Name: How to craft killer headlines
Uploaded: 2023-09-04T13:42:51.409Z
Duration: 587.67
Description: Creativity can be learned, and everyone can develop good copy. One Led Inc's Lead Copywriter Brianne Dromey showed us a complete framework on how to ace the process and write unique headlines.

Preview_Craft Killer Headlines.mp4

How to craft killer headlines.vtt

English

{{00:00:19}}
I started grade six at a new
school for nerdy, gifted kids.

{{00:00:24}}
I was the kid that
loved doing homework.

{{00:00:26}}
I loved doing research and
packaging it up into a perfectly

{{00:00:29}}
formatted double space report.

{{00:00:33}}
And at the school every month
we were assigned an unusually

{{00:00:36}}
open-ended project to answer a
series of questions creatively.

{{00:00:43}}
So I went home, I hopped on the
computer and started to write

{{00:00:45}}
up this beautifully researched,
thorough report, answering

{{00:00:49}}
each of those questions.

{{00:00:52}}
But when I got to class, the day it
was due, I saw that someone had made

{{00:00:57}}
a recipe book where each recipe early
creatively answered this question.

{{00:01:02}}
Someone had put together a
quilt, another had actually

{{00:01:06}}
made this extravagant
cardboard chocolate factory.

{{00:01:09}}
And then there was me with my double
spaced well-researched report.

{{00:01:17}}
And so on my teacher's feedback, she
was like, Brianne, your content is

{{00:01:21}}
great, but try to present your answers
a little bit more creatively next time.

{{00:01:26}}
The scenario repeated itself every
month of grade six, micro improvements

{{00:01:30}}
each barely more creative than the
last, because I didn't know how to go

{{00:01:34}}
straight from report to extravagant
cardboard chocolate factory.

{{00:01:40}}
Clearly I wasn't the creative
kid in school, but thankfully

{{00:01:44}}
creativity can be learned
and I'm living proof of that.

{{00:01:47}}
And today I'm going to walk
you through my process for

{{00:01:50}}
writing more creative headlines.

{{00:01:55}}
Now the first step in writing
a more creative headline is

{{00:01:57}}
to write without judgment.

{{00:02:00}}
I want you to imagine you're going to
write a headline and you come to a box.

{{00:02:05}}
And all of your ideas are neatly
stacked inside that box, but

{{00:02:08}}
sitting on top is your inner critic.

{{00:02:12}}
And every time you go to reach
that top surface level idea, your

{{00:02:15}}
inner critic slaps out a tentacle
and says, yeah, not that one.

{{00:02:20}}
You haven't even fully formed the idea
yet, and you're already discarding it.

{{00:02:24}}
And you're not doing yourself
any favors either, because if

{{00:02:27}}
you can't reach any of the best
ideas at the bottom of your

{{00:02:30}}
box, you're kind of hooped.

{{00:02:35}}
This is a symbol in theory, as
getting to the bottom of your box.

{{00:02:39}}
If all your best ideas are at the
bottom, you just have to find as

{{00:02:42}}
many ways as possible to get all the
surface level ideas out of the way.

{{00:02:47}}
And how do you do that?

{{00:02:49}}
Write 50 unique lines, but actually 50.

{{00:02:54}}
And when I say 50 unique lines,
I'm not talking about those micro

{{00:02:57}}
iterations in my sixth grade reports.

{{00:03:00}}
And what I wish I had then was a
linear framework to get out of that

{{00:03:05}}
analytical iterative mindset and into
truly fresh and unique perspectives.

{{00:03:11}}
Now, if you had told me five years
ago that I had to write 50 headlines

{{00:03:14}}
for something, I would have panicked.

{{00:03:15}}
We were like, no, no way, not possible.

{{00:03:17}}
How am I going to come up with 50?

{{00:03:19}}
The secret is to never rely on
pulling ideas out of thin air.

{{00:03:24}}
Why create something from nothing
if you can find the perfect

{{00:03:27}}
point of inspiration already
out somewhere in the world?

