Keynote deck on my laptop or phone (PowerPoint is for losers).
I’ll set the page up with a large bold headline in the center of the page and a smaller bracketed line above it the idea for the image goes into the bracket and the larger, bolder type becomes the headline. I’ve had a pretty long career so far, and I’ve had the pleasure of working with over 80 really amazing art directors as teammates. I’ve also been asked to create headlines working solo outside of a team. The process is essentially the same either way.
I will write a line, tear that page off the pad or print out that page from my tablet or laptop, and tack or tape it up on the wall.
[Tip: why put your work up on the wall? Why not leave it in your word processor or sketch pad? Because when you make the effort to pushpin something on a vertical surface, you are making a decision to promote something from one level to the next. It’s an unconscious way of weighing the value of an idea. You will find that only the worthy ideas get promoted to a place where all can see and only the best ideas stay hanging for very long.]
I started out in the business as an art director, and many of those old habits still stick with me, so I will often sketch the entire ad when working on concepts. This is a good habit to get into. I like to draw a border, place the logo where it should be, indicate the size and depth for the headline, and even draw the main visual and other sub visuals, and indicate where the body copy would be and how much of it I intend to write. When working with vellum or tracing paper, I create a template to trace over, and I can usually get into a groove where I sketch out four or five ads in a minute.
[Tip: Sketches always looks better if you use a fatter marker.]
When working as a team, I recommend that one of the two team members sketches the entire ad as you develop concepts. It’s much easier for the CD to approve good ideas when he or she can see them in a format that indicates your vision for it.
In a team, there is always one who talks a little bit more than the other. If that’s you, you need to also write down your ideas at the same time, but the less talkative teammate is often the one who is sketching the most and putting the most ideas up on the wall.
(If neither the copywriter or art director is a “wrist” — a term used to describe someone who can draw practically anything — you may want to wait until the AD has had a chance to lay out your favorite ads before presenting them. In the end, you need to find your best work style. A style that showcases your thinking in the best possible way. What has worked for me may not work for you.)
[Tip: No negativity! When working with teammate, there are no bad ideas. There are only good ideas, great ideas, and ideas you can make better. Do not poo-poo the thinking of your creative partner. Ever.]
This next bit is really important: If your teammate generates an idea, and you like it, one of you should write it down or sketch it out. If you are not quite satisfied with that idea, it is your responsibility to try to make that idea better. Add something to it. Find a better image to go with it. Change the structure of it. Or just make it funnier or more emotional or more compelling. This is why we work in teams. We make each other’s work better. Just as one draught horse can typically pull 800 pounds yet two horses working together can pull 2,400 pounds, an art director and copywriter working together can lift a lot more creative weight then they can separately.
[Tip: don’t worry about getting credit for your ideas. Worry more about making your partner’s ideas better. It’s not a contest.]
It would be a lie to say that egos don’t exist in the creative process. They do. And that’s a good thing. If you can align your egos, and make emotional satisfaction and pride of ownership a team endeavor, you will develop ideas for which you both feel a strong sense of ownership. Feeling emotionally invested in your ideas is a good indicator that you’re developing concepts that the target audience will invest in emotionally as well.
A list of proven headline techniques.
Now, let’s talk about the real question you want answered. How to craft a compelling, beautiful, funny, provocative, thoughtful, intelligent, attitude-laden, award-show-worthy, zinger of a headline. Here are a few techniques. You will want to develop your own techniques as time goes on. But these will get you started.
1. Write to the image.
Often the best way to write a good headline is to start with the image with which the line is paired. There are times when you are showcasing a particular product and need to show a picture of that product anyway, so start with that. I will sometimes try to find a representative image through a Google search — something simple that conveys the idea, but give the art director some leeway when searching for or shooting something ideally suited for the ad. In those instances when I don’t feel like drawing, or am working too quickly to create a complete sketch or can’t find the correct image, I simply write a description of the image in brackets above the headline. Writing to the image allows you to take some weight off the headline for conveying information. It also makes for a more compelling and memorable concept when a headline and image together can convey a very different message than the line and the image could convey on their own.
[Tip: working on a retail account for a few months can make you really good at writing to the image.]
