Your headline has ONE job

Do you know what it is?

Yes, it's true, your site—really just your hero section—has about 7 seconds to convey what you do, for whom, and why it matters, as my friend and fellow daily emailer Kevin Freidberg compellingly points out over at 7 Second Websites (brilliant name!).

But I'm talking about just the headline.

Because it has one very important job to do, whether it's part of that 7-second convince-a-thon or not.

Its job is this: To stop your reader in their tracks and compel them to read the subhead below it.

Then, the job of your subhead is to compel them to read the first line of the body text.

And the job of the first line of the body text is to compel them to read the next. And so on.

The point is, if they don’t stop and read the headline, you’re sunk.

(And you're likely also sunk if, after stopping, they still don't know what you do and why it matters when 7 seconds are up.)

I wrote more about headlines here, back when I thought I might like writing more than 250 words at a time.

It's hard to imagine that now, lol.

One job,

James

P.S. If you enjoyed this, check out my daily email (also called One Creative Moment), where I publish short, personal, often irreverent posts for creators, founders, and business owners who want better results from their life and/or marketing.