How to make your headline memorable

I have something to admit:

I’m a Whimsical fangirl—have been since 2020. 

Not only is Whimsical my preferred product for email flow and ecosystem mapping… 

But Whimsical also has messaging that clearly defines who’s the right fit for their product… 

Plus, they regularly use deceptively simple copywriting techniques that make your copy sound good AND more memorable. 

And we can all agree that message memorability is a big part of the game we play to win hearts and open wallets, right?

Right. 😀

In this issue you’ll see:

• Whimsical’s homepage hero headline—what’s working + a couple of areas to improve

• The science behind why this headline is built for fast memory recall

• How you can make your copy more memorable

Let’s dig in.

THE BREAKDOWN

Whimsical’s homepage hero headline.

Here’s the Whimsical hero headline:

Here are a few things that make this headline work:

1) Makes it easy for right-fit readers to self-qualify.

Right out of the gate, this headline identifies the target audience—key for helping right-fit buyers (and users) self-qualify. We shouldn’t underestimate the little lightbulb moment that happens when a reader thinks “Aha! This was built for me”—this is an important part of the persuasion process.

2) Leads with an implied “you.”

Similar to this Loop ad, this headline puts the reader first—a key for triggering the self-reference effect (also discussed here). But this technique is a little sneaky because the “you” is implied, rather than explicit, like so:

3) Uses a literary device that sounds good.

Literary devices—like alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhyming (more on this in just a moment)—make your copy sound good.

(“Good” is, of course, subjective, so when I say good here, I mean polished and pleasing to the ear.)

If I’m going to be a little critical of this hero copy:

“Tools” is vague.

“Aligned” is vague as well.

But one of the biggest mistakes I see is a hero headline that tries to do all the heavy lifting. It can’t.

Your headline is important, but it shouldn’t be subjected to that level of pressure.

Plus, in Whimsical’s case, the copy and creative below the fold explain exactly what they mean by “tools” and “aligned.”

As far as testing goes, this time around I’m looking beyond the headline:

I’d be curious to see what would happen with trial sign-up conversions if the call to action was supported with a click trigger that explicitly calls out that a credit card isn’t required to sign up.

That little click trigger tweak could help reduce the reader’s perceived risk, which may help increase the motivation to start the sign-up process.

THE PSYCHOLOGY

Boost memory recall, one rhyme at a time.

Rhyming isn’t just something that sounds good—it’s also proven to improve memory recall:

Researchers recently found that rhymes positively affect short-term AND long-term memory in adults.

If you’re still not convinced that rhyming is good for your copy, there’s also research that shows folks consistently prefer rhyming slogans and social advertising messages to non-rhyming messaging.

Back to Whimsical’s headline:

By using rhyming, the smarty-pants Whimsical marketers have engineered this headline for faster recall.

And when you consider that the headline also explicitly calls out the target audience, this approach is smart….

Because guess which product will pop into the reader’s mind the next time they think about collaboration tools for product teams?

THE ACTIONABLE TIP

Make memory quick with words that stick.

This week’s actionable tip is a shorty-but-goodie. Here’s the key copy technique you should add to your copy toolkit:

Write rhymes into your leading messaging—like your hero headline—to help your message stick.

Hint: If you find yourself stuck, try free tools like WordHippo or Rhymer to find words that work for your use case.