“How To Write A Sizzling Headline That Grabs Your Prospects By The Throat And Rips Into Them Like A Gaff Hook Ripping Into A Shark”

It’s a proven fact that before you can truly write a headline with a hook, and I’m not talking about some ’size 2 hook’ that wouldn’t catch a tadpole . . . I’m talking about a gaff hook ripping into the side of your prospects neck - like a shark getting hooked on the deck of a fishing boat . . . you first have to know what the offer is.

Without knowing your offer . . . your headline will suffer and so will your cash flow.

The difference between a good headline and a pathetic headline is the difference between Success and Failure in advertising.

That’s what a headline is.

The headline is the most important thing and the first thing your prospect see when he or she looks at your advertisement . . . or website sales copy.

It’s an Advertisement for your Advertisement.

The ONLY purpose of your headline is to get your prospect to continue reading your ad or sales letter. It must get your reader’s attention and it must pull them into your ad.

Your headline’s job is to hook your reader into to wanting to find out more.

I don’t give a toss how good your product or service is or how good your advertising copy is . . . if your headline sucks, your ad or sales letter won’t get read.

Here’s what 2 legendary copywriters had to say about the importance of good headlines:

“Advice to copywriters: When you are assigned to write an ad, write a lot of headlines first. Spend hours writing headlines . . . or days if necessary. If you can come up with a good headline, you are almost sure to have a good ad. But even the greatest writer can’t save an ad with a poor headline.” – John Caples

“On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. If you haven’t done some selling in your headline, you have wasted 80% of your money. The wickedest of all sins is to run an advertisement without a headline.”   – David Olgilvy

All advertisements should have a headline.

There are many rules that you should follow when creating headlines as well as the different types you can use, proven words to use in headlines and how YOU can create your own killer headlines.

12 Rules to Follow When Creating Sizzling Headlines:

RULE  #1:

Your headline must appeal to your readers self interest. Tune them into to everybody’s favourite radio station . . . ‘WIIFM’ which stands for What’s In It For Me? YOUR headline should answer this critical question.

RULE  #2:

Your headline must reach out to your prospect, grab them by the throat . . . and shake ‘em as though you are saying – Hey!!! I’m talking to YOU!”

RULE  #3:

Your headline must deliver a clear and understandable message. If you headline doesn’t make a complete and compelling statement you will fail to get the rest of your copy read.

RULE  # 4:

If you have news, such as a new product, be sure to get that news into your headline in a big way.

RULE  #5:

DON’T try and be cute or clever. These types of headlines are a waste of money as they will NOT get read.

RULE # 6:

Include the words ‘quick’ and ‘easy’ if it fits with what you are trying to communicate.

RULE #7:

Be specific in your headlines and not use generalities. For example, “Stops You Smoking In 3 Days” is a much better headline than “Stop Smoking Fast”. Specifics are believable.

RULE  #8:

Always test at least 2 headlines against each other to see which one pulls best. This is called an A/B split test.
For example, lets say you wanted to send out 10,000 letters to your customers. Traditionally you would send them all out at once, using letter ‘A’ and wait for your responses . . . if you get any at all.

Instead, this time you follow my advice and just send out a test of 1,000 letters to your prospects/customers.

You send out 500 of letter ‘A’ and 500 of letter ‘B’ instead of what you would normally do. The body copy of each letter is identical, it’s just the headline that’s changed. 

Your responses come in and 7 people responded to ‘letter A’ and 21 people responded to ‘letter B’. You now know that 300% more people responded to ‘letter B’ and you can safely send out the other 9,000 letters - all because you decided to test and measure.

Ask yourself this question: “Did it cost anymore to test the headline that increased the response/sales by a whopping 300%?”

NO it didn’t. Imagine what you could do for your business sales and profits by simply following this rule alone. Remember, you are not your customer and if you ASSUME (we all know what assume means) you know what emotional trigger is needed in your advertising and marketing, particularly in your headlines to get them to respond - you will continue to leave money on the table. It’s your job to test, measure and find out.

Advertising costs the same whether it pulls zero sales, one sale, 100 sales or more. WHY? because you are simply buying space and it’s up to you to make it pull like crazy, otherwise your money making abilities will be handicapped.

RULE # 9:

Use Upper & Lower Case letters for your headlines. This is much easier to read than all CAPITALS.

RULE # 10:

Use “quotation marks” around headlines as it has been long proven to increase readership.

RULE # 11:

Write at least  50 headlines . . . by hand. Don’t be lazy and don’t do them on your computer or laptop as you won’t learn too much this way.

RULE #12:

The single most critical job of your headline is to: get your next sentence read! Nothing more. Then the next sentences job is to get the next sentence read. If you have 153 sentences in your sales letter, the job of your copy is to get each sentence read.

if you bore your prospects/readers or listeners (if they are listening to a radio/tv advert) for even one second, you’ve lost them. On your website, it’s so easy for them to click off and NEVER return.

There is so much more to reveal on headlines and this should get you started. My copwriting clinic and my Judgment Day Home Study course goes into headlines in full detail. See Helpful Products on the right hand side.

Kick butt - write your own sizzling sales copy.

Warmly
Trevor ‘Toe Cracker’ Crook
www.TrevorCrookLive.com
PS. People have increased their responses by 1700% or more - just by testing headlines.