Headline: the sentence deciding whether the rest gets read, and it carries almost all the weight

A headline is the title, the front page line, the entry sentence. In journalism it sells the article; in copywriting it sells reading the rest.

Its weight comes from a simple asymmetry: everyone sees the headline, and only a fraction sees the rest. Improving the body by twenty per cent improves the experience of people already reading. Improving the headline by twenty per cent increases how many people get to read anything at all.

Which is why the classic advice about spending a large share of your time on the opening is not textbook exaggeration: it is where return per minute worked is highest.

Here the concept needs translating, because there is no field called headline.

• The cover text. On the first image of a carousel or the cover of a Reel. It is the most visible headline, and it has to work as a thumbnail in the profile grid.
• The first line of the caption. The only stretch appearing before the "more" button.
• The first spoken seconds. In video the headline is said out loud, and it decides whether someone gets past three seconds.

Each carries a different constraint: the cover one has to fit in few words and stay legible when small; the caption one can run longer; the spoken one has to sound natural out loud.

A few patterns cover almost everything:

• Specific. A number, a timeframe or a concrete detail beats the vague version of the same sentence, every time.
• Against common sense. Contradicting what the audience assumes creates the tension that makes them continue.
• The mistake. Naming a common mistake works because the person has to check whether they make it.
• The question they already ask themselves. Handing back their exact doubt is instant recognition.
• Curiosity with backing. Promising something the content actually delivers.

The counterexample to all of this is clickbait: a promise the content does not keep. It works once and destroys the trust that makes the next headline believed.

The practice that most improves headlines is not a writing technique, it is volume. Writing ten versions and picking the best produces consistently better results than writing one and accepting it.

The reason is that the first versions always come out in the most obvious register. The good ones tend to appear between the sixth and the tenth, once the obvious has run out.

Two quick tests for choosing:

• Would someone in your audience understand it with no context at all? If they need to know you, it does not serve discovery.
• Can it be more specific? Almost always yes, and it almost always improves.

• I wrote several versions before choosing.
• It is specific, with a number or a concrete detail.
• It works for someone who does not know me.
• On a cover, it stays legible as a thumbnail.
• The promise is kept by the content.