Read this headline…or I’m totally wrong!

Why headlines make all the difference to your newsletter, website, and ads

Whew, thanks for reading.

Not that I was really worried. We all read headlines. In fact, you and I have learned to depend on headlines when it comes to choosing what to read in our daily newspapers, magazines, ads, and websites.

Consider these headlines from a recent Sunday Boston Globe, my local paper:

“At the ER, the stay can reach 8 hours” beneath a photo of a hospital waiting room:
“NYC Police Spied on Ralliers before GOP Convention”
“Genocide Games”, about next Olympics host China supporting what many consider to be a genocide occurring in its ally Sudan
“Thriving in the Shadows of Wal-Mart”
“Real Estate: 5 Hot Towns for 1st Time Buyers”

Would you have read further?

Other headlines weren’t so helpful or tantalizing.

“Journey Against Global Warming”
“The Sound of New Doors Opening”
“Read Aloud, Feed a Mind”

Some of the day’s ads worked; most didn’t. I liked this headline/subhead combo: “Hassle-free Way to Find Contractors/Over 6 million Homeowners Matched to Professionals since 1999”.

One bargain company calls itself the “Vacation Outlet”.

And my personal favorite: “Remove Unwanted Fat. Call for a Free Assessment Today!”

Others said nothing, and the ads were easily ignored:

“Maybe It’s a Secret”. (Tiffany jewelers)
“Cherish Your Memories Forever”
“Exceptional Care at Sturdy Memorial Hospital”

Faced with a newspaper page full of stories and ads, and 127 other pages just like it, would those headlines have enticed you into the copy? Not me. Like for you, time is always precious, even on Sunday mornings.

The truth is, we’re faced with hundreds of reading choices every day. If we took advantage of only half of them, we’d never leave the house in the morning. Instead, four out of five of us never get past the headline of most stories,

We scan: headlines, subheads, pull quotes, and photos. We’ll read those articles whose headlines appeal to our own peculiar set of interests and we’ll cheerfully ignore the rest.

But great headlines can get people to actually read your nonprofit’s newsletter

Tom Ahern in his wonderful book Raising More Money with Newsletters than You Ever Thought Possible (my review at www.SchwartzTalk.com), writes:

“When your newsletter arrives, the first thing [donors] do is browse: skim a few headlines, look at the photos, maybe read a caption, to see if anything’s of interest. If nothing is, they put the newsletter aside, likely never to return. Which means, if you have nothing of interest in your ‘browser level’, you’ve wasted your time and money.”

Now take a look at your newsletter. Does it have headlines like “Director’s Corner’, “Agency wins new grant”, “Foundation has new strategic plan”? With those titles, is anyone tempted to read the giant gray block of unbroken type that follows? I think not. I might put aside the newsletter, promising myself I’ll read it “when I have more time,” only to toss it away the next time I do an office cleanup. (Which, admittedly, doesn’t happen as often as it should.)

Does your website suffer from the same uninformative headings?

And it’s not just your newsletter where weak headlines fail. Your website is a victim, too. Steve Krug’s incomparable Don’t Make Me Think points out the same flaw as our newsletters:

“When we’re creating sites,” he writes, “we act as though people are going to pore over each page, reading our finely crafted text, figuring out how we’ve organized things, and weighing their options before deciding which link to click.

“What they actually do most of the time (if we’re lucky) is glance at each new page, scan some of the text, and click on the first link that catches their interest or vaguely resembles the thing they’re looking for.

“We’re thinking ‘great literature’ while the user’s reality is much closer to ‘billboard going by at 60 miles per hour.’”

And don’t forget advertising, where headlines make up most of the content. My favorite book on advertising (so far) – John Caples’ Tested Advertising Methods, now in its fifth edition and sixth or seventh decade – devotes five chapters of the book just to headline writing.

“Make your headline suggest to the readers that here is something they want. This rule is so fundamental that it would seem obvious. Yet the rule is violated every day by scores of writers.”

Eleven tips to writing headlines that draw readers in (including wealthy donors)

Sticking with Caples for the moment, here are some of his rules for writing advertising headlines. They work for your newsletter and website, too.

