Auntie Kate The Resale Expert

It rained, quite a lot, here in Sarasota yesterday. If you had to write a front-page headline about that fact, what would you choose?

Big rain here?

Of course not. That’s just plain boring and hardly worthy of attention, right?

So let’s use this situation to think about how to make a headline so intriguing, you’d read on. (For newspaper headline, substitute “Facebook post”, “email subject line”, etc to see where I’m going with this.

Word by word: Rain. Well, everyone knows what rain is, but heck, that’s not very exciting. And it was a big hard rain, not a mere sprinkle. So let’s emphasize that it was so much more interesting than just Rain. Think synonym: deluge? downpour? storm? Oh hey. Let’s personify that rain: Tropical Storm Colin. Bonus points for using a name that’s already in the news. So let’s replace dull, generic Rain with  Colin.

Now let’s add an action word, a verb that really paints a picture: Colin blankets? Colin floods? Let’s KISS: Colin soaks.

And here? That’s so limiting. We want to make an impression, and here could mean just in my yard*… so let’s make it more important by using a wider word: how about region?

And there you have it. An exciting headline for what, really, was mostly a non-event.

So the next time you’re tempted to write a subject line like Bag Sale Tomorrow, think excitement. And add an action word. Maybe Bountiful Bargains Await Early Birds. Or Stuff Bagsful for Pennies. Or even How Much Can YOU Score for $20?

Footnote: This lady had LOTS of excitement in her yard! https://www.facebook.com/sarasotakate/posts/10209675079860948?pnref=story