You will be able to write a large set of headlines for one page and choose three using clear criteria and reader feedback.
Most pages go live with whichever headline the writer thought of first. That line is usually the plain, expected one, the kind a competitor could put on their own page without changing a word, and you have no way of knowing whether something better existed because nothing else was ever written. Writing many headlines for the same page deals with both problems: the length of the list pushes you past the obvious ideas, and scoring plus a few real readers gives you a fair way to pick between them.
Twenty-five headlines for a single page or post can sound excessive, but it is the right number. The first ten or so tend to be ideas anyone in your field would reach for. When those run out, you have to go back to your research for material, and the strongest headlines usually come from that stretch.
Before you start, have three things in front of you: your voice-of-customer file, the five patterns from lesson 2.2, and a page or post you are about to write. Writing and scoring take roughly 30 minutes. You will also need time afterwards to get your shortlist in front of three people.
Work quickly. Keep every headline you write, even the weak ones, and hold off on judging any of them. Make sure each of the lesson 2.2 patterns appears at least twice in your list. At least ten of the headlines should begin with a phrase copied word for word from your voice-of-customer file. If you stall, pick a single phrase from the file and rewrite it five ways: as a how-to, a problem, an outcome, a question and a number.
Priya runs a tuition centre teaching P5 maths (she is an invented example). She did this for the landing page of her free trial lesson. Her opening ten included "Free trial maths lesson", "Try our P5 maths class for free" and "Quality maths tuition near you". At about headline 12 she turned to her voice-of-customer file, and the lines got better: "Knows it at home, goes blank in the exam", "Groups of six, so the teacher checks every child's working" and "Try one Saturday class before you pay for a term".
Give each headline a mark of 1, 2 or 3 against four criteria, then add them up for a total out of 12.
Clarity: a stranger reading it once would understand it. Specificity: it points to something real, like a person, a situation, a number or a time. Relevance: your voice-of-customer file shows the target reader cares about this. Believability: the reader would believe it, and you are able to back it up.
Use the totals to rank your headlines against one another. They are not a fixed measure of quality, and someone else scoring your list would land on slightly different numbers, which does not matter. The scoring keeps you from picking the line you are proudest of when another one would do the job better.
Priya's scores for three of her headlines, listed as clarity, specificity, relevance, believability, show how this works. "Quality maths tuition near you" came to 3, 1, 1, 2 = 7. Anyone can understand it, but any centre could use it, and since every centre claims quality, the word gives a parent no reason to pick hers. "Help your child reach their potential" came to 2, 1, 1, 1 = 5. It is vague, and none of the parents in her file ever mentioned potential. "Try one Saturday class before you pay for a term" came to 3, 3, 3, 3 = 12, because it speaks to the objection her file raised most often: parents worrying about paying for classes their child might hate.
Take the five headlines with the highest totals and show them to three people from your target group. That means actual potential customers, or people very close to them. Your business partner and your mother are not suitable. Put all five in front of each person at once instead of showing them one by one. Ask which one they would click and why. While they answer, say nothing and write down what they say in their own words. Avoid explaining any of the headlines, and keep your own favourite to yourself.
Pay more attention to the reasons people give than to the headline they pick. Readers sometimes spot a weakness running through all five lines that you missed because you were too close to the page.
Priya asked two parents from her estate and one from a school group she was part of. The first parent chose "Knows it at home, goes blank in the exam" and said "that's literally my son". The second went for the Saturday trial line: "I don't want to commit to three months". The third pointed out that none of the five said the class was for P5, which Priya had not noticed.
Choose three headlines. Each can have its own job: one heads the page, and the others can become ad variations or an email subject line. Beside each choice, write one sentence explaining why you picked it, using your readers' words where you can.
Priya used "Try one Saturday class before you pay for a term" as the landing page headline, and because of the third parent's comment she put "For P5 and P6" on the line above it. "Knows it at home, goes blank in the exam" went to an ad for parents who are still deciding whether to get tuition at all. Her third pick, "Groups of six, so the teacher checks every child's working", is for parents weighing her centre against a home tutor.
Keep the 22 you did not choose. Copy them into your voice-of-customer file under a heading called "headlines". A line that does not suit a landing page may suit another reader at another stage of deciding, and some of these may turn into ad variations in lesson 4.4 or subject lines in lesson 4.5.
Your finished work for this exercise is 25 headlines, a score for each, notes from three readers in their own words, and three choices with a reason beside each. Start with the page you most need to improve, because the three headlines you choose will go straight into the work in modules 4 and 5.
Write 25 headlines for one landing page or post. Score them on the four criteria, test your top five with three people, and pick three.
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