This headline isn't great

In This Email

• 🩹 Hook Fix:

  • Watch this bad headline get fixed in record time.

• 💡 A Content Idea To Try:

  • Encourage your audience to reconsider their habits.

  • Headline template and prompt included 👍️ 

• 🔒️ 2 More Content Ideas:

  • Visible to Pro readers.

Quiz

Hook Fix

Let’s fix this headline — then turn it into a template to make it work in your niche.

Bad Headline: “How To Use ChatGPT 4o: A No-Nonsense Guide” 

It isn’t the worst — but it just feels…intimidating. 

The content targets a beginner audience, but the headline doesn’t feel inviting to beginners. 

A beginner would look at the headline and wonder:

• “Will it be too complicated for me?”

• “Is it going to be super long?”

“Beginner-friendly” content is concise, digestible, and actionable. 

To gain the attention of beginners in an audience, the headline needs to make it clear that the content ticks these boxes. 

Let’s Make This Headline Irresistible To Beginners

Here’s a list of changes we could make: 

• Call out the intended audience in the headline itself. 

• Specify the approximate length of the content. 

• Make it clear that the content goes through the first steps — a “quickstart guide”. 

Much better.

It’s specific, actionable, and inviting. 

A Template To Try Out Yourself:

Examples From Other Niches:

• Photography: “Landscape Photography: A Novice’s 10-Minute Quickstart Guide”

• Fashion: “The Capsule Wardrobe: A First-Timer’s 3-Minute Quickstart Guide”.

Try the template out and see what you come up with.

💡 Content Template #1

Encourage Your Audience To Reconsider Their Habits

Your Headline Template:

The Inspiration:

"A Disturbing New Report Will Make You Think Twice About How Often You Wash Your Sheets"

Apartment Therapy [link]

Why The Headline Works:

• Curiosity Gap: It increases our "curiosity gap" by suggesting there’s something surprising or important to reconsider.

• Loss Aversion: Taps into concerns about missing information that could prevent negative consequences.

How To Adapt It For Your Niche:

1. Pick The Activity/Behavior: Choose a common activity or behavior within your niche that your audience might need to rethink.

2. Highlight The Insight: Detail the surprising and important information that'll make your audience reconsider this habit.

If you can't think of anything, don't worry.

The ChatGPT prompt below will give you ideas in even more detail than usual.

Speed Things Up With ChatGPT:

Hi ChatGPT,

I'm a content creator in the [insert niche] niche and my target audience is [insert target audience]. I want to create content based on the following headline template:

“This Will Make You Think Twice About [Activity/Behavior]”

This template is modeled on the following headline:

“This Will Make You Think Twice About How Often You Wash Your Sheets”

Generate 10 headline ideas for my niche that follow this headline template closely, replacing just the bracketed words. The content should cover specific topics relevant to the niche and should not be generic or broad.

Each headline should:

- Replace [Activity/Behavior] with a specific activity or behavior relevant to my niche.

Under each headline idea, briefly state what will make the audience think twice about the given activity or behavior. It should be lesser-known information, not obvious.

Examples Using The Template:

For Creators:

• Fitness: "This Will Make You Think Twice About Doing HIIT Every Day"

• Cooking: "This Will Make You Think Twice About Storing Leftovers In Plastic Containers"

For Businesses Creating Content (B2C):

• Construction: "This Will Make You Think Twice About Using Cheap Paint For Your Walls"

• Realtor: "This Will Make You Think Twice About Skipping Property Surveys"

For Businesses Creating Content (B2B):

• HR: "This Will Make You Think Twice About Skipping Annual Staff Training Sessions"

• Supply Chain: "This Will Make You Think Twice About Using Unverified Suppliers"

💡 Content Template #2 (PRO)

This template uses the psychological biases of authority and loss aversion to generate clicks, views, and engagement.

Use the AI prompt to turn it into content/headline ideas for your specific niche and target audience.  

Your Headline Template:

🔒️ 

Start your trial of Pen Pivot Pro to view Content Template #2 and Content Template #3 — both with breakdowns and custom AI prompts.

Creator Picks

• 10 lessons learned from posting over 1000 videos on social media.

• A copywriting tutorial on YouTube (it went viral).