38 Great Ideas for Your Next Headline

The best way to get ideas for headlines when you are stuck is to keep a swipe file of successful headlines, and consult it for inspiration when you sit down to write a new ad or mailing.

As a shortcut, here’s a partial collection of such headlines from my vast swipe file, organized by category so as to make clear the approach being used:

1. Ask a question in the headline.“What Do Japanese Managers Have That American Managers Sometimes Lack?”
2. Tie-in to current events.“Stay One Step Ahead of the Stock Market Just Like Martha Stewart – But Without Her Legal Liability!”
3. Create a new terminology.“New ‘Polarized Oil’ Magnetically Adheres to Wear Parts in Machine Tools, Making Them Last Up to 6 Times Longer.”

Copywriting Case Study Outline

1 – Who is the customer?
This information is gathered from surveys, from data cards containing information about each customer, from market research reports, and anything else containing information pertinent to directing sales to a specific type of customer.

2 – What was the problem? How was it hurting the customer’s business?
Identify here what it was that was causing so much trouble for customers in working with prototypes of the product or service and showing how the customer suffered from the problem.

Clear, Compelling, and Credible Copywriting

• Clear - easy to understand—define exactly what you are selling
• Compelling - riveting, cannot put it down, story-telling at its best—makes you want to find out more or buy the product—“This is exactly what I’ve been looking for to solve my problem!”
• Credible - believable, no dropped threads or loose ends, answers all questions, eliminates doubt and concern about spending money.

Clarity is obvious. If you are selling a vacation resort, then that is what you are writing about in the first few lines. But what you also need to indicate about the resort is WHY this resort is so wonderful. Maybe it has a special charm that invites newlyweds to come spend their honeymoons there. In other words, find out all the wonderful benefits about going to this resort, and focus on them in the first few lines.