A/B Testing Idea #2: Make your headlines sound super cool.

A/B Testing Idea #2: Make your headlines sound super cool.

Hello everyone,

We're back with our second post in the CRO testing idea series. If you missed the first post, please check it out here: "Place irresistible and clear CTAs." In today's post, we'll look at how to effectively A/B test your headline content.


 
Some people say "you only get one chance to make a first impression" while others contend that it only takes seven seconds to make an impression about someone or something. Well, the same concept applies to your website.

A good first impression on your website is crucial for making visitors trust in your products/services and keeping them tied to your business forever. Creating this first impression depends on many factors like structure, colors, spacing, symmetry, amount of text, and fonts. But, of everything else, a good headline plays a major role in the success of your website.  

Your headline is the first thing that readers see as soon as they land on your site; it holds the power to make or break a deal at first visit. Even if your content is truly unique and innovative, a weak headline can ruin its chances of being super successful in terms of conversions. So how do you create a strong headline that drives more traffic and clicks on your website?

Here are a few aspects to consider as you A/B test your site's headline content:

Communicate your brand's purpose
Often we just assume that the visitors fully understand everything about our website and its product offerings. However, that’s not always the case, especially for new visitors. With hundreds of websites selling products/services online, it's important to make sure that the primary headline on your homepage tells visitors what your website has to offer and how it aligns with their expectations—all in a few short seconds. Tweaking and testing headline copy that clearly communicates your brand's purpose and differentiates yourself from the competitors can encourage your visitors to take the desired action without another thought.
 
Example:
Say you own a website testing and analytics software solution that offers a set of tools to grow an online business. Take a look below at the old and new versions of the same headline message. Notice that while the first tells people what the product is, the second tells people what the product will actually help them do.



Extra tip: The easiest way to determine if your brand message is clear to your visitors is by assuming your audience knows nothing about the business you're running.

Try different headlines for different set of target audiences
Each website caters to a specific type of audience. So understanding which audience group you cater to, where they come from, what their interests are, and what information they are hoping to find on your site is another major parameter to consider before starting to test your headline content. Testing and optimizing your headline copy based on a particular set of audience segments like demographics (such as location, gender, age, etc), personal interests, and past engagements with your site can help you deliver personalized content for each category of visitors, which is more likely to generate conversions. 

Example: 
Say you run an ecommerce business and want to A/B test your headline copy with enticing offers for returning visitors to see which one convinces them to fulfill your conversion goals.
 

Extra tip:
  • You can target your A/B test in PageSense using a variety of audience segments such as visitor type, device used, JS variable, day of the week, and more to learn which version grabs your audience's attention immediately and performs best for each segment.
  • To know your target audience better, you can set up polls on your website using PageSense and learn your visitor’s business (or personal) needs and how your product can help achieve them. Later, you can use this feedback to test and optimize your website content. 
Match your headline with your ad copy
When a visitor clicks on an ad, it's of the utmost importance to match the message on that ad to the headline content on your post-click landing page. If your headline doesn't match the offers and features that you promised in your ad copy, you're wasting all your marketing investment and conversion opportunities. A/B testing your headline by incorporating relevant keywords that resonate with your ad copy can help you reassure people that they've come to the right place. It can also later persuade them to take the desired action on your site more quickly. Further, this type of testing is more likely to generate increased clickthrough rates, conversions, and revenue for your website.  
 
Example:
Say you're running a Facebook Ad for older travelers, and the post-click landing page shows the most relevant tourist packages, flights, and hotel stays based on their interests. Now compare the old and new headline messages below to see which version of the message sounds better.



Include stats and numbers
Numbers in your headlines are a great way to grab attention by spontaneously triggering curiosity in your targeted audience. When you use symbols like %, $, or digits instead of words to express percentages, dollars, or numbers in your headlines, it creates specificity around the duration, size, value, etc. of what you're offering customers, which is more attractive than a generic offering. This is a powerful psychological tactic that spotlights your headlines and immediately hooks the reader's interest, which results in more traffic.

Example:
Consider the pricing page of your website and see how adding a number to the headline can increase reader engagement.


Follow the problem-solving methodology
Solving your customers' problem is the easiest and fastest way to reach their heart. Crafting a headline that addresses an issue and provides a cutting-edge solution to solve the problem can make optimizing your website easier. Intriguing your readers like this can make them look for more information on the rest of your site. Further, when done well, it can build a solid emotional bond between you and your customer for a longer term.