{{00:03:31}}
I'm going to share with you four
frameworks you can use to find

{{00:03:35}}
those points of inspiration and
get to the bottom of your box.

{{00:03:39}}
These four frameworks are
voice of customer, wordplay,

{{00:03:43}}
picture play, and table merges.

{{00:03:48}}
Voice of customer is traditionally
a research method used to gather

{{00:03:52}}
and understand customer feedback.

{{00:03:54}}
You go out and you interview
or survey customers to hear

{{00:03:57}}
about what's important to them.

{{00:03:59}}
And most importantly, hear it in
their own words, which are words you

{{00:04:05}}
can now use for headline inspiration.

{{00:04:08}}
And the only precursor you need
for this framework is to have a

{{00:04:12}}
conversation and to record it.

{{00:04:15}}
Assuming you've gone out and you
have a recording in hand, what you're

{{00:04:18}}
going to do with it is start to
scan through for any interesting or

{{00:04:23}}
authentic language you see or hear.

{{00:04:25}}
Again, we're not judging anything yet.

{{00:04:28}}
Our inner critics are in the attic.

{{00:04:30}}
Just highlight anything
that stands out to you.

{{00:04:36}}
The inspiration point for
this framework actually

{{00:04:38}}
begins in a thesaurus.

{{00:04:40}}
Specifically a phrase thesaurus
that will spit out expressions that

{{00:04:45}}
we can now pull apart, rearrange
and play within our headlines.

{{00:04:51}}
I know a lot of people that feel like
it's cheating to use one, or they

{{00:04:54}}
should be able to do it in their head.

{{00:04:56}}
That is false.

{{00:04:57}}
My favorite ones are Power
Thesaurus, Phrase Thesaurus

{{00:05:01}}
and Word Hippo in that order.

{{00:05:04}}
If you're like me and perhaps
more analytically inclined,

{{00:05:07}}
you may know exactly what you
want your headline to say.

{{00:05:11}}
You just aren't sure how to
say it in an interesting way.

{{00:05:15}}
The point is to find new ways
of looking at a basic idea

{{00:05:19}}
to inspire something new.

{{00:05:21}}
So if anything unexpected, but
good, comes up, just roll with it.

{{00:05:25}}
Again, these headlines
don't have to be final.

{{00:05:28}}
Ultimately they're all starting points
for later iterations and ideas that

{{00:05:33}}
you can combine and make stronger.

{{00:05:36}}
Think of them more as idea starters.

{{00:05:40}}
Our next framework within the
second step of digging deep for

{{00:05:43}}
new perspectives is picture play.

{{00:05:46}}
I find that many writers
shy away from crossing the

{{00:05:49}}
line into design territory.

{{00:05:51}}
And in fairness, it often is
a land guarded fiercely by

{{00:05:54}}
strongly opinionated designers.

{{00:05:57}}
And as a result, we don't
make use of opportunities to

{{00:06:01}}
use visuals to inspire us.

{{00:06:03}}
Copy and design should always
work together closely to

{{00:06:06}}
communicate something effectively.

{{00:06:08}}
And whereas in our previous frameworks,
we led with copy and design followed.

{{00:06:13}}
In this framework, we use
images as inspiration to reverse

{{00:06:17}}
engineer a great headline.

{{00:06:20}}
Like we started within the previous
wordplay framework, you likely

{{00:06:23}}
have a key word around what
you're trying to communicate.

{{00:06:26}}
Now, all we have to do again is
type those into Google images.

{{00:06:29}}
One at a time, see what we find.

{{00:06:31}}
For me often the more unique photos
will inspire more interesting lines.

{{00:06:35}}
So I usually look for those first.

{{00:06:37}}
Rinse and repeat this process
through Google images for any

{{00:06:40}}
keyword that comes to mind.

{{00:06:41}}
If you're a writer and a designer
in one, you can also do this process

{{00:06:45}}
directly in your stock image site.

