How to write a title that will interest the reader?

A selling headline that makes a profit

The first thing the reader pays attention to before reading the article is the title. Whether he will read the material further or not depends on whether he is interested in the title of the article. The ability to write a selling title is very important, because your success and income largely depend on it. We offer a selection of the most useful and effective ideas on how to write a title.

What promise is hidden in your title: satisfaction of needs or some kind of benefit?

This method is one of the simplest, but, at the same time, very effective. Its author is a genius in the advertising field D. Ogilvy. In his opinion, the selling title should contain the advantages of the material, encourage readers to read it fully. The title should provide an opportunity for the audience to find a method by which you can get the specified benefit.

Consider two headings: “Financial Management” by V. Ilyin and “More money from your business” by A. Levitas. In the first case, only the subject is indicated, and in the second, the promise is also traced: if you read the book, your income will increase. To express such ideas, interrogative words can be used at the beginning of the title: “How to make big money” by B. Berezovsky, “How to write a title that will strike the reader on the spot” by J. Vitale.

Positioning. How does your material differ from others of the same subject?

Positioning is mainly used in books that are published for so-called “dummies”. Consider such publications: “Creating a website for dummies” by D. Crowder, “Managing complex Internet projects” by E. Jordon. Clarifications of this type attract the interest of potential readers who are concerned about this topic.

Positioning can also be traced in such headings: “Internet marketing. New tools for influencing new consumers” G. Petrenko, “The book of a web programmer. Secrets of professional website development” by B. Hogan.

Focus. Is there a pointer to potential readers in your title?

Filters that are typical for contextual advertising can be used in the title of the publication. If possible, try to identify your target readers in each title. This will give your material an additional appeal, it will seem that it is written to order. Therefore, indicate the main characteristics of readers in the headings or try to contact them directly.

Jay Conrad Levinson, who is known for the book “Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days”, is considered a professional in writing such headlines. The writer adapted the titles of subsequent publications on this topic for his first book: “Guerrilla marketing on the Internet”, “Guerrilla Marketing for writers”, “Guerrilla Marketing for financial consultants”.

Some authors approach the creation of the title even more creatively. For example, R. Williams came up with the title “Design for non-designers” for his publication.

Attraction. How to write a title that is interesting and attractive to the target audience?

For this purpose, various means of artistic expression are used. You can describe in more detail the most common paths that can be used in headings.

Metaphor

This artistic technique gives the title imagery and emotionality, makes it interesting and selling. For example, “How to swim among sharks and not be eaten alive” by H. McKay, “Mafia Manager. A Guide for Corporate Machiavelli” by an unknown author, “New Technologies in Marketing: the Golden Key to Loyalty” by T. Osenton.

There are cases when a metaphor is used so appropriately that it almost literally becomes an association of a specific field of activity. For example, business-related publications often use metaphors related to war, weapons, the battlefield, etc.

For example, “The Art of War. D. Chase’s Business Guide, “The Battle for the Guest. Strategy and tactics of restaurant marketing” by I. Avrutskaya, “The weapon of your victories. Psychology of influence and persuasion” by R. Cialdini and O. James. These titles have brought a huge number of circulations and worldwide recognition to their authors. The selling title is not copied from others, it is important to create it yourself so that it is rightfully considered special and attractive. To create it, choose your theme and pick up associations from everyday life to it. And you might get something like this: “Don’t eat this book. Fast Food and fattening America” by M. Spurlock, “Dolphins of Capitalism” by D. Sokolov-Mitrich.

Alliteration and assonance

These artistic means consist in the repetition of sounds similar in pronunciation to give a special melody and expressiveness. The presence of onomatopoeia in the title can also cause readers aesthetic pleasure. This technique can be traced in the title of M. Priken’s publication “Kribbeln im Kopf”. Interestingly, the translators who translated this book into Russian tried to keep the alliteration in the title. Thus, the book in Russian has the name “Geyser in the Head”, which makes it selling on the territory of another state.

Oppositions and language game

Unexpected combinations of incongruous words are a favorite technique of many writers, which has recently been used more and more often. Examples are such publications as “Saint, Surfer and Director” by R. Sharma, “Differentiate or Die” by J. Trout S. Rivkin, “Content, Marketing and Rock and Roll” by D. Kaplunov. Try and come up with something more provocative.

Breaking of stable phrases, including phraseological units

This technique is quite shocking and can arouse the interest of a huge number of readers, for example, it is used in the title of the book by E. Jacobs “He is healthy to death.” Despite the fact that the publication has nothing to do with business or marketing, you must agree that the title really does not leave anyone indifferent.

Originality. Are there details in your title that indicate the relevance and value of the publication?