Example:
Take a look at the image below to see how implementing the problem and solution technique in your fitness website can make your headline sound more interesting.


 
Test with power words and sentiments
Sometimes the right audience is just one word away. Using forceful positive or negative power words in your headlines has the potential to kindle your customers' emotions and inspire action on your website in no time. Also, these words can guarantee more clicks and make your headlines stand out from the rest. You can test your headlines depending on two groups of power words:  
  • Negative headlines: This type of headline tends to intrigue your customers by setting a stage to avoid a miserable situation. It includes words like never, stop, worst, avoid, or do not.
  • Positive headlines: This type of headline tries to build a relationship with feel good emotions. It includes words like best, always, fastest, easiest, most, greatest, largest, funniest, hottest, strongest, biggest, and ever.
Example:
Take a look at the image below to see how the choice of words can invoke a positive feeling as you read the headline.



Test the font and appearance of your headline
The presentation (color, fonts, and layout) of your headline copy has a huge impact on the performance of your site. Below are a few points to consider while testing the appearance of your headline:
  • Use title case. Avoid writing your headlines in all caps as it can reduce the readability of your text.  
  • Choose a font style and size that matches your website's personality. The most popular font style is sans-serif and font size is 20 - 36 pixels.
  • Apply colors that contrast (while complimenting) your website's background well and focus on the legibility of your content.
  • Align your headline perfectly with your body content for a bigger impact. Centered headlines are most powerful visually, while left-centered are more conservative and formal. 
Example:
Say you own an online food delivery website, and you want to test the color and font of your homepage headline for better clickthrough rates. Take a look at the before and after images of the headline below. Which one you think will attract more eyeballs? 

 
Try out the two-part strategy
Don't forget your supporting cast! Successful headlines act in two parts. Including a persuasive subheadline copy below your headline can be another winning strategy to pull your customers deeper into your website. You can test different versions of your subheadings to see which best suits your visitors, such as explaining a bit more about your product or services, emphasizing your product benefits, or encouraging visitors to click the CTA button placed on your site.

Example:
Take a look at the main headline and the subheading of a customer support software website as shown below. In this case, your subheadline re-affirms how your software helps your customers and adds emphasis about different product features.

 
Test the headline length and SEO compatibility
Test your headline for the right length, SEO keywords, and sentiments. Keeping a headline no longer than six words will help readers easily process your text and attain the goal of your website. Using free headline analyzer tools such as Coschedule or Sharethrough can help you effortlessly understand your website's performance. They analyze important factors (like searchable keywords, word balance, and sentiments) and assign a percentage score based on how good your headline is. They'll help you identify the factors you need to improve for more productive headlines.

Example:
Let's say you own an online pet supply store and you want to test the headline of your homepage to attract more visitor traffic. The screenshots below show the performance of both the old and new versions of the headline in terms of length.



Bonus tips:
  • Create a sense of urgency in your headline with words like "today," "now," and "last-minute offer."
  • Use comparison phrases like "versus" to reinforce the benefits and features of your products/services.
  • Research your competitor's headlines to add more value and optimize your headlines better.  
We hope you found this article useful. What is your favorite headline tester? Have you had any success with headline A/B testing? Do share with us in the comments box below.

Happy testing. Happy converting!

Thank you.

    • Recent Topics

    • Zoho Books integration with Google workspace

      How do I integrate Zoho books with Google Workspace? The steps outlined on the Zoho help sections do not correspond to the actual user interface in Google Workspace. Zoho books is installed on admin level for all users, all users can access it from the

    • Fields of Look up in Custom Modules

      We need to create a custom module in Books for Proforma Invoices Now I created a Custom Module and added a Table and in the table added a lookup field and chose Items Now I want Specific fields of the item such as Tax, Item Cost etc but it only displays

    • Share work items across projects and users

      Hello everyone, We're thrilled to introduce a new feature in Zoho Sprints: "Share work item" Collaboration across projects and users is now easier with the introduction of the Share work item feature. You can now share work items with users who are not

    • Payment Terms Changing Upon Invoicing

      Hello! Our standard payment terms for 95% of our customers are Net 30, and all of our customers that these terms apply to have that setting n their customer profile. However, over the last week or so, when an invoice is generated the majority of these

    • How do I get a refund for email seats?

