Without a doubt, the headline is the most important part of any advertisement or sales letter. The reason is very simple. The headline is the first thing your prospect sees when they look at your ad.
It’s an ad for your ad.
The sole purpose of your headline is to get your prospect to continue reading your ad or sales letter. You have to grab the attention of your readers and you have to attract them to your ad.
Your headline should be so compelling that your reader has to find out more.
It doesn’t matter how good your product or service is or how good your ad copy is, if your headline isn’t good, your ad or sales letter won’t get read.
Let’s take a look at what two legendary copywriters have to say about the importance of good headlines:
“Tip for Copywriters: When assigned to write an ad, write lots of headlines first. Spend hours writing headlines, or days if you must. If you can come up with a good headline, you’ll almost certainly have a good ad. But even the best A writer can’t save an ad with a poor headline.” –John Caples
“On average, five times as many people read the headline as the body copy. If you haven’t sold something in your headline, you’ve wasted 80 percent of your money. The worst of all sins is running an ad without a headline.” –David Olgilvy
It never ceases to amaze me how many ads I see that don’t have headlines.
All ads must have a title.
Let’s talk about the rules you need to follow when writing headlines, the different types of headlines you can use, tried and tested words to use in your headlines, and how you can become an expert headline writer.
Rules to follow when writing headlines:
1. First of all, your title must appeal to the self-interest of your reader. Communicate the greatest benefit (or benefits) to your prospect. Everyone’s favorite radio station is “WIIFM”. What is for me? Your title should answer this important question.
2. Attract the attention of the prospect you’d like to target. If your headline doesn’t attract the right people, you’ve failed. Your headline should reach out to your prospect, grab them by the throat, and say, “Hey! I’m talking to you!”
3. Your headline must convey a clear and understandable message. Most people only read the headlines. Because of this, your headline must make a full statement and compel the prospect to continue reading the body of the copy.
4. If you have news, such as a new product, be sure to include that news in your headline in a big way.
5. Don’t try to be clever or funny with your headlines. These types of headlines are ineffective and a waste of money.
6. Include the words “quick” and “easy” if it fits what you are communicating.
7. Use details in your titles, not generalities. For example, “Make $5,274 in 30 days” is a better headline than “Make money fast.” The details are more believable.
8. Always test two headlines against each other to see which attracts the best.
9. Use upper and lower case letters for your titles. This is easier to read than all caps. I also like to put quotation marks around my headlines. Studies have shown that quotation marks around headlines increase readership.
10. When it’s time to write a headline for your ad, write at least 50 headlines. Some direct marketers spend days writing hundreds of headlines looking for the right one. Creating sale headlines takes more than a few minutes. You have to commit to sitting down and writing at least 50 headlines!
Your headline is the key to the success of your entire ad. If you don’t tell your prospect what’s in it for him, you won’t get his attention. If you don’t get their attention, they won’t read your ad. And if they don’t read your ad, you’ve wasted your time and money.
Different types of headlines:
To help you write attention-grabbing headlines, let’s take a look at the different types of headlines you can use, how and when you might want to use them, and real-life examples of successful headlines.
o The news headline. If your product or service offers something newsworthy, advertise it in your headline. Newsworthy is usually the introduction of a new product or the improvement of an existing product.
Here are some words you can use in your news
Headline: New, Announcing, Introducing, Finally, Just Launched, Now, Finally.
Examples:
“Now! Own Florida Land This Easy Way… $20.00 Down Payment & $20.00
One month”
“The new diet burns more fat than running 98 miles a week”
“Announcing… the new edition of the encyclopedia that makes learning things fun”
o The Holder of the Guarantee. Guaranteed Headlines indicate a desirable benefit and guarantee results or other benefits. If you offer a powerful guarantee, let your prospects know by indicating it in the headline.
Examples:
“Play the guitar in 7 days or we’ll give you your money back”
“Announcing a new, technologically advanced golf ball that will never loose, never cut, and never lose… 100% guaranteed”
o The title How. These two words, “how”, are very powerful words. You can never go wrong using an instruction title. (More than 7,000 book titles begin with How To.) How To Titles promise your prospect a source of information, advice, and solutions to their problems. If you ever get stumped by a headline, use the How To Headline – it works!
Examples:
“How to win friends and influence people”
“How to make him brag about his kitchen”
“How to form your own corporation without a lawyer to
Less than $50″
o The holder of the benefit. The key to a winning Profit Holder is to know your market so well that you can offer them a powerful and compelling benefit that they can’t easily get elsewhere. She should thoroughly research her target market to learn what benefits will motivate them to take action.
