How to Write Subject Lines Journalists Actually Click

Sadly not. But there are ways in which you can question your headlines to help you trim the fluff and make them stand out.

Here are four different tactics I use as a starting point:

GN: Great, let's see them in action.

JB: Okay, so let’s start with the first tactic. To apply Specificity to a headline is to have the confidence to focus on one aspect of your project while considering the nature of the publications you’re targeting. 

The key is to always pitch a headline rather than a broad description of the study, and choose language that caters to the publication’s readership.

GN: The key is not to assume that journalists read and/or remember all of your pitches… You don’t have just one shot to write the one subject line that will paint the full picture. It’s better to take a stance with a clear headline, and you can always return to the same contacts with a different angle at the follow-up stage.

Okay, let me see if I can apply some Specificity to our dummy headline:

JB: You can also apply specificity to the type of publication by understanding how tabloids vs broadsheets (and left- vs right-leaning) newspapers might present the same story differently.

GN: That’s a very good point. Okay, so we’ve got specificity down… But what do you mean by Keywords?

JB: What people, brands and topics dominate the front page of the publications or sections you’re targeting? 

For example, in sports you’ll want to lead with player or team names:

I recommend building a hierarchy of these keywords based on frequency and looking for opportunities to include the strongest ones. For example, brand names or buzzwords.

GN: And one more thing to consider is that even if the main headline coming out of the study doesn’t include a top keyword, you can still find ways to write it so that the most important keyword for the journalist is included.

Right. Let me try to apply some Keywords to our dummy headline:

JB: Be aware that the majority of phones and apps won’t truncate the subject header before the 35-character mark, so always frontload the main keyword and try to convey the core of your headline within this limit.

GN: That’s a good point. Okay, tell me more about Context in headlines.

JB: Context is about how you can introduce topicality and comparisons to better frame the facts and findings from your project. 

Can you position your headline within a wider trending narrative?

Can you create comparisons to make the figures more concrete?

Can you play on any rivalries within the space?

GN: So it’s about contextualising the headline in a way that it anchors it to the now, or to the bigger picture of the industry or space the campaign sits in.

I imagine this can also apply to the geographic location of the publication you’re targeting… Alright, let me see if I can add some Context to our dummy headline.

JB: Yes, that’s a good shout about using location here to provide context and make your headline stand out.

GN: Now that we know how to add good context, can you explain what you mean by Differentiation?

JB: Journalists’ inboxes are saturated with near-identical subject headers targeting the same trending topics or evergreen headlines. If your project contains unique elements that aren’t conveyed, you’re missing an opportunity to separate from the pack. 

Did you use a unique tool?

Can you articulate the scale of the research?

GN: I like that! It’s about trying to identify what makes your campaign unique compared to any other similar-sounding project that the journalist might have already seen, or similar-sounding headlines they might have already written.

Let me see if I can apply these principles to our dummy headline…

JB: Exactly, that layer of humanity will differentiate the headline.

It’s worth mentioning that workshopping headlines in this way at the ideation stage can help you diagnose the lack of novelty in a project that could be remedied with a simple solution, be that a new data source or a more hands-on approach.

GN: And writing the subject lines of your pitches with specificity, keywords, context, and differentiation in mind can help your email stand out in journalists’ inboxes for the right reasons.

JB: Ultimately, it’s about challenging yourself to question the value of every word in the headline and what you want to achieve with it. Think about how a journalist – with no knowledge of what’s contained in the email – could interpret it and whether it would stand out.

GN: Writing headlines reminds me of a quote from Abraham Lincoln that Alex shared with me a little while back: "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." Our axe in this context is a headline that journalists can’t ignore.