{{00:06:47}}
So you actually can use that
image in the end product for

{{00:06:51}}
perfect communication pairing.

{{00:06:56}}
In any case, by this point, you should
easily have 30 unique headlines.

{{00:07:02}}
Maybe it's starting to feel like a
bit of a stretch to push that to 50.

{{00:07:06}}
This last framework builds on all
the work you've done in the previous

{{00:07:09}}
three frameworks to fill in the rest.

{{00:07:12}}
It's structure is based on the premise
that a headline or a tagline can focus

{{00:07:16}}
on different aspects, namely attitude,
differentiation, benefits, or features.

{{00:07:25}}
The examples I'm about to show
you are mostly from websites,

{{00:07:27}}
but again, this framework as with
everything works for a headline on

{{00:07:30}}
a blog post, tagline, ad, anything.

{{00:07:33}}
Attitude is all about
the tone of voice.

{{00:07:36}}
What do you want to sound like?

{{00:07:37}}
How do you want to come across?

{{00:07:38}}
For Starbucks, they had an ad
campaign, that first sip feeling.

{{00:07:43}}
They're clearly not seeing
what they do, but they're

{{00:07:45}}
leaving you with a feeling.

{{00:07:47}}
In differentiation it's all
about what makes you stand out.

{{00:07:50}}
What's unique about what you're doing?

{{00:07:51}}
And for Patagonia that's, we're in
business to save our home planet.

{{00:07:57}}
That's not something that Adidas
or Under Armour can really say.

{{00:08:00}}
So Patagonia owns that.

{{00:08:03}}
In benefits, this one's easy,
how are customers benefiting

{{00:08:06}}
from what you're doing?

{{00:08:08}}
Mailchimp had a line,
marketing smarts for big ideas.

{{00:08:11}}
Lastly, we have features.

{{00:08:13}}
How are these people actually
going about doing it?

{{00:08:14}}
What services do they offer?

{{00:08:16}}
If you're trying to rank for an SEO
keyword, it's actually a great column

{{00:08:20}}
for you to focus in here as well.

{{00:08:22}}
Stripe has a line here, payments
infrastructure for the internet.

{{00:08:26}}
Not winning any attitude
awards here, but no, one's

{{00:08:28}}
confused about what they do.

{{00:08:31}}
With these four buckets in mind.

{{00:08:33}}
Your job is to come in and write
five to 10 headlines in each column.

{{00:08:36}}
Now that you have all of your surface
level ideas out of the way with

{{00:08:40}}
your five to 10 in each column,
we're going to start to combine

{{00:08:43}}
them into unique perspectives.

{{00:08:47}}
Finally, now you may take your
inner critic out from the attic,

{{00:08:50}}
set them loose for a moment.

{{00:08:53}}
You have 50 unique headlines.

{{00:08:55}}
Some of them are going to suck.

{{00:08:58}}
Others are going to be interesting,
but not quite there yet.

{{00:09:02}}
And others might actually
be great the way they are.

{{00:09:06}}
I like to go through and
bold my favorites and I

{{00:09:09}}
start to riff off of them.

{{00:09:10}}
Then stand back and look at your lines.

{{00:09:12}}
Do you have a winner?

{{00:09:14}}
If you do see a winner, you're
going to feel pretty confident

{{00:09:17}}
that you dug deep enough.

{{00:09:19}}
Creativity is a muscle.

{{00:09:21}}
This will get easier.

{{00:09:22}}
If your analytical brain wants
structure to be creative, give it one.

{{00:09:27}}
Don't force yourself to
create something from nothing.

{{00:09:30}}
Work with frameworks like
these for inspiration to fuel

{{00:09:34}}
your style of creativity.

{{00:09:36}}
Do what you have to do to get
to the bottom of your box,

{{00:09:39}}
and craft killer headlines.

I started grade six at a new
school for nerdy, gifted kids.

