Why headlines are hard to write

Great photo by Angela Roma.

​True story: We worked with a client recently who wanted our help, using a shared online Word doc, to rework the copy for one page of marketing material: a website page. 
 
The Word doc had a headline at the top. And then a big page of body copy. This was the client’s original, rough draft. As we’d noted, they wanted our help wordsmithing it. 
 
This client had booked us, via Zoom, for a one-hour screen-share meeting. And guess what? We spent pretty much the entire meeting just working on the headline.
 
To you creatives out there, this is hardly shocking. But to this person who was an employee at our client and was new to this process, it was shocking. 
 
In this article, we'd like to cover 1) why this person was so shocked, 2) why headline writing is so hard, and 3) how you can lubricate the process. 
 
Two hands on the paintbrush
 
To be clear: In the story we described above, we were forced to work slower than we usually do. Because we couldn’t just dive into our process; rather, we had to explain our process, at each step, before we undertook each step. So that took a lot more time and was, candidly, rather draining. It’s hard enough to do the work; it’s even harder to do it and describe how you’re doing it at the same time. 
 
In other words, a tip of the hat to Bob Ross! 
 
As we’ve noted before (specifically in this article), shared Word docs are a double-edged sword, which have a habit of cutting you more than others! Still, let’s discuss why the headline part of this assignment required so much more time than the ensuing body copy; we didn’t even sweat the latter. 
 
And that’s part of the reason. With body copy, you’ve got lots of time and space and leeway to make your point. A headline is the opposite. You have just a few words. Plus, a headline needs to be, well, “headline-y.”
 
It has to read like a headline. It has to look good on the page. And it has to sound good in your head—to your inner ear. 
 
It needs a good rhythm. And cadence. It must convey the exact right tone: if one word is off, it collapses. 
 
Oh, and it should be clever. Good luck with that! 
 
Tools for your box
 
A way to help you surmount this challenge—in fact, a few of the component parts at once—is to start with something familiar. If there’s something familiar that rings true, and you can spin it your way, then you’ve got a great headline, seemingly ready-made. 
 
Don’t believe us? Look at Apple. Every headline on their website is written to try and meet this exact goal. 
 
An example from our business: We wrote a headline for a consultancy that helps businesses transform by using a library of proven templates. The headline we wrote for a page describing that process was: 
 
Reinvent your business. Not the wheel.
 
Why does that headline work? It’s the exact same approach we’d just described. Everyone knows the expression, “Don’t reinvent the wheel.” But no one had spun it this way before: a ripe opportunity for us, and our client. 
 
Anyway, we’d promised you some tools for your box, so here goes. When it comes to headline-writing, lean, liberally, on tools such as: 

• Your computer’s dictionary. There are two parts to this: 1) Of course there’s the built-in thesaurus. But more important, 2) there’s the simple list of entries that show up, alphabetically, around whatever word you choose. So for example, when we look up “bank,” we get other commonly-known/instantly-familiar stuff we might not have thought of, such as “bankroll,” “banker’s hours” and “bank holiday.” 

 

• Rhyming dictionaries. No, not every headline can, or should, rhyme. But sometimes a rhyme will fill the bill beautifully. We love the online tool Rhymezone. 

 

• Cultural touchstones. Simply Google the topic you need to write a headline about. You might get song lyrics. A news story. Fashion trends. Pay attention to all of these and go down the rabbit holes, because this is where you often find the best stuff. 

 
That person who joined us on the Zoom call was kind-of shocked to follow us down these exact same rabbit holes. They didn’t realize that it took this much time and effort… just to write a headline that’s only a few words long. 
 
Know why? Because you can read a good headline in about two seconds. By that token, you can look at a great painting in the same amount of time. 
 
Need help with headline-writing? Contact us. It’s a specialty of ours. 

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