1 - Find one (1) headline that you came across recently and thought it was great. You are to explain why it resonated with you. Please ensure that you base your answers only topics discussed in class. Meaning, based on course content discussed in class, you are to tie specific elements that we discussed constituted a “good” headline or “elements” of a good headline and how this specific element is referenced in the headline that resonated with you. (6 Marks)
I am heading to Arizona for vacation and don’t have very much time before our flight takes off. Usually, I am quite active in the gym consistently but with school being as overwhelming and busy as it has been, I have not had much time to focus on myself and prioritize the gym as I usually do. With that being said, I am quite health conscious, and I am very familiar with tactics and tools for weight loss, but with my time frame quickly coming to an end, I decided to search for weight loss tactics. I found many results as it is quite a popular search, but the headline that caught my eye was “20 tips on losing weight in 2 weeks.”
This headline was clear and to the point. It did not require me to think about the headline or wonder what it was telling me, I immediately knew what I would be getting once I read the article. A few others in this search query confused me and made me wonder what it was referring to other than weight loss. This automatically deterred me from their site and sent me to competitors’ articles. Others that popped up in the search engine were long and made me question what content would be provided once I clicked on it. Unlike the others, this headline can be taken in and out of the desired context and consumers will understand what the article is about and what they will get when they click on it.
The second factor that caught my attention was the number – 20. They were not only providing me with a few tips for weight loss but twenty. As mentioned in our lectures, “the best headlines include numbers.” Twenty facts compared to a simple few will allow me to intake multiple pieces of information that can help me lose weight and incorporate which ones I choose all at once. Instead of an article focusing on one or two pieces of information that they talk about in detail – this is a personal preference of mine, also because of what this specific search was. When it comes to losing weight, the majority of the time the information provided requires you to buy stuff, work harder, or have extra time to spare. Where I am not able to buy stuff and do not have time to spare, providing me with 20 tips will allow me to choose which tips I want to partake in in order to help me lose weight quicker.
Most importantly, this headline had my ideal time frame in it. The timeline they provided me with (two weeks) was a key component as to why I chose this headline over all of the others. This told me they were not only providing me with 20 tips but that the tips they provided me with could lead to me losing weight in TWO WEEKS. This was ultimately the determining factor in me selecting this article over others. It was the closest result that directly related to my search query, and it included the most important part of my search query – a quick timeline I could potentially lose weight in.
Furthermore, the word “tips” told me it was not promising I could lose weight in 2 weeks like most would – usually those ones are trying to get you to buy something that they “swear” works, but instead, it was promising me tips that could help me lose weight in 2 weeks. It is not giving me a recipe to a fancy green drink, it is not trying to sell me something or promising me false hope but, it’s simply providing me with tips I can choose to implement or not.
As mentioned above, this headline was clear and concise and remained under 60 characters – “the Ideal length” as spoke about in class. “20 tips” to me meant the results would be short and to the point, meaning, It wouldn’t require a lot of depth or reading in order to get their point across. With that being said, it gave me the assumption that the content would be laid out in point form and lists, making it easier to scan. As talked about in class, we don’t enjoy reading, especially large blocks of text, instead in is our nature to scan – perfect for me. Once I decided I was intrigued by this headline, the pre-head further showed me that the content was in fact laid out in point form. It provided a short glimpse of the content on the page in a list of numbers, leading me to choose this headline over all of the others.