You will be able to write headlines using the how-to, problem, outcome, question and specific-number patterns.
Most people write one headline, look at it for a while, change a word, and publish. The headline is usually the first idea they had, which is usually the same idea everyone else in the category had. Professional copywriters work differently. They use a handful of patterns that have kept working across decades of ads, emails and articles, fill each one with the reader's own words, and then choose.
Patterns are not formulas that write the headline for you. They are starting shapes. Each one tells you what to point at, and your voice-of-customer file from lesson 1.4 tells you what to say. Here are five that cover most of what a small business needs.
The how-to headline promises a method. It works because the reader can see straight away what they will be able to do after reading.
"How to prepare your child for PSLE maths without nightly arguments"
Look at what makes that one work. It names the task, preparing for PSLE maths, and then the condition the reader cares about, without nightly arguments. The second half came from parents in Priya's file who wrote about homework turning into a fight. Without it, "How to prepare your child for PSLE maths" is a headline a hundred websites already use.
How-to headlines suit blog posts, guides, videos and emails that teach something. They suit sales pages less well, unless the page really does show a method.
The problem headline states the reader's situation so plainly that they recognise it before they decide whether to keep reading.
"Still paying bank fees on an account you barely use"
The word "still" does a lot of work. It suggests the reader has known about this for a while and not got round to fixing it. Problem headlines work best for readers who already feel the problem, which in the language of lesson 2.1 means they are aware of the problem but may not know the solution.
For Priya, a problem headline from her file might be "Knows it at home, goes blank in the exam". She did not invent a word of it. Three parents had written almost exactly that.
The outcome headline describes the result the reader wants, with enough detail that they can picture it.
"Check her own working before she hands in the paper" is an outcome a parent can see. "Achieve academic excellence" is an outcome nobody can picture, which is why it is on so many websites and persuades nobody.
The rule with outcomes is strict: promise only what you can deliver. A time frame or a number makes an outcome sharper, as in "Your custom cake, delivered in Punggol the day before the party". It also makes it a claim you have to be able to keep. "Improve two grades in one term" might be true for some students and false for most. If you cannot back an outcome for a typical customer, describe a smaller one that you can. Lesson 3.3 covers the rules here.
A question headline invites the reader to answer in their head. It works when the honest answer is yes.
"Does your child understand the method or just copy it?" works for a parent who has wondered exactly that. "Do you want your child to succeed?" fails, because the answer is obvious and the reader feels talked down to. "Are you making these mistakes with your CPF?" is risky, because many readers will simply answer no and move on.
Test a question headline by answering it as your reader would. If the honest answer is "yes, that's me", keep it. If the answer is "no", "obviously" or "I don't know", rewrite it as a statement.
Numbers catch the eye because they promise something finite and concrete. "Three questions to ask before you pay for tuition" tells the reader exactly how much they are signing up for.
The numbers have to be real. "Five mistakes parents make with P5 maths" must contain five mistakes, each worth reading. A number that describes a claim, such as "312 families taught since 2019" (an example figure), must be true and checkable. Precise numbers you can back are believed more readily than round, impressive ones, a point lesson 3.2 returns to. Invented or inflated numbers are worse than none.
The patterns give you the shape. The customer gives you the words. Take one phrase from your voice-of-customer file and run it through all five patterns, and you will see how many directions one line can take.
Starting from "goes blank in exams", Priya wrote these:
How to: How to help a child who goes blank in exams Problem: Knows the work at home, goes blank in the exam Outcome: Walk into the paper calm enough to show what she knows Question: Does your child know the work but go blank in the exam? Number: Three reasons children go blank in maths exams, and what helps
Not all five are good. The outcome headline is long and a little soft. The question works because parents who wrote that phrase would answer yes. The point is that one phrase gave her five real options in a few minutes, and none of them sounds like a generic tuition website.
Your activity asks for four headlines in each pattern, twenty in all, for one product. Start every set from a phrase in your file rather than from your own description of the product, and expect the first one or two in each set to be the obvious ones.
Write four headlines in each of the five patterns for one product, using at least one phrase from your voice-of-customer file in each set.
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