The 5 principles to writing B2B headlines you probably missed in 2019
Be honest now. How many seconds you’ve spent writing the subject of an email to an important person in the office? Or how many times did you have to go back and read the whole email body, then decide the word you should put on the title? And how many browsing tabs did you need to visit to find a synonym of that word you can’t identify yet?
For me, it took about ten minutes.
In my case, it’s not always e-mail subjects, though. It’s blog articles. The first five minutes I spent to skim the whole article and its subheadings. And the remaining five to play with the stylistics. But, wait. How did I even come up with the words that spoke to the gist of the article? Well, it took weeks of practice, of course. But the real deal here is to find a formula to it.
Departing from my one-year experience writing articles for business and SMEs, I would like to share some of the formulae I used to create B2B headlines, particularly in Moka. Part of these formulae was inspired by Starshine Roshell, the columnist and author in Santa Barbara Independent. And other parts were inspired by the lowest click rates of Moka’s newsletters on the first two quarters in 2019.
B2B tactics: Bring profit and potential upfront
Before I go any further, I’d like to remind myself about what makes B2B content different from B2C content. Is there any underlying concern I should raise while briefing to my fellow content writers? How is writing headlines for my blog and writing headlines for a company’s blog so dissimilar?
These questions are the first things that pop into my mind before starting to type inside the box on the top of the page. “In B2C system,” Honey Singh finally helps, “a consumer selects based on price, status, popularity, or personal choice.”
Well, that’s a good start, right? In other words, the more prominent the brand, the more likely the product or service of that brand will be preferred. The better the user reviews of the business, the more people will establish trust in it.
So, what about B2B? Singh went on: “B2B consumers make buying decision considering solely price and profit potential.” By price, I’m interpreting it not only as in numeric price but also as the quality that the consumer will get in tandem with the attributed price.
Then, how to make that higher-priced product more believable? Back it up with the profits that your customers can have. Give them something in return. Something golden.
If the content doesn’t contain any potential for the business to grow, then that content underperforms. As more SMEs are increasing, business owners and entrepreneurs are putting twice as much effort to stay competitive in their industry.
This means they also become hypersensitive to the content that works for them and doesn’t. Irrelevant topics will be ignored and misleading titles don’t get appreciated. So, how do you make your content noticeable and appreciated for the value it entails?
3-second rule: Time limit for scanning theme
The first thing I kept in mind before jotting down any word is the 3-second rule. This is the rule I’ve learned in UX writing. Taking a case of blog articles, the time limit for end-users to identify the gist of the article is only 3 seconds tops. And within these crucial seconds, they will decide whether they should scroll down or exit.
Now keep that number in mind, and let’s try to think how many words that are quickly scannable within that period? I usually set 8 to 12 words based on my reading speed. And for you, it could be less, or even more (which rarely happens), and it’s all fine. It all works.
What’s more important is that you should get your efforts’ worth out of it. So feel free to experiment based on your reading speed and the length of each word.
Dharmesh Shah elaborates:
Customers are usually very good at identifying their problems, not so much the solutions.
One thing that we all can learn from him is that if a headline contains a customer’s problem, then it’s a good one. Business owners face so many problems in reality and have to create difficult decisions, that the only thing that concerns them is whether other people have felt the same way, too.
However, this doesn’t mean they seek solutions. They think that each entrepreneur has different loopholes for different situations. They just need their problems to be addressed. And reading a headline that speaks to those problems perhaps makes them feel less alone.
5 principles for B2B headlines you should try
Here we go. These are the five principles I adhere to when writing headlines for B2B articles. I’m also giving examples from Moka’s blog articles, all of which I created and edited myself. I’m calling these principles as 5U, which stands for Unique, Useful, Ultimate, Ultra Specific, and Urgent.
1. Unique: Stand out from the crowd
The first thing on the list is probably the most important of all. As more and more content that is directed toward businesses, the struggle lies in creating one that is “far from the madding crowd.” Do this by making the tone of your headline conversational. Find a word or a phrase that you always use in a casual chat. Also, play with punctuations like periods, question marks, or commas, if necessary.
I used this principle for writing an article about one of Moka’s merchants, Gaya Gelato Jimbaran. The first draft of my headline looked like this: “Rahasia sukses gaya gelato jimbaran dan kiat-kiat membangun bisnis es krim.”
Then, I opened another tab and looked up keywords “gaya gelato jimbaran.” It turns out that there are 3 articles that already cover the same topic. And how am I going to stand out if I use the same keywords?
So, my final headline reads: “Menikmati gelato di tengah teriknya udara Jimbaran, siapa takut?”
For this point, Dolf van der Brink crystallizes with this:
You are competing with every piece of content ever made for every person’s attention. You need to be entertaining. Don’t outsmart. Out entertain.
2. Useful: Offer help when nobody’s around
The key message of this point is “purpose.” What do you expect your audience to take away from your content? Is there any element of your content that carries value for the reader? For most cases, I use numbers in front of the sentence before any word. The numbers, however many, display scannability for your whole content. The reader would know how much time they would spend reading your article.
Data found that “posts between 1900 and 2000 words perform the best and gain the greatest number of post views.” So, the longer it is, the better it performs.
There are tons of articles I’ve created for Moka blog using this principle. I always strive to get the number of 4 and above. Sometimes, I use 10 and above for SEO purpose. So, in between, I always try to use between 4 and 10 for the number.
One in particular: “8 trik menggunakan gim untuk tingkatkan engagement media sosial bisnis Anda.” So let’s say there’s another post that talks about the same topic, they would have to find a number above 8 to tackle the performance of my article.
