- 5. Now you are going to apply what you have learned in class. As per the class discussion, please provide me with three different headlines for the story (article in Question #4) and outline your reasoning(s) and explanation for each. Please ensure you base your answer on the different elements of headlines we spoke about in class. Please go into detail for each. (12 Marks)
Original headline: 19 Things Millennials Buy Instead Of Saving For A House
First headline: “Why Millennials Might Never Own a Home: 19 Purchases That Will Ruin Your Savings”
Explanation: Different factors were taken into account for the making of this headline. For example: As discussed in class, having a unique rationale behind your headline is heavily important, as in order to avoid wasting our readers’ time we need to give them a reason to click on it. In this case, the reason is to know what purchases are ruining their savings, and we are addressing the reader directly by using “you”, as headlines written in a language familiar to them is more appealing. Additionally, since we needed to call for their attention, we created a sense of urgency and even fear with the wording on the headline. Emotions are powerful and they generate responses from us, and fear and avoiding pain are some of the strongest driving factors to get people to click on certain headlines. Stating “Why Millennials Might Never Own a Home” generates a feeling of fear and uses scarcity from our target audience, who in this case is Millennials, and by proceeding to include a number of reasons that will back up our claim will make the reader click on it. We learned in class that words have power, so we have to use them wisely. Nowadays, the subject of purchasing homes with the current economic situation that the world is in is a tense one, which is why the use of words that generate fear and urgency within the readers will make them click on it.
Second Headline: “Millennials: Here’s 19 Spending Habits Ruining Your Savings”
Explanation: For this second headline, the first part directly addresses the demographic of the target audience by calling out to them within the first word “Millennials:” with the purpose of catching their attention, making it clear to all readers who the article is aimed for. It clearly establishes the promise of value being provided for the reader, as it claims that it will provide the reader with insight and specific knowledge about a topic that is of relevance to them, which would be negative spending habits that could be ruining their financial status, and it sparks the curiosity of the reader using scarcity making them wonder if perhaps they have said negative spending habits. Additionally, as we discussed in class, incorporating numbers in a headline makes it easier to digest while also making it more appealing to users. Scarcity is always effective when generating a reaction out of people, it’s part of human behavior to get scared of things like FOMO and more, and in this case, by implying that the spending trends listed in the article are “Ruining your savings” it creates a sense of fear and even anxiety on the user, cautiously tapping into the target audience’s (millennials) concerns for their future when it comes to financial decisions, which is a matter of concern as of recently for many of them. “Ruining” is a very strong powerful word, it has a negative tone and it triggers the avoiding pain feeling we discussed in class. In addition, this headline works for SEO purposes, as it can show up on search queries with the keywords “Millennials”, “Spending Habits” and “savings” along with anyone looking up things with long tail keywords such as “Why can’t I save money?” or “What spending habits are impacting my savings?” Moreover, it works out of context, ideal for sharing among other social media platforms.
Third Headline: “Can’t Afford a Home? Here’s 19 Millennial Purchases That Might Be Why”
Explanation: One of the things discussed in class was to not be afraid of addressing the readers directly, which is being put into practice here. This headline catches the attention of the users by asking them directly a question that is meant to resonate with them “Can’t Afford a Home?” because as we learned in class, we only have three seconds to catch the user’s attention before they move on and we lose them forever, so by making a direct question to them the headline becomes eye-catching to them, along with other factors that tell them what to do, because today’s digital user likes to be told what to do and where to do it, so by making use of action words like “Here’s” makes it clear to to the user that they have to click on the headline to access the content. A previous version of this headline included the word “19 Millennial Buys” instead of “19 Millennial Purchases”, the change was made due to the fact that consumers prefer plain language, and we have to be direct and clear.