You’ve heard us discuss before that the headline is the MOST critical component of your written piece.

But to start back at zero, let’s ask a question first:

“What is the primary purpose of any piece of writing that you publish both online and in physical form — whether a blog post, an E-newsletter, a sales letter or web tutorial?”

In the most basic sense, it’s to get visitors to read what you’ve written, correct? Before you can generate sales, revenues and profits, or even awareness, someone has to take the time to actually read what you’ve written.

And with that said, what is then the primary purpose of your headline; your layout and graphics; your color schemes and fonts; every single element of your content?

The simple but perhaps surprising answer is…

To get the first sentence read.

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This may seem simplistic or maybe even confusing to you. “Don’t we have to write compelling and interesting content with great structure and design? Don’t we have to convert?” you might ask.

Well, of course, but until the visitor reads the content in the first place, nothing else can happen.

When focused on writing great headlines remember that your headline is the first, and perhaps only, impression you make More >