Charlie Meyerson's presentation to the Orbit Media Studios Wine & Web session in Chicago, Oct. 25, 2016.

1. Charlie Meyerson
linkedin.com/in/cmeyerson
facebook.com/meyerson
@Meyerson on Twitter
Charlie@MeyersonStrategy.com
The art of
the headline

2. So …
Why should you listen
to a radio guy?

3. Because …
For radio, the
competition’s
been a click or
tap away
—almost since
the start.
fredsuniquefurniture.co
m/Good-Used-
Furniture/Appliances/i-
FmcR7Hb

4. Now, it’s the world we all live in.
Whether you’re selling news, or
shoes, or podcasts …
… the competition is a tap or
a swipe away.

5. And in this world …
Email is one key.
How do you gain, keep and grow
an audience?

6. But before we push ahead …
Skeptics will ask:
Does this work?

7. Yes, it works.
I learned what I know
by launching and running
the Chicago Tribune’s
email services for 11 years.

8. ... sent to tens of thousands of subscribers
… often achieved Tribune Co. editorial newsletter-
leading 60 percent clickthrough rates
–60 clicks per 100 recipients.
Yes, it works.

9. Yes, it works.
A major professional organization that
followed the advice you’re about to get (after
I was embedded with the team for four days)
—a site that previously hadn’t strung
together two successive months of record
traffic—achieved record pageviews ...
• for the next 5 straight months.
• for 10 of the following 12 months.

10. Main factor driving the increase:
Stronger headlines
On the website.
And, primarily, in email.

11. But
isn’t
email
dead?

12. Do you …
• Check Facebook, Twitter and email regularly?
• Check all three at least once a day?
• When you check them, scroll all the way back to
the last item you checked …
On Twitter?
On Facebook?
On email?

13. The joy of email
• It summons at will your most devoted users.
• … who then share their interests.
• It awaits their attention, unlike the rivers of
Twitter and Facebook content.
• It’s fixed, unlike Web site front pages – and so,
an easier gauge of elements’ popularity,
especially with …
• Heat maps, or click maps, which make
patterns easy to spot.

14. But to get that intel from email …
You need people to
open it.

15. And the key to doing that?
Good, old-
fashioned
writing.

16. Writing for the web has a
lot in common with writing
for broadcasting–writing
for the ear.

17. Secrets to getting people not to tune out—for
radio and, it turns out, just about anything on
the Web:
• Omit needless words.
—Will Strunk, The Elements of Style, 1918.
• Twitter.
• Texting.
• Tiny smartphone screens that truncate subject lines.
Need we say more?

18. Secrets to getting people not to tune out—for
radio and, it turns out, just about anything on
the Web:
• Make your most interesting word or
phrase the first element—the first word
of your headline or subject line or post—and
let your writing flow from there.
meyersonstrategy.com/2007/04/good-radio-writing.html

19. But what are the most interesting words?
• Develop a sense of the wider world’s
priorities by checking sites like Google Trends:
google.com/trends/
• And develop a sense of your audience’s
priorities by monitoring clicks.

20. Would you do this?

21. Many companies
do that.

22. Common mistakes
Echoing From field in Subject

23. Common mistakes
Repeating Subject from day to day

24. Common mistakes
No
interesting words first
in Subject

25. Compare these dispatches to those in the
previous screens.
Note how few words you get here.
If the future is mobile, now more than ever,
every word – every syllable – counts.
Strunk & White: Omit needless words.
Which would you click?

26. What’s different about the words in these groups
of subject lines?
Strunk and White: “Use definite, specific, concrete language.”

27. What words interest
your audience?
Watch your clicks.

28. Are you out of sync?
Little-clicked items among more-clicked items.

29. Are you out of sync?
More-clicked items among less-clicked items.

30. Headlines that work
Two kinds:
• Search-engine-optimized (SEO) headlines
(headlines for robots*).
Good for page-level placement.
• “Curiosity gap”-optimized headlines
(headlines for people*).
Good for front-page and email placement, for
print publications ... and for social media
(Twitter, Facebook).
*Andy Crestodina: orbitmedia.com/blog/write-for-robots-write-for-people/

31. SEO-friendly headlines
• Place the story's most
relevant word or phrase as
close as possible to the start of
the headline.
• Simple, direct. (Use familiar
names.)
• “How to” or “Why” headlines.

32. More Elements of Style:
Use definite, specific, concrete language
—words that put images in your readers’ heads
Regardless of headline or writing style ...
Consider words’ “point value,” which will
vary for each audience.
Created by New York Post veterans: http://
www.amazon.com/University-Games-1520-Man-
Bites/dp/B000087BDT

33. ‘Curiosity gap’
The difference between what you know
and what you want to know
Like The Onion, the editorial team at Upworthy begins with dozens of
headlines and works on them until they create what Mr. [Eli] Pariser
called “a curiosity gap”—a need to know more that prompts the impulse to
click on something.
—David Carr, The New York Times
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/09/two-guys-made-a-web-site-and-this-is-what-they-got/

34. ‘Curiosity gap’ headlines
Assume most people (think they) aren’t
interested.
• Write headlines to engage them, and your core
audience will still be there for you.
• Play down location.
(Except locations well-known to your audience.)
• Play down names.
(Except names well-known to your audience.)
(Use generic nouns for unfamiliar names.)

35. ‘Curiosity gap’ headlines
• Questions:
Who was Deep Throat?
• Ellipses, teases:
Nation’s fattest city is …
• Pull-quotes:
‘Suck it up, wussies’
• BuzzFeed style:
You won’t believe ...
(But be certain to deliver something we won’t believe.)

36. The power of YOU
• Works with SEO-friendly headlines.
• Works with “curiosity gap” headlines.
http://www.theonion.com/
articles/secondperson-
narrative-enthralling-you,
30380/

37. So …
Put it all together and
you get …

38. The most-clicked Internet (or most-read
newspaper) headline ever might be…
—Credit for headline: Paul Muth

39. ... or maybe more so:
WITH A PUPPY

40. One to avoid
—in all kinds of headlines:
• ACRONYMS.
The crack cocaine of headline writing.
Avoid them.
Unless your readers say otherwise.
(And they probably won’t.)
Image: http://www.business2community.com/marketing/42-b2b-marketing-acronyms-and-abbreviations-0192246

41. The case for sentence case
... vs. Title Case for headlines:
• Concrete nouns drive traffic.
• The most concrete concrete nouns are Proper
Nouns.
• So why not make Proper Nouns easier to find?
A demonstration ...

42. Find proper nouns:
Every
word
capitalized

43. Find proper nouns:
Just
proper
nouns
capitalized

44. Anatomy of an email turd
Consider what we see, word for word ...

45. “Unbeatabl...” what?

46. “Oh, that’s what a circular is ...”

47. The bottom line:
Don’t be boring.

48. Charlie Meyerson
linkedin.com/in/cmeyerson
facebook.com/meyerson
@Meyerson on Twitter
Charlie@MeyersonStrategy.com