Examples:
“If you are a careful driver, you can save money on car insurance”
“Clean your breath while cleaning your teeth”
“Get rid of money worries forever”
o The title of the question. Again, to use this headline, you have to really know your market. You need to know what your prospect is thinking, what their anxieties are, and what they hope to achieve. If you know your target audience well, then the question title is an effective title to use. The question title should focus on your prospect’s self-interest and ask a question they want to know the answer to. The best type of questions to ask are questions that involve your prospect.
Examples:
“Do you make these mistakes in English?”
“Can you pass this money test?”
o The title Reason-Why. With the Headline Reason-Why you give your prospect specific reasons why they should read your ad. Reason and why headlines are effective because they contain specific facts and numbers. Reason-why Headlines do not need to include the words “reason why”. You can use “38 ways”, “7 steps”, “5 secrets”, etc.
Examples:
“38 Fun and Easy Ways to Win $500.00 Next Weekend”
“7 steps to freedom”
“67 reasons why it would have been worth your while to respond to our ad a few
Months ago”
o The Holder of the Testimony. The Testimonial Headline is just what he says: he uses a client’s testimonial as his headline. With this headline, he gets his customers to sell for you by talking about the benefits they received.
Examples:
“I lost my packages… and I also saved money”
“How I Retired With a Guaranteed Income for Life”
“I was tired of living on low wages, so I started reading The Wall Street Journal, by a subscriber”
o The Holder of the Command. The Command Title tells your client what to do. Your command should encourage action by offering your prospect a benefit that will help them. Effective command holders begin with action verbs.
Examples:
“Stop dreaming and start earning money”
“Throw your can of wax in the trash – the new no-wax floor is
Here”
“Order Christmas cards now, pay after January 20”
There you go! Several types of headlines that you can use for any type of circumstance or market. Each headline type works well on its own or can be combined with other headline types.
Now, let’s talk about the words you can use in your titles.
Power words for headlines that have been shown to work:
* Advice To * Amazing
* Announcing * At Last
* Bargain * Breakthrough
* Discover * Do You
* Easy * Facts
* Guarantee * Here
* How To * Immediate
* Life * Magic
* Money * New
* Now * Powerful
* Proven * Quick
* Sale * Secrets Of
* Success * Surprising
And finally, the top three most powerful words:
FREE You Your
The words you use in your titles are very important. Dan Kennedy has talked about how adding just one letter to a title (with no other changes to the ad) nearly tripled the response to an ad that ran in a magazine.
Let’s take a look at the headline Dan talked about. This is what the headline said before the change:
“Put music in your life”
And this is what he said after the change:
“Put music in your life”
Adding the “s” to the word “Put” nearly tripled the ad response! (The first headline implies that you have to do something. The second headline implies that something is done for you.)
This example demonstrates how important it is to spend a lot of time writing dozens of headlines and then testing different headlines.
How to become an expert in writing headlines:
The first thing you can do to become an expert headline writer is to start a headline collection.
Every time you see a headline that grabs your attention and prompts you to read your ad, write it on a 3 x 5 index card. Spend time studying these headlines and see if you can improve them.
An easy way to start a collection of effective headlines is to subscribe to tabloid magazines. The folks at National Inquirer, Star and The Globe know how to write headlines. Due to their irresistible headlines, these magazines sell millions of copies every week! (Off the news posts on impulse!)
I have hundreds of cards with headlines. When it’s time to write a headline, I use these tokens to get ideas.
Here’s another trick for writing headlines:
Before attempting to write a headline or any form of advertising, you should write all the benefits of your product or service on 3 x 5 index cards. Write only one benefit on each card. When writing benefits, remember to write them from your prospects’ point of view. (Also, turn your product features into customer benefits.)
Once you’ve taken the time to write down the benefits, you’ll have a stack of cards (perhaps hundreds) that you can use as headline ideas. Isolate the most important customer benefit and use it to create your headlines. Sometimes one of the benefits may turn out to be the actual owner. (Also, use the tabs when writing your ad or sales letter.)
Here’s a checklist to use when evaluating your headlines:
1. Does my title communicate the greatest benefit to the client?
2. Does my headline answer the question: “What’s in it for me?”
3. Do you offer a reward for reading the ad?
4. Is my headline clear and direct? Does it communicate a complete message?
5. Does my headline grab attention with a powerful sales message?
6. Does it motivate my prospect to keep reading?
7. Does my headline speak directly to my target prospect?
8. Is my headline interesting to my prospects or boring them?
9. And finally, is my headline an ad for my ad?
Remember, the difference between a good headline and a bad headline is the difference between advertising success and failure.
Your headline is the deciding factor on whether or not your prospect will read your ad. It is the most important element in advertising. Spend as much time as it takes to write winning headlines and watch the response to your advertising rocket.