Writing Great Headlines That Sell

If you master no other section in this whole entire workbook, then the headline is the part you really need to master for maximum results. The job of a headline in any marketing piece is to break the prospect out of the spell of hum-drum life that we all live in, to break the spell that is our everyday life, and capture our attention. To break people out of their own little worlds and to get them to take notice of what we are saying, we use a powerful headline …

A headline has to  scream …

“I AM INTERESTING … YOU MUST READ ME NOW OR YOU WILL LOSE OUT!”

If your ad doesn’t break our fascination with our own lives and get us interested within the first few seconds, your sales letter or advert will just end up in the bin as soon as your prospect realizes it is a sales letter.

A great headline is the way to grab your readers’ attention and have them reading on. In fact, the headline is so important that most copy writers spend about 80% of their time on the headline, and 20% on the rest of the copy, and so should you.

7 tips to creating better headlines:

1) Use numbers – “12 Ways to Make More Money This Year Than Last Year” or

“7 ^3/4 Ways to Pay Less on Your Mortgage”

2) Experiment – Always try different things until you find out what works, and always test and measure your results

3) Try Shocking News – Copy the newspapers’ formula for headline for examples!

4) Use the 5W’s and 1H Formula (The who, what, where, why, when and how.)

5) Never Use a Full Stop in a Headline; you want your reader to continue reading

6) Mix and Match Techniques – only one thing matters – results!

7) Headlines don’t have to be short –  they have to be interesting and applicable.

Great words to use in headlines