Writing Powerful Headings for Your Business Letters

Can you imagine reading a newspaper or magazine without any headlines or headings? Headlines and headings help us find our way around, decide what to read, signal what’s coming next and highlight key points. Looking at today’s financial pages of the newspapers, we found these examples:

Banking code outlaws obsolescence for savings accounts
Electronic banker offers taste of the future
Euro-fish out of its depth
FT-SE falls on foreign woes
Kingfisher flies in the face of retail gloom
Masters sells pub chain
Whitbread stops 5,000-job plan
In most business documents, the headings are much weaker. At best they cover the subject matter; at worst they sound academic and tedious.

You can learn to write good headings and subheadings that transform your business letter writing and organise the information to help your reader. Compare these headings.



    Typical Heading    Action Headings  

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First-time Mortgages  Helping you Buy your First Home

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Re: Account Arrears  Repaying the Money you Owe

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Job Application Appraisals for the Position of Research Officer  Selecting a Research Officer Shortlist

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    Headings often fail because they stick too rigidly to the subject matter. The key to writing powerful headings is to use a strong verb and specific words. Because each heading has a strong verb, we call these action headings. You can also use direct questions as headings as they have an added impact. For example:

Why Have an Annual Review?
Why Invest Your Lump Sum?
Are You Paying Too Much Tax?