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February 16, 2006
Can reading Cosmo make you a better communicator?
If you are not a young woman age 18 to 34, you may not be familiar with Cosmopolitan magazine. If you don’t know Cosmo, run to your nearest newsstand and buy a copy—because doing so will make you a better communicator.
How? Because the editors of Cosmo have made an art form (and a lucrative business) out of figuring out how to appeal to their audience. And any communicator can adapt what works for Cosmo to make our own work more compelling and effective.
The magazine’s success starts with cover lines, those short headlines (on the cover, of course) that promote what’s in each issue. Like other consumer magazines, Cosmopolitan not only offers subscriptions, it also relies on sales of individual copies at newsstands, supermarket racks, and in airport shops. And it’s a jungle out there—magazines only have a few seconds to catch a potential buyer’s attention, convincing her to pick up the magazine, look at it more closely, and decide to buy it.
It’s no surprise, then, that Cosmo’s Editor-in-Chief Kate White spends half her time working on the cover. For Cosmo, the ingredients of a successful cover include some elements most of us don’t have to worry about—which beautiful celebrity is being featured, how provocative is her dress, and how pouty is her expression—but one factor communicators do have in common with Cosmo is cover lines.
“I wasn’t a born cover line writer,” said Ms. White at a recent industry speech. “I had to learn how to write cover lines that get readers’ attention.”
Her education began by really getting to know her audience. “I use focus groups, reader polls and online surveys to get a sense of who the reader is and what she wants,” Ms. White says.
As a result, Cosmo cover lines are designed to directly appeal to readers’ needs, most of which focus on relationships:
- “How to snag the man you want”
“50 fun ways to get close to him”
“5 relationship rules you gotta break”
“10 times it’s okay to be a bitch”
I know what you’re thinking: “What the heck does this have to do with the stuff I need to communicate?”
To see the connection, get beyond Cosmo’s topics—sex, men and personal fulfillment—and focus on the techniques editors use to create the cover lines:
- Brevity. Cover lines are short, snappy, easy to read. Long words are few and far between.
- Service. The premise is to help the audience solve a problem or accomplish something that matters to them.
- Fun. Cosmo is serious about its readers’ needs, but doesn’t take itself too seriously. You can sense the smile and the wink behind the words.
Can you apply these techniques to your own headlines? Sure you can. Just focus on your audience, relax and have fun with it.
Posted by Alison Davis at February 16, 2006 01:32 PM