All Posts Tagged With: "headlines"

Over at Copyblogger, Brian Clark had some fun this week with list headlines. Seems every story featured on the cover of a recent issue of PC World featured a list headline. Brian’s a big fan of the technique and has a little exercise for anyone who wants to take part.

Anyway, it just so happens that this week’s Stumbling was jam-packed with sites that feature — you guessed it — list headlines. Let’s get counting, from the most to the fewest:

1. Writing at The Future Buzz, Adam Singer offers “65 Bite-Sized Web Marketing Tips.” The sheer number might seem intimidating, but Adam stays true to his word and keeps his suggestions to single sentences (for the most part), and short ones at that. Lots of useful links.
2. The folks at The Bootstrapping Blog came up with “50 Guerrilla Marketing Tactics You Should Be Using.” Some are a little off the wall — Temporary Tattoos? Sponsor the Homeless? — but most are brilliant. Great suggestions for businesses where cash is at a premium.
3. We all want to know what our competitors are up to, right? But short of breaking in at night or hacking their network, what can you do to get the real goods? FutureNow’s Bryan Eisenberg says there are several strategies, all perfectly legal, to spy on your competition. If you’re comfortable with some esoteric web tools, these look like they could be a lot of fun to play with.
4. Anyone who has read this blog knows I’m a big fan of Google and the awesome tools its provides. Gil’s Method offers “11 Obscure Google Tricks You Didn’t Know Existed.” You can track a UPS package on Google? I didn’t know that!
5. I still admit it: I don’t get Twitter. I’ve looked at it from every direction and just fail to see its usefulness as a marketing tool. But that doesn’t mean other people aren’t taking advantage. Jeff Woelker has come up with “7 Habits of Successful Twitterers.” My mind remains open…

Popularity: 51% [?]

In just the last hour, I’ve read a half dozen blog posts in which the authors opine that copywriters have “a fraction of a second,” “a single moment, “the blink of an eye,” “precious little time,” “no more than a few seconds,” and “only an instant” to catch someone’s attention. I’ve been told that HR people look at resumes for only five seconds, that visitors will leave my website if they are not immediately intrigued, and that people can be turned off by the typeface I use on my blog.

That really puts a lot of a pressure on those of us who make a living communicating. Imagine, having so little time to get people to pay attention. It’s a wonder anything ever gets done.

But is all that really true? Are people so busy they make important decisions that quickly? Will someone turn down an opportunity to get useful advice from an expert because they don’t like the color of his masthead? Will an editor turn down a good story because the headline wasn’t catchy enough?

I don’t think so. At least it’s not that way with me. If it’s something important, I take my time to consider it carefully.

Now, I’m not about to advocate rambling sales letters, off-the-wall color schemes or hard-to-read type.

But I think we can dwell too long on being clever or funny or different and forget that our main goal is to share useful information. Most people do take time to evaluate things of substance that are put in front of them. They are not manic mouse clickers or serial page-turners. Give them more credit than that.

Popularity: 59% [?]