Journalists’ inboxes are often full of emails pitching a variety of different stories. As a beginner in the PR industry, I am realizing with every pitch I send that getting their attention is anything but easy. So the question becomes, how do you get them to read your pitch? How do I make my email the email worth opening? The answer: a strong subject line, aka a good title. It needs to be something that is not only informative but also intriguing. A plain title will get you nowhere when you’re competing with every other PR professional. Below are four types of headlines or titles, inspired by PR Daily’s “8 successful headlines—and the psychology behind them,” that are sure to capture the attention of a journalist.
Questions: Questions pique curiosity and automatically get your brain thinking. The best types of questions will refer to something the reader can relate to, empathize with, or would like to know the answer to. This is one easy way to be provocative: Ask a question that is bold and dramatic. One thing to avoid is asking a bland question to which virtually everyone knows the answer.
Numbers: People like predictability and people like proven arguments. Numbers provide both. Numbers tell a journalist exactly what they are getting into and provide them with solid evidence around which to build a piece. Make sure when offering the journalist a bold statement that you’ve already done the work and have the data to support it.
How-to: “How-to’s” also pique curiosity and inform the reader that there is the potential to learn something new. This formation will deliver information in an organized fashion, making it simple and direct. Another way to make a “how-to” headline more interesting is to couple it with speed. For example, “The five-minute guide to reorganizing your email.” Our culture is obsessed with rapidity, so offering tips and ones that are efficient makes the pitch’s content even more exciting.
Negatives: In a study of 65,000 headlines, Outbrain compared headlines with positive superlatives, negatives superlatives and no superlatives. The results showed that headlines with superlatives did 29 percent worse than headlines with no superlatives. In comparison, headlines with negative superlatives did 30 percent better than those without superlatives. There is clearly something to be said about presenting the “worst” news.
A strong subject line could be the difference between a journalist taking interest in your story or moving it to their junk email. Dedicate thought to the title and grab the attention of your reader. Do you have other kinds of headlines you’ve found effective?
Tags: headlines, Intriguing, pitching, Standing out, Titles Filed under: Execution, Media, Strategy