2. Wordplay.
Wordplay can be tricky. Done correctly, it is clever, subtle and memorable. Done poorly, it is punny and cringe-worthy. There was a time when wordplay was a lot more common in advertising. The best of show ad for the Clios in 1982 was an ad for a pasta machine with the headline, “Make Pasta, Fasta.” Yeah. Ouch. That headline just feels dated and unsophisticated today. Then again, some wordplay, especially when the technique is used to reinforce a clever image, can be a real winner. Beware of relying too much on wordplay. Like cilantro, cologne or Rick Astley, it’s best when used in moderation.
[Tip: if you find yourself generating more than three puns in a session, you need to go for a walk and clear your head. Your creative mind is in a bad place and needs to be redirected.]
3. Lateral thinking.
Sometimes a headline just does not flow easily from the major selling idea. In these cases, it might be a good idea to think of something universal but almost completely unrelated to the major selling idea and try to force some kind of comparison, or use it as a metaphor. Take two incongruous ideas and smash them together. Or take an idea from one discipline and try to relate it to the one you are currently writing about. This can be a good way to clear your mind, as well as a good way to come up with something fresh. Making two unrelated things totally relatable is a great way to bring clarity to your reader.
[Tip: To get your head thinking laterally, start a headline out with, “It’s just like______ for (target audience).” And then vary your construction. Example: It’s like viagra for zucchini farmers. Getting the picture?]
4. Adopt an attitude.
Some of the best headlines are snarky. Or extremely happy. Or dark. Or sound like they come from a real know-it-all. At times, the attitude you adopt is dictated by the brand’s personality. In other situations, it’s how the target audience wants to be talked to. Think about the products that are sold to “real” men during football games. They are almost all injected with testosterone. If you can put yourself in the audience’s shoes, you can write to them in a way that will make them respond. Be careful not to violate a brand’s guidelines. But when appropriate, adopting an attitude is a good way to come up with headlines that practically write themselves.
[Tip: think of an actor you know who has the attitude you seek and write lines that he or she would say.]
5. Don’t write a headline.
Not every great idea has to have a headline. Zero words can speak far louder than a well turned line when you have an intelligently crafted visual. Plus, why make your reader work hard if you don’t have to? It’s not always possible to create an ad with no words, especially when a product or service is not universally understood or has a clear, compelling major selling idea, but in those cases where it is doable, one should always reduce the words to zero when possible.
[Tip: If you’ve got a cool visual but are struggling to come up with a headline that makes it work better without being redundant, try eliminating the line altogether and see if the visual conveys enough on its own.]
Saving the best advice for last: Just write. A lot.
I cannot stress this enough. The best way to write a good headline is to write a lot of headlines. Start with a line that satisfies the brief. Then write another line that improves upon that line. Then try to top the second line. Then go outside the box and write a line from the outside looking in. Then try another technique. If you find you have a line you love, put it on the wall, reset the bar to match the economy, wit, and power of that line and then work hard to write lines that are better than it. Keep going. If you don’t have any lines that make you feel good, or if you don’t have a strong recommendation, you are not done writing. Write until you cannot write any more. Write until you are convinced that there are no other ways to approach the problem.
[Tip: How many headlines is a lot? For good-sized projects, if you haven’t written 40 lines, minimum, you are slacking. In other words, if time and budget allow, start at 40 and adjust from there.]
In my experience, the best lines I’ve ever written have often come after hours of concept work. I have covered virtually every wall and every inch of floor space in the agency with ideas at one time or another. Once you have 40 to 80 ideas (or more), you can go back and pull the weaker lines off the wall, and promote the stronger ones. Do a culling. Get rid of the lines that aren’t doing anything for you. Keep the ones that have something going for them, but are not quite right. Rely on your teammates to help.
In the end, the ones that fill you with the “lightness in your gut” that I talked about before, are gold. Lightning in a bottle.
Or on a wall.
Grant Sanders is the Creative Director at Mintz + Hoke advertising in Avon, CT and when he’s not writing and approving headlines, he’s usually at home on Nantucket with his kindergarten-teacher wife and black dog. Lines are not needed there because the visuals are so good. Find him on LinkedIn.
