Here’s How You Can Write Better Headlines, According to Claude Hopkins
By: Nick Nolan
Tags: Copywriting, Marketing, Headlines, Better Marketing, Writing Tips

Photo by Jay Skyler on Unsplash

Here’s How You Can Write Better Headlines, According to Claude Hopkins

If you don’t know who Claude Hopkins is, I understand. He was born 155 years ago (1866), and he died in 1932.

Now you might be wondering what you can learn about writing headlines from someone who never touched a computer keyboard. Haven’t things changed in the past 100 years? Even the past 10 years?

Hasn’t marketing and advertising changed since the early 1900s?

Don’t people have much shorter attention spans?

Not really. Claude Hopkins had different goals — for example, he’d want to get people to read a newspaper ad rather than an article on Medium. But I’d say those two are more similar than you think.

And people still had short attention spans in the early 1900s. No one was reading every line of text when they opened up their newspaper. They were doing the same thing you are — skimming for value.

To discover what they wanted — value — they’d look for the attention-grabbing headlines. Irresistible headlines.

People do the same exact thing when they’re on the Medium homepage.

They scan and look for the titles that sound the most interesting and inspiring. They only click on the articles that they need to read.

The 5–10 words you put at the top of your article determine whether someone will click on your article or not. Your headlines make or break your articles.

I can’t think of a better person to learn from than Claude Hopkins. David Ogilvy — another brilliant, world-renowned copywriter said Mr. Hopkins was, “The father of modern advertising” which simply means we should be paying attention to his advice.

These headline tips are from Claude Hopkins’ book, Scientific Advertising. When you have time, you can (and should) read the entire book here: ScientificAdvertising.com

Tip #1 - Use your headlines as a filter

You might think you want to reach everyone and get as many views as possible. That shouldn’t your goal at all.

Your goal should be to reach the right people. The right people want to hear what you’re saying. They’re your ideal readers, and your headlines act as a filter to catch the right people and filter out the rest.

The purpose of a headline is to pick out people you can interest. You wish to talk to someone in a crowd. So the first thing you say is, “Hey there, Bill Jones” to get the right person’s attention. So it is in an advertisement. What you have will interest certain people only, and for certain reasons. You care only for those people. Then create a headline which will hail those people only. Quote from Scientific Advertising

Imagine you walk into a grocery store and scream, “HEY!” as loud as you can.

You’re going to attract some attention, but it will only last a moment. People might stare at you for a second, and then they’re going to go on about their business.

You weren’t specific at all, so in an attempt to attract a big crowd, you successfully attracted no one.

Not everyone is going to read your article — and that’s how it should be.

Tip #2 - Show people the value

Reading your article isn’t free. People pay to read your words with their most valuable asset: time.

People are hurried. The average person worth cultivating has too much to read. They skip threefourths of the reading matter which they pay to get. They are not going to read your business talk unless you make it worth their while and let the headline show it. Quote from Scientific Advertising

When I first started blogging, I wrote awful headlines.

I tried to come up with clever titles, but they didn’t show people the value. The headlines I wrote didn’t give people a hint about what the article was about. I’d write headlines like, “Climbing the Mountain” or “Cross Over to the Other Side” which doesn’t give you any details. And the article wasn’t anything related to climbing or traveling.

Your headlines should be like little warm pieces of garlic bread that an Italian restaurant offers passersby. They’re giving people a sample of the food — a reason to go inside and enjoy a full meal. Give people a real sample of what your article is about, and why it’s worth reading.

Look at these headlines from the best articles in #Marketing: