Jul 14 2008
It Won’t Kill Your Cat, But It Will Get Their Attention
Your first job as a writer is to get the attention of your audience. Until you do that – until you make them read what you’ve written – you can’t achieve whatever objectives you’re trying to accomplish.
One of the best ways to capture readers’ interest is to make them so curious that they have to go on reading. The headline of one of the most successful print advertisements in history read something like, “Everyone Laughed When He Sat Down.” The ad was successful because the readers who saw the headline had to know why everyone laughed when the guy sat down. And they had to read the ad to get the answer.
You can use curiosity to pull your readers into your text in almost every kind of writing you do. Need to write an e-mail to tell employees to turn in their reimbursement reports by Friday? Try this subject line: “If you wait until Saturday, your money is ours.” That should grab more attention than, “Reimbursement reports due Friday.”
Magazine writers, fiction writers, poets, even journalists use this technique frequently. Give it a shot.
Thanks for the tip! I’ve been searching the internet day and night for advice on headlines and how to drive people to a website. I will add your advice to my list and let others know about your website. Thanks again!