      Hi, I've been using Zoho for awhile and have been paying for 2 seats. Recently, I created another 9 seats, but I also found out that Zoho does not support cold emails, so these 9 seats created for this purpose became useless. It's within 24 hours that

    • Work Orders / Bundle Requests

      Zoho Inventory needs a work order / bundle request system. This record would be analogous to a purchase order in the purchasing workflow or a sales order in the sales cycle. It would be non-journaling, but it would reserve the appropriate inventory of

    • Narrative 1 - The significance of a business account

      Behind the scenes of a successful ticketing system - BTS Series Narrative 1 - The significance of a business account Setting up a proper business account is a crucial step that is often overlooked when launching a ticketing system for your service company,

    • Changed hosting for domain, Zoho mail stopped working.

      I have changed hosting fro my domain and from that time my zoho email stopped working

    • we need to add a Customer Number field to the PDF document templates

      Hello everyone. We are currently using Zoho Inventory for our small business operations and have found it to be a valuable tool. However, we’ve encountered a specific requirement: we need to add a Customer Number field to the PDF document templates (such

    • Joining Two Reports

      Hello Guys, I have three modules: - Orders - Custom module - Clients - Contacts - Basic Pay I am using the order module to store the revenue share amount for each order which will be paid a sales rep The Orders are child or clients so I am pulling a report

    • Power of Automation :: Notify users Automatically when @Mentioned in Tasks Description

      Hello Everyone, A custom function is a software code that can be used to automate a process and this allows you to automate a notification, call a webhook, or perform logic immediately after a workflow rule is triggered. This feature helps to automate

    • Recording a payment in foreign currency not allowed

      Hi, my base currency is CHF. I made an invoice in EUR, which have been paid with an extra amount (which are the fees I guess). When I record that payment from the invoice page, I can select the EUR bank account. But the amount received is above the invoice

    • Introducing WhatsApp integration and quick editing capabilities in Zoho Sign

      Hi there, Zoho Sign already helps users collect signatures via email and SMS, and we're happy to announce that you can now send documents and authenticate recipients right through WhatsApp. Some of the key benefits include: Communication with recipients

    • Order Wise Expense Tracking and Reporting Possible?

      Hi, We are a manufacturing firm and take up several orders at the same time. Each order will be associated with a single sales order and then once completed to a single invoice. When recording expenses, is it possible to associate each expense with a

    • Zoho Flow Needs to Embrace AI Agent Protocols to Stay Competitive

      Zoho Flow has long been a reliable platform for automating workflows and integrating various applications. However, in the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-driven automation, it risks falling behind competitors like n8n, which are pioneering advancements

    • Layout Rule Fields Appear in "Verify Details" Pop-up — Confirmed Working

      Hey everyone — just wanted to share a quick discovery. I created a Layout Rule in the Deals module that makes two fields show up (and required) when the stage is set to Closed Won or Closed Lost — one pick list and one text field. To my surprise, those

    • Can you please let us know how we can use Zoho for multi store?

      Hello Team, Can you please let us know how we can use Zoho for multi store because when we connect our plugin to Zoho and we create a product and then on another store when we create product with same name then product already exist error occurs, so how

    • Zoho One Home Dashboard - My Tasks (Projects) & My Overdue Work Items (Projects) have no data.

      The title basically covers the situation. I've set up the dashboard cards, and for a while, they were showing data. Now, they are both blank. Is anyone else experiencing this, or has anyone else experienced this, and if so, is there a fix?

    • Zakya - Release in North America?

      At Zoholics it was pitched like Zakya was already released in North America. However, when looking for it I couldnt find it. There isnt an integrated app available in Zoho. I figured maybe it was being released at Zoholics. Now over a month later, its

    • Custom Field Mapping in Outlook

      I have 10 custom fields in Zoho is there a way to create and map them to the outlook contact?

    • Custom module - change from autonumber to name

      I fear I know the answer to this already, but thought I'd ask the question. I created a custom module and instead of having a name as being the primary field, I changed it to an auto-number. I didn't realise that all searches would only show this reference.

    • Enhanced Zoho CRM and Office 365 calendar synchronization features!

