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.”

10 Headline Formulas That Work Like Magic

The most important part of your copy will be the headline. Spend time getting this part right and the rest will follow. Your first few sentences can mean life or death for the message in the rest of the copy. Therefore, it’s crucial to get it right, to hit the customers and reel them in for the rest of the message.
Miguel Alvarez, Copywriting.com, has come up with his own system for headline formulas. Try these out to help you develop your headlines to be all that they can be. His suggestion is that you write at least five different headlines for each type of headline listed below. That helps you get creative and thinking about different ways to present your product or service.