What are good ways to write headlines? Avoid being punny or cute. You see that in your inbox and it doesn't even register. It's like it's as if you can't even see it or think about it because there's nothing there to grab onto. Instead of these mystery meat headlines, what you want to do is make sure that you have enough of the basic facts about the who, what, when, where and why-you don't have to have all five W's in there, but try to have at least three-that you have enough of the who, what, when, where and why in the headline so that people know, "OK, what is this about?" and "Is it relevant to me and my audience?" That's what people want to know.
They don't care about cuteness. Forget cuteness. I think that cuteness in press releases is way overrated, and you should concentrate on clarity and specificity first. If you can inject some cuteness once you have those other qualities, fine. Let me give you an example of what I think is a good headline. I have a collection of successful press releases and here is one, "New 100% Natural Product Increases Plant Growth By Up to 300%." Now, if you were a gardening magazine editor, would you click on that release. It's specific and it tells you what the general realm of this product is and it makes a claim that is very interesting, and that adjective, "natural," raises your curiosity. All in all, I think that's a very successful headline and it's not surprising that that release got coverage for this new product in quite a number of gardening magazines. For more tips on how to write fantastic press releases, read "The Do-It-Yourself Press Release Makeover."