Headlines are your primary tool to focus attention and increase persuasion. Everything else will flow from there. So, don’t rush on to find another source of persuasion and influence. Start at the beginning and you’ll have a much easier time giving presentations that change people’s minds.

Here’s why headlines are so critical. First, they can focus your attention in planning a logical, compelling and dynamic flow. Second, of course, your headlines will focus your audience!

Short Headlines Work Best

By the way, this is well documented in the research by Richard Mayer, who is a professor of psychology at UC Santa Barbara. He calls this principle of headline orientation, the signaling principle. And it shows that people learn better when information is presented using clear headings and outlines.

You already know this intuitively–from looking at book titles, film posters and something as obvious as the headline of a newspaper. Magazines, newspapers and marketers in general know that 80-90% of the population only read the headlines.

That means you better make them pull for your presentation!

When working out your initial presentation sequence, focus first on developing powerful headlines. Short. Crisp. Eye-catching.

Put your headline drafts on something moveable like a note card, a post-it or sticky note. This adds flexibility in your thinking. It encourages an attitude of play with organizing and refining your best sequence.

It really helps to work offline. Yes, I mean it.  Move away from your computer screen or written notes.

My favorite method is to work big. On huge sheets of paper or on a large whiteboard. Put your headline drafts on a large surface you can see. Step back. Check the flow and see if it makes sense.

Can you eliminate something? Do you need to add in something to give it that extra punch?

Of course, university researchers aren’t the only ones tuned in to the power of headlines to signal and catch attention.

If you’re searching for headlines…go check out the magazine racks. Especially focus on the covers of popular magazines such as Redbook, Cosmo and Reader’s Digest.

You’ll see that these companies spend an enormous amount on getting the headlines just right–so people pick up their magazine.

Now, you need to just use the architecture of the headline and insert your own content. Adjust as needed to match your audience.

Curious how that works?

O.K. Let’s do an example together.

This is fun so hang on especially if your content is totally different than what we’re looking at in these examples.

How To Add Sizzle To Dry Topics

Let’s say your topic is “Hiring and Retaining Talent” and this is a huge corporate initiative that you have to describe–lots riding on your presentation.

But you can’t think of a single way to make the headlines interesting. In fact you’re convinced that this will just put your audience to sleep.

Instead of suffering a moment longer, get up and head to a magazine rack. Pick out this week’s top issue–say of Redbook or Cosmo.

Here are some of the titles you may find:

Could you be in danger of getting a deadly disease?
Score yourself: How Good Is Your Diet Plan?
What Every Woman Should Ask Her Doctor…
Yes, You Can Lose 20 Pounds And Eat Everything in Sight

OK. Now you’ve got some candidates…let’s see how to use these headlines as a blueprint. We’ll use each one to create compelling headlines for “Hiring and Retaining Talent.”

Could you be in danger of getting a deadly disease?
Could you be in danger of losing your best talent?
Could your talent retention program be a loser?
Could your hiring process be causing irreparable damage?

See–not so hard. Let’s move on.

Score yourself: How Good Is Your Diet Plan?
Score Yourself: How Good Is Your Talent Retention?
Score Yourself: Do You Know Where Your Talent Retention Is At Risk?
Score Yourself: What You Don’t Know About Talent Retention Could Hurt You.

What Every Woman Should Ask Her Doctor…
What Every HR Manager Should Ask About Their Hiring and Talent Retention Program
What Every Supervisor Should Ask About Hiring…
What Every Employee Should Ask About Talent Retention

Yes, You Can Lose 20 Pounds And Eat Everything in Sight
Yes, You Can Hire and Keep Great Talent
Yes, You Can Win the Talent Retention War
Yes, You Can Attract and Keep Top Talent…Here’s How…

And it goes on and on!

Now, clearly, your topic may be radically different. But if you see how easy it is to switch from popular content to your HR issue, I think you’ll have no problem putting this spin on your own content.

But…you still might be concerned…and wondering,

Does This Work For Every Audience?

Is the appropriate for senior decision makers?
Will people take you seriously if you use this kind of popular direct marketing language instead of formal corporate language?

I can’t speak for every situation without knowing your content, audience and culture. But I will tell you what I’ve seen time and again–in the most conservative and staid environments. (Think Fortune 100 boardrooms, meetings of top military officers and extremely conservative insurance agencies) This kind of language is a welcome relief.

It’s up to you to test the waters and experiment. Just remember, an eye-catching and short headline works. It will grab the attention of everyone in the room.
And isn’t that what you’re really after?

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