Three different headlines I have written for the New York Times Cooking article “16 Cheap, Healthy Dinners for When You’re All Out of Ideas” are:
- “16 Healthy and Delicious Dinners You Won’t Believe Are Affordable”
This headline is an effective alternative because it gets the message across in an easily digestible way while also including the number “16” for specificity. The headline starts with the number 16, which as we’ve discussed in class comes off as authentic and ultra-specific compared to round numbers that are often used like 10. Also, this headline contains the important information that the target audience for this content are looking for, which is “healthy dinners” and “affordable”, which appeals to people who need to stay within a certain budget but value a healthy lifestyle. This headline is easy to read and understand at a glance, while still being unique to the specific problem it is solving for people which is that it is giving them meal ideas that are affordable while being healthy and delicious. Based on class content, we learned that “You Won’t Believe” in a headline can create intrigue and persuade people to click the link, because as we know, the digital user is guided by headlines and wants to be surprised by the content they consume online. “You Won’t Believe” promises surprising and valuable information, while conveying a sense of urgency to click because of the “wow” factor of the meals being healthy and delicious while also being so affordable that it is hard to believe.
- “16 Cheap and Healthy Dinners You Can Make Tonight”
The second headline I created for this article is effective because of similar key aspects to the original headline, but this time adding a clear CTA. This headline is clear and specific (52 characters) with the important information at the front, “16 Cheap and Healthy Dinners”, which includes the specific and authentic number “16” which lets users know how much value they will get out of reading the article. The CTA “You Can Make Tonight” is clear and persuades users that the recipes inside the article and healthy and cheap, while being simple enough that they can be made tonight. These action verbs also let the user’s image themselves making the dinners instead of just reading about them, it puts it into perspective that the meals are not complicated to make which motivates them to take action and click the link to further investigate whether they will make one of the 16 recipes for dinner that night. The specific verbs and action words “you can make tonight” is a promise and guarantee to the reader that they can make one of the meals “tonight”.
- “Get Inspired by These 16 Healthy (And Cheap) Dinner Ideas”
The third headline I created for this article is effective because it takes a storytelling approach to tell the audience what they will get out of the article, which is to be inspired. As we have discussed in class, headlines need to tell a story at a glance and summarize the key idea of the article, which this headline does by containing the keywords “healthy”, “cheap” and “dinner ideas”. We know that we have seconds to grab the attention of the user before they are gone forever, so promising them something, which in this case is inspiration, is important to create value and adds authority to the article by being confident that readers will “get inspired” by the meal ideas. The headline stays under 60 characters which makes sure that it doesn’t get cut off in search engines, providing the full value of the headline to users without them having to guess. The parenthesis around (And Cheap) emphasizes the fact that the dinner ideas are cheap, adding intrigue and highlighting the benefit of affordability.
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