Writing Great Headlines: Don’t Overpromise
November 6th, 2006 by Mike Read more about HeadlinesHere is a test of two headlines that I just wanted to share with you. One headline was more subtle and the other one was a bit more aggressive. It turns out that for the target audience of our client the subtle headline far outsold the more aggressive headline. What was the difference?
Take a look:
Winning headline:
Losing headline:
The results:
Sign-up rate of winning headline: 16.22% (641 visitors)
Sign-up rate of losing headline: 13.15% (502 visitors)
Gain = 23%
The only difference between the two headlines was that in one sub-headline we added the words “Starting Today.” That’s it! However, that alone dropped the sign-up rate from 16% to 13%! So, the next time you write a headline, be cautious and don’t be too pushy, and the results may surprise you.
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About the Author
Prior to MindValley Media, Mike was the Head of New Ventures Strategy at eBay where he conceived of the strategies that led to the investment in Craigslist, the launch of Kijiji.com and the acquisition of Skype.
Mike has an MBA from Stanford and previously worked for the Boston Consulting Group. He is also a certified Google AdWords Professional.
Check out other posts by Mike
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Vishen Lakhiani
I think it all depends on the current product offering. some products could actually benefit from a headline titled “starting today”
I wonder if ’starting today’ may give readers the idea that this is going to be an ongoing and possibly quite long process while the other headline doesn’t imply a time frame at all.