Clarifying details, such as numbers, can inspire the reader’s confidence in your publication. In addition, they allow you to structure information: “An idea for a million. 100 ways to start your own business” by Yu. Mitin and M. Khomich, “Express marketing. 120 proven ways to raise sales” by A. Levitas, “Direct Marketing. 99 secrets of success” by Z. Fegele. In these headlines, the numbers give the headline clarity and persuasiveness.

In addition, this technique allows you to attract the reader, indicating the period of time after which he will be able to get the expected result. For example, “Build your business. From an idea to money in 3 weeks” by M. Dashkiev and P. Osipova.

After all, peculiar headlines provide the reader with a choice. He can choose the publication of a specific author or publisher, based on the available resources: “MBA in 10 days. The most important of the programs of the world’s leading business schools” S. Silbiger, “MBA for a day. Everything you could learn at an elite business school… If only you had the time!” by S. Stralzer.

By applying numbers, your title will surely become a winning one.

Conciseness. How to write a title briefly and clearly?

In the title of the book, you can describe in a huge number of words everything that you want to state in it, and you can achieve the same goal with just one word, as such writers have done in their books: “Logo” by B. Gardner, “Advertising” by F. Jeffkins, “Symbol” by A. Hyland. For example, the second book has a pocket format. It shows all the logos that are included in the LogoLounge collection. The conciseness of the title should correspond to the conciseness and clarity of the entire book.

A short name will always be more expressive than a detailed one. After all, it is on this one word that the reader will concentrate before reading the book. But it is important to adhere to such criteria:

• Uniqueness. Your publication with a concocted concise title should be only one in its subject matter, hosted on a specific platform.
• Accuracy. This condition is extremely important to observe when using metaphors in the title. For example, your publication is called “To the point!”, but how to understand which topic it belongs to: business, marketing or politics? In this case, you can’t do without clarifications.

Accentuation. How to write headlines with subheadings?

Adding subheadings is a clever trick that is used to clarify the topic, accentuate important words and enhance the effect on the reader. This trick can be traced in the following examples: “Right on the bull’s-eye! How to get customers from social networks quickly and cheaply” S. Shcherbakov, “Upgrade thinking. A look at business from a height of 10,000 meters” P. Kordoka, “Pit. How to learn to get out and become a winner” S. Godin. With such formulations, readers will not have unnecessary questions about the content.

Subheadings allow you to include a variety of metaphors, which can also be traced in the above examples. The use of metaphors, the combination of short and long headlines will certainly bring you closer to success.

Dialogue. Does the reader have the opportunity to enter into a dialogue with the title?

Talk to readers in a language they understand, creating accessible headlines (“More money from your business” by A. Levitas, “Never give up!” by J. Aiken, “How to become a businessman?” by O. Tinkov). These headings are clear to absolutely every reader. If he is really interested in this topic, then he will certainly read your material.

But if you have difficulties in creating a simple idea, then you can use such templates:

• Idea. Touch the main needs of your audience: comfort, physiological aspects (nutrition, sleep, health), recognition, etc.
• Form. It should be characterized by conciseness.
• Style. Use forms of the conversational genre: “And nerds do business 1 +2.” M. Kotina, “To hell with everything! Take it and do it!” by R. Branson, “Think big and don’t slow down!” by D. Trump. There is no doubt that the use of reduced-colloquial vocabulary in the title will be able to make your publication successful.
• Morphology. Use the correct verbs, in particular the forms of the imperative mood, in any case they will be win-win.

The use of verbal nouns (“earning” instead of “earning”) may be successful. This technique was used by V. Naumov in the title of his book “The Psychology of making Money”.

Search. Are there common search queries in the header?

Adding the correct search keys to the header will increase traffic to the landing page of your site or microblog. And already there, visitors will be able to read or save your publication to their device.

When choosing books in Internet resources, pay attention to the frequency with which keywords are used in titles and subheadings, which allows you to increase search traffic.

Combining ideas. How many suggested techniques did you use when creating the name?

As you have already understood, a considerable number of writers use various techniques to create a title. This is necessary in order to make the title selling and “working” for its author. Consider the title of M. Batyrev “45 tattoos of a manager. The rules of the Russian leader”. This name is characterized by:

• Originality (the presence of numbers).
• Accentuation (presence of a subtitle).
• Metaphorical (it’s hard to imagine a leader with a huge number of tattoos all over his body).
• Positioning (targeting knowledgeable managers and managers).
• Targeting (targeting managers in Russia).
• Simplicity of the language.

In conclusion, it can be noted that there is no perfect title, you can create a considerable number of new, interesting and selling ones. We are sure that now you know exactly how to write headlines so that they do not leave anyone indifferent and lead you to mind-blowing success.