The need to satisfy curiosity is a powerful motivator, which makes it an essential element for provoking your prospects into reading your message.
Headline Tip #6: Pique Curiosity
There are two primary ways to arouse your reader’s curiosity…
One way is to leave out a key fact (or facts) in your headline the reader needs to know in order to complete the thought. Think of it as a “fill in the blank.”
For example…
“Do You Make These Mistakes In English?”
This headline by Maxwell Sackheim was so effective it ran for some 40 years. Without the curiosity-provoking word “these”, it would have been a flat, boring headline. As it is, the reader must continue in order to answer the question.
“How To” headlines arouse curiosity in the same way because the reader must continue on to discover the answer. Any headline can benefit from this technique, and the most powerful ones use it at least to some extent. (Read the previous headline examples in this blog series to see how leaving out a key fact builds curiosity.)
The other way to pique curiosity is to promise a good story. Gary Halbert was a master at this. One of his most famous headlines was for a weight-loss product:
“Atlanta Housewife Investigated And
Almost Arrested For Losing 73 Pounds.”
Who wouldn’t be tempted to read further?
One word of caution, however: confusion is not the same thing as curiosity. In order for curiosity to work, the headline must be specific or set up a specific scenario. If it’s vague, and the reader isn’t quite sure what you’re talking about, he’s not going to take the bait. (Remember the last tip about specificity.)
Stay tuned for the final element that gives your headline massive “pulling” power.
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