      Dear customers, We're excited to share some significant improvements to our Office 365 calendar synchronization features, aimed at providing you with more control and a more personalized experience. What’s new Choose your Office 365 calendar: During the

    • Problemas de usarmos no Brasil

      Somos usuários a exatamente um ano do Zoho Recruit, agora migramos para o Zoho One. Temos enfrentado por diversas vezes problemas da ferramenta não estar realmente preparada para funcionar corretamente na lingua portuguesa. Problema esse não específico

    • CERTIFICADO DIGITAL - BRASIL

      Olá, Temos o ZOHO ONE e no Sign vemos de forma simples a assinatura digital, temos nos BRASIL certificado digital, de no CERTISIGN homologado pelo GOVERNO do BRASIL, há possibilidade de gerar a assinatura diante deste certificado?

    • Zoho Duplicate Reference Numbers

      I have 2 accounts through zoho. On one account if I enter a bill with the same number as a previous bill I get a warning message saying that there is already a bill with this number. However on the other account I do not get this message. How do I turn

    • integration between Zoho Site and Zoho Learn

      integration between Zoho Site and Zoho Learn so that when a user registers on the Zoho Site, their account is automatically created in Zoho Learn!! the use case i have pro plan in zoho site and zoho learn and i have puted the zoho learn domain in zoho

    • Automation #6 - Prevent Re-opening of Closed Tickets

      This is a monthly series where we pick some common use cases that have been either discussed or most asked about in our community and explain how they can be achieved using one of the automation capabilities in Zoho Desk. Typically when a customer submits

    • Not able to list or add contacts

      I am not able to get a list of contacts via api request. Tickets for example are listed via api even without orgId, so it shoud be similar. What is missing to reach the requirement. My aim ist to add a contact via API and then add a ticket with the contact

    • See contrat information from an account under the ticket

      Hi there, How can I program something to display created and selected contract on the ticket itself so my agents see it and can support correctly according to the contract and SLA ? Thank you :)

    • Weekly time log view

      The Weekly Time Log view is pretty nice. My users really like it when I show it to them. They like being able to pin ongoing tasks. Anyway, it's sort of hard to find. It is grouped with the Add Time Log button as a pull down. In my opinion, it should

    • Any Impact of Amazon Listings API on E-commerce Integration?

      Amazon sent the following message about changes to their APIs. Our only Amazon app / integration is Zoho Inventory's eCommerce for Amazon US, so the message below in bold gives us concerns about if Amazon's warning is referencing Zoho's Amazon US integration.

    • Working with Products that are non-tangible

      How does one create a 'service' in products? Is there a way to disable inventory functions for things like Sofware as a service? The services module doesn't look to be much help either. Not sure how to do this in CRM

    • ePOD Devices

      Has anyone tried and tested and devices that deliver ePOD (electronic proof of delivery)? We would like our drivers to use an ePOD device to get the customer signature The app should then be capable of updating the sales order to show delivery.

    • API Integration

      Why are we unable to do API Integration for Job borads

    • Remind/Recall Document API

      When I recall a document through the Sign API, I would like to be able to specify the reason that gets sent in the user notification email. Same with including a unique message when sending a document reminder through the API. Is there a way to include

    • Zoho Books API Creating Invoice and Address API

      I'm trying to create an invoice with zoho books api and i get the following error: Error creating invoice in Zoho Books: { message: 'Request failed with status code 400', details: { code: 15, message: 'Please ensure that the "billing_address" has less

    • Convert Multiple PO in 1 Bill

      Does anyone know how to convert multiple POs in 1 Bill? Thank you

    • merge the Multiple POs to single PO if Vendor of PO"s --in Zoho Inventory

      HI Merge the Multiple POs to single PO if Vendor of PO"s are Same ----in Zoho inventory Please provide any work around to achive this .

    • How to add categories to community

      In my Community, I would like to add several Categories but I don't readily see how this is accomplished. Currently, I have one category in my community with several forums. But I would like to add more categories. Thanks.

    • Knowledgeable Image Quality is very poor, any recommendations how to improve this?

      Hi All, We are looking at migrating our current knowledge base to Zoho so it can be kept in one location. Our current KB utilises a lot of images to try and make it easier for users and less wordy. Unfortunately, when I upload an image within an article,

    • Next Page