The clever headline lost to the boring one by 55%

A company had a headline that sounded smart and modern: "Affordable, Easy-To-Use Web-Based Contact Manager (CRM)."

They tested it against something almost embarrassingly plain: "The Quickest & Easiest Way To Organize Your Contacts."

The plain one converted 55% better.

Here's the trap we all fall into: we polish a headline until it sounds impressive, and somewhere in the polishing the visitor loses track of what the thing actually does. Clever is for you. Clear is for them.

If a stranger read your headline cold, would they know exactly what you sell and why they'd want it? Any hesitation, and simpler wins almost every time.

Try this test: show your headline to someone outside your industry for two seconds, then hide it and ask what you sell. If they can't say it back, your headline is too clever for its own good.

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The clever headline lost to the boring one by 55%