You’ve got seconds to grab your reader’s
attention. Fail, and you’ll lose them and their
money forever.
I want you to succeed, and headline creation is
one of the things you need to learn to make money
online.
So, after repeated requests, I’m going to break it
down for you step by step as together we create a
headline that grabs the reader and demands they
read more.
To do this, I’m going to present you with a
fictitious product. It’s called “Copywriter’s
Companion”, and it will teach people how to write
better copy.
Now, the first step in beginning to write a
headline is know your product’s biggest benefit.
“Copywriter’s Companion” teaches a person how to
write sales letters that get huge responses. So,
that would be our biggest advantage.
But I’m sure there’s more to this manual and your
product then just one simple benefit. And our next
job is to create a list of every benefit we can
come up with. Start writing and just run on, even
if some don’t make that much sense or are general.
We can discard as we move on.
Here’s how my list turned out:
Teaches how to write to sell
Saves time
Can learn to make money as a copywriter
Will be able to sell more and make more money
I offer the book for less than hiring a copywriter
Never turn out bad sales letters again
Now you’ll notice in my list that it is mainly
made up of promises, and that’s no mistake. But
more on that in a moment.
So, you have a list of benefits. Some pretty weak,
some that really grab at you.
You now need to spend a little time developing
some of your weak benefits. If you can’t develop
them into something stronger than trash them. A
headline is too short for words and benefits that
don’t pull their weight.
Next, we begin to construct out headline into a
sentence or two that will give the reader the
biggest benefits.
Basically, we’re just stringing words together at
this point. We want to get a rough form of our
headline together that gives benefits. Worry about
nothing else at this point.
Here’s the headline I came up with:
“Copywriter’s Companion is a manual of time saving
tips that show how copywriters do it and get paid
a lot of money”.
I know, pretty horrible. I don’t usually write
that poor of a headline. But I did it so I can
teach you how headline creation works.
Anyway, we have the rough headline. Not very
exciting. But still, I see a ton of headlines of
this type that dot the Internet landscape. And we
both know a headline like that isn’t going to cut
it. While the “Copywriter’s Companion” is a fine
fictitious product, the headline I just wrote
sheds no light on its true worth.
So, how do we make it sparkle?
First, we cut out the brand name “Copywriter’s
Companion.” That’s a horrible waste of words and
no one cares what it’s called.
Now the headline looks like this:
“A manual of time saving tips that show how
copywriters do it and get paid a lot of money”.
Yes, I know. It’s still very drab.
So, I would rework it a little to shorten it up
and make it clearer. I might write something like
this:
“Write Sales Letters Fast And Make Thousands Each
Project With My New Manual.”
Now it’s starting to take a little better shape.
Next I would make a few changes to make the
headline a little more specific. Instead of just
plain old sales letters, I would write, “open your
wallet sales letters”!
Then I would turn my headline into a promise. Very
important step. The reader has to be assured that
if they invest the time reading your sales letter
that they’ll get a reward.
So, I would place a guarantee in the headline. It
works to instantly put them at ease that
everything I’m about to tell them is true.
Second, I would put the word you in the headline.
It speaks right to the reader. And it points out
that I’m giving the promise to them directly.
With that, here’s my finished headline:
“You Can Write Get Your Wallet Out Sales Letters
Fast, And Get Paid Hundreds of Thousands To Do It,
With My Guaranteed, Step-By-Step System”!
I think it works!
Let me briefly sum up what the above headline
does. You can use this summary for every headline
you write from now on.
First, it addresses the reader directly.
Second, it makes a promise. The reader knows
they’ll be able to write hard-hitting sales
letters and make hundred of thousands.
And they now believe the headline and it benefits
because I’m guaranteeing it.
And that’s my three-step plan for killer
headlines. Address the reader, make a promise, and
make them believe it. If you do, you’ll have
awesome headlines that lead your customer into the
rest of your sales letter. From there it’s up to
you. But it’s been said before that you can’t
write a bad sales letter if you have a good
headline.
Grady Smith is offering his new e-book, “Secrets
Of Hard-Hitting Sales Letters” for FREE to the
next 1,000 visitors. Plus, he’ll also give you a
FREE $50 critique of your sales letter and FREE
copywriting newsletter. Check out
http://www.cheap-copy.com