I loved doing research and
packaging it up into a perfectly

And at the school every month
we were assigned an unusually

open-ended project to answer a
series of questions creatively.

So I went home, I hopped on the
computer and started to write

up this beautifully researched,
thorough report, answering

But when I got to class, the day it
was due, I saw that someone had made

a recipe book where each recipe early
creatively answered this question.

Someone had put together a
quilt, another had actually

made this extravagant
cardboard chocolate factory.

And then there was me with my double
spaced well-researched report.

And so on my teacher's feedback, she
was like, Brianne, your content is

great, but try to present your answers
a little bit more creatively next time.

The scenario repeated itself every
month of grade six, micro improvements

each barely more creative than the
last, because I didn't know how to go

straight from report to extravagant
cardboard chocolate factory.

Clearly I wasn't the creative
kid in school, but thankfully

creativity can be learned
and I'm living proof of that.

And today I'm going to walk
you through my process for

Now the first step in writing
a more creative headline is

I want you to imagine you're going to
write a headline and you come to a box.

And all of your ideas are neatly
stacked inside that box, but

And every time you go to reach
that top surface level idea, your

inner critic slaps out a tentacle
and says, yeah, not that one.

You haven't even fully formed the idea
yet, and you're already discarding it.

And you're not doing yourself
any favors either, because if

you can't reach any of the best
ideas at the bottom of your

This is a symbol in theory, as
getting to the bottom of your box.

If all your best ideas are at the
bottom, you just have to find as

many ways as possible to get all the
surface level ideas out of the way.

And when I say 50 unique lines,
I'm not talking about those micro

And what I wish I had then was a
linear framework to get out of that

analytical iterative mindset and into
truly fresh and unique perspectives.

Now, if you had told me five years
ago that I had to write 50 headlines

The secret is to never rely on
pulling ideas out of thin air.

Why create something from nothing
if you can find the perfect

point of inspiration already
out somewhere in the world?

I'm going to share with you four
frameworks you can use to find

those points of inspiration and
get to the bottom of your box.

These four frameworks are
voice of customer, wordplay,

Voice of customer is traditionally
a research method used to gather

You go out and you interview
or survey customers to hear

And most importantly, hear it in
their own words, which are words you

And the only precursor you need
for this framework is to have a

Assuming you've gone out and you
have a recording in hand, what you're

going to do with it is start to
scan through for any interesting or

Just highlight anything
that stands out to you.

The inspiration point for
this framework actually

Specifically a phrase thesaurus
that will spit out expressions that

we can now pull apart, rearrange
and play within our headlines.

I know a lot of people that feel like
it's cheating to use one, or they

My favorite ones are Power
Thesaurus, Phrase Thesaurus

If you're like me and perhaps
more analytically inclined,

you may know exactly what you
want your headline to say.

You just aren't sure how to
say it in an interesting way.

The point is to find new ways
of looking at a basic idea

So if anything unexpected, but
good, comes up, just roll with it.

Again, these headlines
don't have to be final.

Ultimately they're all starting points
for later iterations and ideas that

Our next framework within the
second step of digging deep for

I find that many writers
shy away from crossing the

And in fairness, it often is
a land guarded fiercely by

And as a result, we don't
make use of opportunities to

Copy and design should always
work together closely to

And whereas in our previous frameworks,
we led with copy and design followed.

In this framework, we use
images as inspiration to reverse

Best Practice

Creativity can be learned, and everyone can develop good copy. One Led Inc's Lead Copywriter Brianne Dromey showed us a complete framework on how to ace the process and write unique headlines.

Creativity

Content optimisation

Copywriting

Headlines

Content Creation

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Brianne Dromey

Lead Copywriter

There will be no criticism! Understand how important it is to let your inner critic out of the room when starting your list of headlines.

Write without judgement

This framework will help you look at your problem with other lenses and see the unique perspectives available.


Dig deep for new perspectives

You know what you want your headline to deliver. You don't know how to say that creatively. Now is the time to curate the best ideas and extract the best out of them.