Appeal to the reader’s self-interest or give news. If I were looking for my first home, do I want to find five affordable towns near Boston? You bet!
No meaningless headlines: “Director’s Corner”? Snore.
Tell the reader there is useful information within. I did it with the subhead beginning this section.
Include one of these four words: Introducing, Announcing, New, and Now. Each one promises something special. “Free” and “At last” work pretty darn well, too.
Tell a story in your headline, as well as in your article. “Thanks to Your Support, This Little Girl Went from Starving to Thriving”
Begin your headline with “How To…”. Could anybody over age 50 really resist an article under the headline “How to Improve Your Memory Tenfold Tonight”?
Use a testimonial-type headline. This gets to last month’s e-Blast on “word of mouth”. We rely on the advice of others for many of our most important decisions. A testimonial can “sell” your nonprofit. “Why I Chose XYZ as the Only Charity I’ll Include in My Will”

And four more:

I’ve learned from Tom Ahern that I better have a pretty good reason for not using “You” in headlines as well as in body copy.
Steve Krug will tell you to keep it simple and unpretentious on your website. Have the button say “Jobs”, not “Employment Opportunities”.
I add, “Help the reader” by having headlines of different type sizes. Show me what’s important. Your newsletter is no place for equality.
And don’t be afraid to add a lengthy second headline below the main headline, and smaller, thoughtfully written subheads throughout your article, say every five or six paragraphs. Pullout quotes, too. All scanworthy, all helping you to deliver your important story to the reader.

Can I guarantee that everyone will read every article or ad thanks to your brilliant headlines? Of course not. But at the very least, the reader will absorb the five or six major points that you hoped to get across, just by reading the informative and provocative headlines.

Personal goings-on at Rick Schwartz/StraightTalk

Wow, you responded to that subhead, didn’t you?

Sorry, I don’t really have any good gossip. I’ve been too busy for that sort of thing. I’m working with some wonderful nonprofits (aren’t they all?). I can’t name them, since I didn’t ask their permission, but one is a dedicated afterschool program in a low-income neighborhood, trying to give its middle schoolers the same out-of-school opportunities you want for your children. We’re making a case for why local businesses and funders should chip in to guarantee its survival.

A 15-year-old nonprofit founded by Nigerian immigrants ensures that more recent newcomers to these shores have it easier than they did. We’re reviewing all its operations, heading towards an important June board meeting where I expect major changes.

I’m finishing up a communications audit for a fine community foundation below the Mason-Dixon line, and getting ready to conduct another in New England. It takes some courage for them to be so introspective, but my goal is not to find fault, but to encourage reflection and offer constructive advice.

Speaking of community foundations, I’m organizing and co-moderating four panel discussions on public education for my dear old Rhode Island Foundation. The first one asked “What is a School?” and we had a rich difference of opinions among traditional and new wave educators. Next month we’ll be talking about public funding.

I’m teaching my favorite workshop – How to Talk to Everyone Who Matters to Your Nonprofit, the basics of communications planning – three times this Spring. Nonprofits have many constituencies, each responding to different messages. How do we deliver the right message to the right audience? Workshop attendees are generally relieved that it’s all common sense, and I get to proselytize how fundamental good communications are.

Some updates to www.SchwartzTalk.com. I’ve added five new book reviews, including Mega Gifts: Who Gives Them, Who Gets Them, by Jerold Panas He interviewed million dollar donors to find out what makes them tick. The book is a classic, and it confirms much of what I learned interviewing donors for The Rhode Island Foundation. Donors are driven by dozens of varying emotions: ego, passion, and pride among them. Most of them expect the personal touch, and they make their decisions spontaneously.

Also, for folks who have signed up for e-Blasts only recently, you can find the previous two: why you shouldn’t do press conferences, and the power of word-of-mouth marketing.

Finally, my soon-to-be 15-year-old son Leo warned me (unsuccessfully) against using the word “yup” in last month’s e-Blast. This month he asked me to put in a plug for Daisuke Matsuzaka, the new Boston Red Sox pitcher. Done. Go Sox!

See you next month!

Rick