10 Ways To Writing Better Headlines

[Raydal]

It’s simple. Your marketing message stands or falls by your
headline. Your headline carries the majority of the weight in
getting your prospects attention and no message gets read if the
attention of the potential client isn’t won.

I have been able to increase the conversion rate of sales letters
by as much as 70% and more by simply changing the headline. The
same way in which newspaper editors look for the catchiest
headline to place on their front pages so that people would buy
their newspapers, so you must write the best headline if you
expect to get your wares sold.

Below I share some of the very best guidelines or principles to
successful headline writing. Most of these guidelines emerge from
real world testing and judging the results of winning direct
marketing letters from the past. In other words, a great headline
idea is not just a theoretical entity but a marketing tool that
comes out of the crucible of real-world marketing.

Here are 10 of the most effective headline writing strategies:

1. The “how to” headline. Sometimes the common and ubiquitous
can fool us into taking a pattern for granted but this tried and
true headline writing formula would never lose its effectiveness.
“How to” in a headline implies that you are going to be giving
practical instructions on how to accomplish a goal versus just
theory. Think of the many best-selling books that have “how to”
as part of their titles such as “How to Win Friends and Influence
People”.

2. Make the subject “newsy”. People love to discover things
that are new and interesting and want to keep abreast as to what
is going on in the world. How else could you explain 24-hr news
channels such as CNN? If you word your headline like you are
making a newsworthy announcement then you’ll get attention.
Consider: “At Last! A New Way To Stop Hair Loss.” Just make it
‘breaking news’ and you’ll have your reader’s attention.

3. Make a paradoxical claim. Consider these headlines: “How to
lose weight while eating more!” “How to make money online without
a website!” All these claims states a contradiction and builds a
tension in the reader’s mind that can only be resolved when he
reads the rest of the copy, which is the main purpose of any
headline—to get the rest of the sales letter read. Brainstorm and
see if you can come up with a paradoxical headline for your
product and tell another ‘David beating Goliath’ story with your
sales copy.

4. Demonstrate your products main claim. If you are making a
very bold claim for your product you can try demonstrating this
claim right in the headline. For example, “New Blogging Tool Made
New Jersey Man $103,657 in Just 30 Days!” Here the claim is that
this new tools can make bloggers a lot of money within a short
time and the headline shows this instead of just telling it.

5. State the claim as a question. One of the most effective
applications of this strategy is the “Who Else Wants …” style
headlines, such as “Who Else Wants To Make More Money Than They
Ever Made In A Year In Just One Month?” Similar questions could
be “Could You Spare An Extra 30 Minutes Marketing If It Made You
Over $100,000 Per Year?”

6. Make the claim easy by comparing it to something simple.
Consider this headline: “If You Could Copy And Paste Then You Can
Get More Customers For Free!” The taks of copy and pasting is
something easy enough so that it will make this claim universally
accessible to the reader.

7. Warn the reader about not getting your product. You may
want to state upfront the negative consequences that would result
if the reader didn’t get your product. Fro example, “Do Not Buy
Another Traffic Tool Until You Read This Report.” Because the
reader doesn’t want to make a mistake then she is compelled to
get this report if only to place her mind at ease.

8. Shock the reader by contradicting the way he thinks. This
is close to the paradoxical strategy because it creates
dissonance that only reading the copy could solve. Consider:
“Article Marketing Is A Waste Of Time And Money—Here’s A Better
Way!” Because it is generally accepted that article marketing is
one of the best ways to market online then this headline gets
attention because the reader initially disagrees. (TIP: More
people pay attention to you who DISAGREES with you than who AGREE
with you!)

9. Show how the values and heroes of the reader match your
claim. If you can find the main values and the heroes of your
readers and show how these are all supported by your claim then
you have a winning headline. If Tiger Woods uses a certain golf
ball then your prospect will pay more attention than if an
unknown did the same. Your readers will listen to and follow
those who share their same values and beliefs.

10. Harness the reader’s dominant emotion towards your market.
This strategy works well for markets that have seen several
products and several different claims and may be weary of
products that didn’t live up to their expectation. These readers
are therefore weary of advertising. A headline which acknowledges
and empathize with this frustration will work magic. For example
in the MLM market it may be well to try a headline such as, “Are
you Sick And Tired Of Being Ripped Off By MLM Companies?” Here
the prospect is wooed into reading the rest of your copy because
you are starting at the point she is at to bring her to where you
want her—to making the sale.

Now, I shared with you 10 of the most effective headline writing
strategies but there are as many “types of headlines” as your
imagination can concoct. The bottom line is that any headline
that is worth its salt must be able to arrest the reader’s
attention and get the rest of the sales message read. If you can
accomplish this—whether you used any one of these strategies or
none at all—you would have won the greatest battle, the battle
for your reader’s attention.

[Bigsofty]

You forgot the "Offer a short numbered list..." variety


B.

[Raydal]

Originally Posted by Bigsofty

You forgot the "Offer a short numbered list..." variety


B.

That one flew over my head. I didn't get it?

Maybe I'm a little slow.

-Ray Edwards

[Lakseninord]

Thanks for the tips.
Writing headlines is not as easy as it sounds. At first you have a lot of ideas, but after a while it seems that the well runs dry... And it can be a real pain writing at all.

[stuff2]

Thanks Raydal

Yes I heard about having a good headline is important. And this has came in handy I have list somewhere on my hard drive. I just can never find the list of ideas when I need them. Like now I am working on some sales letter.

[procopywriter]

Those are some great tips, Ray!

I'm currently writing a 7-part series on headlines on my blog. (See link below.) It's on the 7 key elements that make up a powerful, attention-getting headline.

After reading your list, I realized my post on curiosity missed one way to arouse it--the paradoxical headline. Forgot about that one!

Thanks for keeping me on my toes!

Aaron