The magazine rack at the grocery store... a great place for headline ideas

by NickN

Posted: 13 years ago 16 replies

COPY WRITING

I was recently at the grocery store and saw a great headline on the cover of a woman's magazine (Glamour or something similar).

"Make Everyone Want Your Life"

"The #1 Happiness Secret, pg. 108!"

Considering the average reader of the magazine (women looking to improve on something in their lives), this headline hits all the right notes.

1. People love being the talk of the town and making friends/family/strangers jealous. This headline reinforces this desire.

2. The idea that everyone wants your life means you're happy and successful

3. The subhead arouses curiosity. "Wow, just one secret is going to make me happy and change my life?! I gotta find out what it is!" ::frantically flip to page 108::

This made me think about how similar magazine-cover headlines are to ad headlines.

Cover headlines have to make the reader want to open up the magazine (or better yet, buy it) in just a few words.

That means almost always using the element of curiosity ("Trapped in a Closet: The Secrets, Lies, and Wild Times of a Gay Governor"). And for self-improvement magazines, also throwing in a big benefit ("See how to get rock-hard buns like Jillian Michaels... in just 2 weeks!")

Likewise, the goal of an ad headline is to get the reader to keep on readin'. This is done using the same tactics as a magazine headline (benefits, curiosity, and so on).

So next time you're waiting in line at the grocery store, scan the magazine headlines... you might stumble on headline you can swipe for your next sales letter. I know the next time in a headline-writing rut, I'm turning to Cosmo for inspiration.

#great #grocery #headline #ideas #magazine #place #rack #store

TiffLee

13 years ago

I used to work in the copywriting department of one of those 'checkout rags.'

... IMHO, they have some of the most brilliant 'copy minds' in the world.

It was a great pleasure to be able to associate and learn from those people every day for over four years.

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RickDuris

13 years ago

Go to Discount Magazine Subscriptions & Deals | Magazines.com

Pick a category.

To enlarge the magazine cover images, press ctrl + key sequence.

(Press ctrl - to reduce the size.)

- Rick Duris

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Steve Hill

13 years ago

Originally Posted by RickDuris

Go to Discount Magazine Subscriptions & Deals | Magazines.com

Pick a category.

To enlarge the magazine cover images, press ctrl + key sequence.

(Press ctrl - to reduce the size.)

Useful site, Rick. It's also helpful that after picking a Magazines.com category then a specific magazine, the following page has a View Larger Photos link to current and past covers of that magazine in larger view.

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RickDuris

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Steve Hill

It's a wonderful place for research as well. Because if there's anyone who spends time with their finger on the pulse of their market it's magazines.

It's interesting because the whole journalism model is under enormous stress right now dealing with the social media phenomena.

For instance, someone on Twitter Sunday scooped the news that Whitney Houston had died.

Then a few hours later API confirmed it.

So what do we need periodicals for if we can get our news through more up-to-date/current channels?

Well, Twitter got the details wrong.

So it seems journalism role of fact checking and then providing curation is what's going to keep them alive and successful.

- Rick Duris

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Raydal 13 years ago

Yes they are a great inspiration for headline writing but their
headlines are so short. Could they really work online?

-Ray Edwards
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- NickN 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Raydal
  
  Yes they are a great inspiration for headline writing but their
  headlines are so short. Could they really work online?
  
  -Ray Edwards
  
  Maybe, maybe not. But the idea of being clear and concise in headline writing is universal. That's what I admire about the rag-mag headlines.
  
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max5ty 13 years ago

[DELETED]

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- Mark Andrews Banned 13 years ago
  
  This may or may not prove useful to one or two of you...
  
  http://pure.ltu.se/portal/files/6648...DT-0542-SE.pdf
  
  Best,
  
  Mark Andrews
  
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  Steve The Copywriter 13 years ago
  
  @Mark,
  
  That was a very interesting read.
  
  @Rick,
  
  A brilliant place for headlines.
  
  Cheers,
  
  Steve
  
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  http://www.warriorforum.com/warriors...right-now.html
  
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MikeMarin 13 years ago

I remember Doug D'Anna saying all you need to do to write good headlines is study the covers of readers digest for a year. Good advice that has greatly improved my headline writing
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- Lucy Writes 13 years ago
  
  I've always found the article headlines on magazine covers at the grocery check out line to be great inspirational ideas for what people want to read right now. They are super for coming up with niche ideas and article ideas of your own for your websites. Those headlines wouldn't be on the cover of the magazine if they weren't popular topics.
  
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MorpheusMirror 13 years ago

Reading magazine headlines and thinking through the copywriters and customers mindset created a dramatic increase in click throughs.
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Audrey Harvey 13 years ago

Or you might just find a new niche. When three dog magazines at our local newsagent (one Aussie, one from the US and one from the UK) all had articles on the same topic, I thought it was worth getting the domain name.
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markpocock 13 years ago

Check this Cosmopolitan headline swipe file out
that's on Clickbank. It's NOT my link. --

Headline Swipe File: Gary Halbert, John Carlton, and Clayton Makepeace Recommend this
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clarest 13 years ago

This reminds me of Maxwell Sackheim's classic ad headline "Do you make these mistakes in English?" Makes people curious about the following lines.
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Jonah 13 years ago

@raydal

If you can cut straight to a person's gut with 3 words in a headline, then why would you try to add more just for the sake of it?

I would even go far as to say that a prospect who has been "struck" and it only took 3 words, are that much more "struck" because it did only take 3 words.

Kind of like the stranger you meet who seems to fully understand you after 5 minutes of talking -

"wow dude, you hit me to the core"

that's what we're after
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David Mcalorum 13 years ago

The BEST magazine in my opinion to read for headlines is ...
(drum roll please)

The National Enquirer!

It might be mindless garbage, but it sure as hell evokes curiosity.
and more so it entertains. Which is a biggie to have working
for your advantage.

In my opinion this is why Frank Kern does so well, because his
("sales personality of the surfer dude") is just so damn entertaining!
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