“Do not use more than 17 words in a headline. Why? Based on my tests, I’ve never been able to make a headline work that is longer than this!” –Ted Nicholas
“Pretty much all the rules about headlines are nonsense. There’s a rule that says a headline should never be longer than X number of words. And some of my most successful headlines are more god-awful long than they should be, and I also had ones that made a lot of money that are one-word headlines. It’s not how long they are; it’s what they say.” –Dan S. Kennedy
We’re constantly told to study the greats.
Okay, but what happens when the greats disagree about something as fundamental as headline length?
Ted Nicholas draws a firm line at 17 words. Dan Kennedy says he’s made money with headlines ranging from a single word to ridiculously long sentences.
Which one should you believe?
The disagreement becomes more interesting when you examine how each man reached his conclusion.
Nicholas noticed that headlines longer than 17 words failed in his tests. He converted that observation into a rule.
Kennedy saw successful headlines of wildly different lengths. He concluded that what a headline communicates matters more than its word count.
Both men learned from experience. But experience always comes with boundaries: particular audiences, offers, media, and circumstances.
What kinds of products was Nicholas selling? Where did his headlines appear? Did longer headlines actually lose because of their length, or because they tried to say too much?
And when Kennedy’s long headlines succeeded, did the extra words supply crucial information, sharpen curiosity, or make a promise more believable?
The answers could reveal when a short headline has an advantage and when a longer one earns its space.
This is a better way to study experts than collecting their rules like commandments.
𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗿𝘂𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗺𝗮𝗽 𝗱𝗿𝗮𝘄𝗻 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗯𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀. Find the territory where it works. Look for the boundary where it stops working.
RW
.
.
.