FUNCTIONS OF THE HEADLINE

  Headline can perform four different tasks:

1. Get attention.

2. Select the audience.

3. Deliver a complete message.

 4. Draw the reader into the body copy. 

 

1.GETTING ATTENTION

We’ve already seen how headlines get attention by appealing to the reader’s self-interest.

Here are a few more examples of this type of headline:

1.      Headlines that give news often use words such as new, discover, introducing, announcing, now, it’s here, at last, and just arrived

2.      If you can legitimately use the word free in your headline, do so. Free is the most powerful word in the copywriter’s vocabulary. Everybody wants to get something for free.

3.      Other powerful attention getting words include how to, why, sale, quick, easy, bargain, last chance, guarantee, results, proven, and save. Do not avoid these words because other copywriters use them with such frequency. Other copywriters use these words because they work

2. SELECTING THE AUDIENCE:

The headline can select the right audience for advertisement and screen out those readers who are not potential customers. A headline that does a good job of selecting the right audience for the product:

3.DELIVERING A COMPLETE MESSAGE

According to David Ogilvy, four out of five readers will read the headline and skip the rest of the ad. If this is the case, it pays to make a complete statement in your headline. That way, the ad can do some selling to those 80 percent of readers who read headlines only.

4.DRAWING THE READER INTO THE BODY COPY

Many products—automobiles, computers, books, records, home study programs, life insurance, and investments —require that the reader be given a lot of information. That information appears in the body copy, and for the ad to be effective, the headline must   compel the reader to read this copy. To draw the reader into the body copy, you must arouse his or her curiosity. You can do this with humour, or intrigue, or mystery. You can ask a question or make a provocative statement. You can promise a reward, news, or useful information.