3. Ultimate: Be optimistic but not idealistic
It’s always liberating to be “the best,” right? So, in the world now where all businesses feel like they’re saying “I’m the best,” it’s acceptable to show off a little bit. You can do this by using comparatives or, even, superlatives to any adjectives in the headline.
However, ensure that you take responsibility for that certain degree you’re claiming. For instance, if you are running a coffee shop, and your article headline claims it has “the most members in town,” you need to prove it on the body. Your audience can spot a liar pretty quickly now, and it’s a big homework for you to think it over before putting any grandiose word on the headline.
For Moka, one of the most performing articles we have is titled “23 ide bisnis part-time paling kreatif untuk dapatkan pemasukan pasif.” Another one is “Ini dia 6 womenpreneur Indonesia paling inspiratif di 2019.”
Although putting the word “paling” there can be a bit risky, the definition of “kreatif” and “inspiratif” is highly subjective, right? And everyone may interpret a lot of different things when it comes to a subjective topic. So, that’s the good news: It’s reasonable to put superlatives on the headline, as long as the adjective following it is considered subjective in your book.
4. Ultra specific: Say for one, explain for a few
Specificity is always enticing. It has a directness of which articles with a more general title are lacking. I’ve been actually quite skeptical when running into an overtly general title like “The definition of business disruption,” even when I’m deliberately looking for one.
So, when it comes to being specific for business, you need to be specific specific. The keywords you put on the title should be well-researched (my favorite tools are Keyword Tool and Uber Suggest).
For instance, I’m doing a topic cluster in Hubspot for cashless society. I’ve brainstormed which subject that revolved around the main topic. So each has to be very specific from the focalization and hence the diction.
In this case, one title that I think is representative for this principle is: “Dampak cashless society bagi pola perilaku milenial dan cara menghadapinya.” If you notice, it sounds like an undergraduate thesis title. Does it sound boring? Yup yup. But did it effectively do its job to be ultra-specific? I think so.
5. Urgent: Turn heads without looking back
Nobody likes to be left alone. Left behind. Left abandoned. You name it. It’s our basic instinct to be part of something, to belong. So, a sense of urgency is something that you should create if important information is to be digested right away. Typically, words like “now,” “limited,” or “available only” perform the best for this principle.
I also sometimes use a time limit to accentuate the fear of missing out. For Moka, the most types of articles using this principle are Product Knowledge, where the content focuses on limited promotions or imminent benefits for our end customers.
One example I can highlight is “Berlaku selama 90 hari, buruan dapatkan cashback 30% dari ABC.” The context of this headline is that one of our e-wallet partners, ABC, was giving away cashback for three months. So what I did was I put the “3 months” and change it into “90 days” to give an illusion that the cashback period lasts forever.
What you should do now
Combine
Now that you know the 5 principles, it’s time to mix and match!
The first thing you need to do is to find the context of your content. How much information are you giving away to the audience? Which niche audience you’re targeting to reach it? Is it trying to compete with another content covering a similar topic? How imminent should your audience read it? Right now? Before three days later? Or before… God knows how long?
Once you have defined these objectives, you can combine two, three, or even four principles at once. If you look back to the examples I gave on each principle, you’ll discover that some of them have two or more different principles.
But once you’ve put the sugar into the salt, pay attention to the whole tone of the headline. Be mindful about the tone of each principle. For example, if you’re trying to be funny but relevant, combine Unique and Useful. If you want to get direct engagement and imminent response, perhaps you can combine Ultra Specific and Urgent.
For a certain context, however, I would rarely combine Urgent and Unique. You want people to go to your content directly, but with a different hook, a different promise. Let’s take a look at two examples of a product knowledge article below:
A: “Mau promo cashback 50% dari ABC? Buruan sikat sebelum Desember 2019!”
B: “ABC sedang bagi-bagi promo cashback 50% sampai akhir Desember ini. Kapan lagi coba?”
Which one would you click first?
A/B test
Have difficulty choosing between the two? Why don’t you test both?
There are at least two methods when it comes to testing two or more similarly engaging headlines. The first one is to ask your fellow content writers and supervisor to pick one. Limit the number of people to at least five, so you won’t be too distracted.
The second one is to use tools. A few free A/B testing tools that you can try is Optimizely and A/B Tasty. I use the former to check the performance of a few sales landing pages and Moka’s website before it’s up. I use the latter for blog articles and email subjects.
In conclusion
As thrilling as it may sound, writing headlines for business is a skill to master. B2B customers see your content with a razor eye, and the headline either sharpens it or blunts it. The kind of headline they’re seeking is what brings the most benefit for themselves not as an individual but as an entrepreneur.
Their entrepreneurial mindset is actively looking for content that entails value for their business and their customers. And it’s quite tricky to just throw around words on the headline without thinking the consequence from the reader’s point of view.
However, you can tackle this by sticking to a formula that works best for you. You may have experienced writing headlines that perform better beside the formulae that I’ve shared with you. But that’s okay because everyone’s got their own secret ingredients for the same food.
So, to recap, here are my five best principles to writing engaging B2B headlines that work for me:
I’m closing this article with another great quote from Brian Clark:
A great content mixed with a lame headline is like inviting someone into your house, only to slam the door in their face as they approach.
Phew. No one likes to be slammed right on the nose, huh?
But now, the next time you’re looking at the top of the page of your article, you have that secret medicine to cure the swelling.
You can find an exactly identical post on my LinkedIn.
