Do headlines tell their own story?

In today's quick consumption, time deficient world, headlines are becoming the story.

Sensational headlines on news vendors' placards are traditionally written to capture attention, introduce a story and sell a newspaper, but today thanks to the 140 character limitation of Twitter, the headline is becoming the story. Twitter is particularly interesting as the established news organisations frequently attribute Twitter as a news source and invite readers to participate through the medium. Journalists are apparently fond of using Twitter and refer to announcements made by "celebrities" issued as Tweets which seems to be an increasingly popular way of communicating with the press. Of course skimming headlines in  a newspaper, magazine or web site helps readers make a choice of which stories to read in more detail, if any are read at all. Apart from Twitter, headlines come in other forms too - RSS news feeds and email subject lines for example - but increasingly in the age of texting and social media there isn't much more content. Encapsulating the main issues of an announcement into a few well crafted words therefore takes on even greater importance for marketers.

This trend to short communications extends to reports upon which major investment and purchase decisions are made. It seems not uncommon for decision makers to have a short attention span, one that may extend to reading a one page proposal, but not a 70 page document that provides background information, research, rationale, numbers and facts. However it may not be that new - just becoming more commonly encountered. It is reported that Ronald Regan, Winston Churchill and Dwight D Eisenhower all insisted on one page decision making memos. "Regan required officials and staff to boil down the issues into a one page format with the following four elements: the issue, the facts, reasoning and recommendations."


Conversely time seems to be out of proportion to the  importance or value of the decision. Writing a humorous piece  in The Economist as long ago as 1955, Cyril Northcote Parkinson observed in what became known as 'Parkinson's Law' that 'work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion' and in a subsequent essay described a management meeting agenda with three items requiring a decision. Discussion over a multi-million pound investment in a nuclear power plant merited a mere ten minutes discussion with experts not even called in to provide detailed advice. Review of quotations for repairs to the roof of the cycle shed a matter of a few hundred pounds took rather more time, while the decision to raise the price of tea in the works canteen by one penny went on for hours.

There are also plenty examples where decisions are made on the basis that the project should include some pet feature insisted upon by the MD while a detailed specification is ignored. Time spent on planning pays off in the long run but marketers need to gain attention in the first case to provide a hook and and for the prospect  to swallow the bait. So succinct, to the point headlines, reports that get to the point quickly are important, but in depth analysis in the form of White Papers and detailed product specifications are equally vital to answer all the questions the MD may ask anyway but can't be bothered to read. And of course having relevant unique content on your web site will help with Google as well.