Are you avoiding learning about headlines because you’re not a copywriter? Better not, because no matter if you’re doing a PowerPoint presentation, a sales call, or writing an email, you’ll need this information. The last thing you need is a headline that will go glug glug and bring down your marketing strategy with it.

Okay, now that I have your attention, please fasten your seat belts as we ride the roller coaster ride into the science of how to recognize the power behind the headline. Discover for yourself the precise psychological reasons why we are so drawn to headlines.

How we gonna play the headline game

Let me play tour guide. First, I’ll give you three sets of headlines that really work. I will identify the trigger in the headline. Then I’ll tell you the psychological reasons WHY they work. Right after, take control and implement these headlines into your marketing strategy. To understand? Either? Let’s go.

Psychological Trigger No. 1

based on questions vs. Statement-based headlines

Do you make these mistakes in English?

Do you know where you fail in your marketing strategy?

Is Internet Marketing Driving You Crazy?

Ladies and gentlemen… Introducing the Question Based Headline! A headline that outperforms a simple statement-based headline in daylight. When tested, a question like Do you know where you fail in your marketing strategy? receives much more attention than This is where you are failing in your marketing strategy. Which would appeal more to you: No problem paying your bills or Having difficulty paying your bills?

So why does the brain go haywire when faced with a headline based on a question? The reason is simple. Questions irritate the brain and cause the gray cells to do a neurological dance. The mere sight of a question mark forces your brain to want to know more.

Do you have a statement in your headline? You do, huh. Well, change it to a question, and then move on to psychological trigger #2.

Psychological Trigger No. 2

problem-based vs. Solution Based Headlines

Are you struggling to get ahead in your small business?

Is the lack of speed of your computer driving you crazy?

Is your marketing strategy missing a vital link?

Now that you know the power of questions, these are double-whammy headlines! Not only do they make your brain buzz like a wind-up toy, but they also bring out a pain in your brain. If your brain is doing mental aerobics right now, it’s because these headlines are doing you a real disservice and you’re the right target audience.

You identify with these problems and are willing to solve them. The brain is fixated on problem solving. It’s a basic survival instinct that kicks in. For thousands of years, the brain has moonlighted.

While his primary job is to make sure the rest of his body parts do what they’re supposed to do, his secondary job is to keep you alive. Therefore, he actively looks for possible problems that he might have, and when he sees one in the headline, he says, “That’s for me!” and goes directly to the headline based on issues.

However, look at most of the advertising around you. Everything is based on solutions. You see it, then you don’t see it. Recycle your solution-based title into a good problem-based power pack.

Done? Ok, let’s shout psychological trigger No. 3.

Psychological Trigger No. 3

Curious vs. Not Curious Headlines

Do you notice the title of this article? It has the word these in it. This implies that there are certain psychological triggers. Now, how the hell will you know what they are if you don’t start reading this article? Sure, you’re the living guru of marketing headlines, but even you can’t be 100 percent sure.

You’re going to take a look, you think. A little glimpse. And you do, except he’s a very slippery slide once you get on it, my friend.

A skillful communicator knows that he or she must get the curiosity factor to move luggage and baggage into their headline. It’s the key to literally absorbing an audience. So it really depends on the quality of the content, the flow, and your ability to keep your audience mesmerized.

Curious headlines work because the brain is intensely curious. Tell a person not to look behind the door and they will want to look. Tell them they can’t have something and want to know why. Analysis is part of Mr. Brain’s job.

Every question must be answered, otherwise it bangs on your head like a jackhammer with questions that incessantly ask Why? Why? Why? (Read the power of why) When you create a curiosity factor, you are literally turning on all the lights in your customer’s brain.

Headlines with a HOW in them are typical curiosity-driven headlines. They imply a problem you might have that you need to solve. And to prove my point, look at the next line and see how her eye goes wham, right on it!

How to build headlines without doing a full
clutter of things
Let me show you how I would do it. For example, I wrote a lot of potential headlines for this article. These were the four finalists:

1) Psychological Reasons Why These Headlines Work Like Magic

2) What precise psychological reasons make these headlines work like magic?

3) Is your marketing strategy missing these precise psychological triggers?

4) Are your headlines missing these precise psychological triggers?

Let’s put these guys on a couch, okay?

1) Psychological Reasons Why These Headlines Work Like Magic

This headline had only one of the above characteristics. He had a curiosity factor. However, he lacked a question and certainly got a big zero on the problem factor. Needless to say, he soon receded into oblivion.

2) What precise psychological reasons make these headlines work like magic?

Ooh, this one was pretty powerful. He had the question. He was full of curiosity, but he fell flat on his face in auditing the problem. Goodbye, Mr. Headline.

3) Is your marketing strategy missing these precise psychological factors?

He scored on all points. Curiosity, problems, and questions sat happily together, hoping that I would be as pleased as punch. I was, until I noticed a small discrepancy. It was attractive to the wrong target audience.

This headline would attract people interested in marketing strategy, not headlines. They walked in, found themselves in the wrong room, had a glass of wine, and ran away. He needed people to stay for the party. I needed people interested in headlines. People like you. Inevitably, I had to refine it a bit. And this is what occurred to me.

4) Are your headlines missing these precise psychological triggers?

Personally, I think this was the most powerful of all. If he were a man, he would let him marry my daughter (if he had one) and give him my blessings. Not only did this headline encapsulate all of the above triggers, it was also accurately positioned. He went to a niche audience and got all the attention from him.

What does Abraham Lincoln have to do with headlines?
Abe apparently said, “If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first four sharpening the axe.” The title of it is what you need to spend most of your time sharpening.

You see, people are always in their own world, thinking about their own problems. If you don’t snap them out of their reverie, you don’t have the slightest chance of them buying whatever it is you’re selling.

There’s also another dimension to this razor-sharp concert

You cannot be completely satisfied with the headline simply if it fits these three parameters. That is science, not art. The art is to get into the brain of your customers. You will find that a slightly different headline will bring twenty to two thousand times better returns without any change in content.

The only way to know which one works best is to test the headlines. The test is not as difficult as you think. Put it in an email and send it to a dozen friends and colleagues. You’ll soon get a pattern and probably some valuable feedback. Take it. It will help you carve out a headline that will really grab your customer’s attention.

Do you need all three psychological triggers to work at once?
No, you don’t. A headline can work perfectly fine with one or two of the above psychological triggers.

In life, three can be a crowd, but in headlines, the more the merrier. Use the power of headlines in your marketing strategy, your PowerPoint presentations, sales calls, emails, newsletters, and even articles like these.

Better headlines mean better results. Simple logic, huh?