Pulling the Rabbit out of the Hat
Laurel and Hardy
Batman and Robin
Superman
Which is the odd one one out?
Yup, it’s the guy who can’t handle Kryptonite, of course. If Superman is in trouble, there’s almost no one to rescue him. But Hardy or Batman can get in trouble all they want, and they have a nice partner to back them up.
The same applies to the double-whammy headline.
A double whammy headline is a headline with two partners. And like most partnerships, one partner takes on a slightly bigger role. So let’s take some examples:
Why every small business needs sales analysis: and how to complete it in 20 minutes
Why quarterly analysis can increase business by 50%: the three key steps
The Rumiddha Method: 4 steps to achieve a profitable forum online
The Keyboard Wheel (and how it helps you decide the right color for your website)
Why small businesses don’t grow—and how to use autoresponders to increase business by 27% every year
The first part in some of these headlines could almost stand alone.
Why every small business needs sales analysis
Why quarterly analysis can increase business by 50%
The Rumiddha Method
The Keyboard Wheel
Why small businesses don’t grow
And yes, some of them really are complete by themselves.
Technically, that’s the goal. To write one part so well, that the first part is already a complete headline.
Yes, all by itself.
It could steal the show without having the add-on.
But what if the first part is not that complete?
In the examples above, the “Rumiddha Method” and “Keyboard Wheel” tell you nothing. But they pull you in. Their job is not to be complete. It’s to sucker you in while the second half of the headline knocks you out!
And that’s how the double-whammy headline works.
It uses double the power to get your attention. And once it’s gotten your attention, you can’t help but want to click to read the rest of the article. And of course, you can use colons, question marks, brackets or the em dash— a whole lot of punctuation marks to create these double-whammy headlines.
But should you use double-whammy headlines all the time?
Should you take your umbrella out all the time? Of course not. You can write a headline like this:
Why the most attractive headline may not result in the greatest conversion
And that headline, despite not being double-whammy, works perfectly well. But from time to time you want to mix up your headlines with a bit of power as well. And that’s when double-whammy headlines are perfect.
But they can also be too, um, overdone.
You can try so hard to stuff your headline with terms that it may be impossible to work out what you’re saying. So yes, double-whammy headlines can be too whammy, and end up being clammy.
Why focusing on advanced placement guarantees career failure (and how to avoid that fate while still getting great grades)
You may scrunch up your eyebrows in confusion, but it’s common to see writers getting eager and overdoing the double-whammy headline so that it becomes kinda hard to understand. Keeping the headline simple is critical to getting the idea across effectively.
Ok, time to summarize:
Want to see the examples with punctuation marks again? Here you go…
Why every small business needs sales analysis: and how to complete it in 20 minutes
Why quarterly analysis can increase business by 50%: the three key steps
The Rumiddha Method: 4 steps to achieve a profitable forum online
The Keyboard Wheel (and how it helps you decide the right color for your website)
Why small businesses don’t grow—and how to use autoresponders to increase business by 27% every year
Use double-whammy headlines often when getting the attention of your audience.
Because duos work well.
Like TweedleDee and Tweedledum!
About the author:
Sean D’Souza is a writer, marketing guru and expert on sales psychology. To read more articles by Sean, and get a very useful free report on “Why Headlines Fail”, go to PsychoTactics.com
Image: Pulling the Rabbit out of the Hat
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That’s a fun technique! You just have to weave in one of the Seven Deadly Sins:
‘Big Profits From Your Kitchen Raising Edible Frogs’
Find the Date of Your Dreams Raising Edible Frogs’
‘Get The Job You’ve Always Deserved Raising Edible Frogs’
For Edible Frogs, drop in the topic of your choice. It’s a winner.
Yeah, I see what you’re saying. The seven deadly sins plays on people’s natural desires, enticing them even more to click on your headline.
Sarah L. Webb recently posted..Re-Routing: Why the Wrong Road Doesn’t Seem So Bad at First
That was a very good insight. I will surely apply
Nila recently posted..Happy Valentine’s Day!
That was a very good insight. I will surely apply your sugeestion.
Nila recently posted..Happy Valentine’s Day!
Good one,
The title of this article could have been:
A clinic on writing modern headlines, 6 great examples.
Darnell Jackson recently posted..5M 003: 3rd straight week in the GREEN: Increased Avg. Visit Duration, Pages / Visit, and Bounce Rate.
Great article:
Of course, this article applies not only to headlines for blogs and newspaper articles, but also to creating great titles and subtitles for books.
Ernie J. Zelinski
International Best-Selling Author
“Helping Adventurous Souls Live Prosperous and Free”
Author of the Bestseller “How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free”
(Over 175,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and the International Bestseller “The Joy of Not Working’
(Over 250,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)
Love the concept of the double whammy. Before I read this post, I simply went with my gut as to whether to add the whammy, but now I will certainly be more mindful. Thanks for this great post!
Tony@WeOnlyDoThisOnce recently posted..Why Simple and Frugal Wins Every Time