Magic Headlines

Whenever I interview a prospective copywriting or consulting client, one of the first questions I usually ask is: “who’s this product for?”

And more often than I’d like to hear, I get the answer: “it’s for everyone.”

Experience has taught me to defer on such projects because the prospective client has no idea who his or her target market is. And that signals there’s usually a basket of oversights and problems in addition to this biggie.

Conversely, when you ask the question, “who’s this product for?” and get an answer like, “it’s for single executive women who live in Tribecca, have aspirations to be a managing director and spend their summer weekends in the Hamptons,” then this is as green as lights get. [Read more…] about Copywriting: Headline Nightmares

If you’re looking for proven ad headlines in the health and alternative medicine markets…here are some to get you started.

I’ve spent a small fortune on books and newsletter subscriptions over the last decade to acquire the most successful direct mail promotions.

These were winners and mailed over-and-over again.

 

Alternative Medicine and Health Ad Headlines Swipe File

Coronaries Cured For Pennies

Prostate Problems GONE In Just 14 Days!

Vinegar Can Be Used For WHAT?

How Modern Chinese Medicine Helps Burn Disease Out Of Your Body

End Your Heart Problems in Three Months or Less For Less Than a Dollar a Day

[Read more…] about Ad Headlines in Health | Alternative Medicine Ad Headlines

Many moons ago, one of the sharpest copywriters in the world wanted to drum up business for his ad agency.

What did he do?

He created a massive, two-page advertising spread of 100 headlines he handpicked as the most instructive ever written.

The copywriter was Victor Schwab and the timeless compilation of headlines and thumbnail analyses he put together are a must for anyone serious about creating great headlines.

It’s worth reading theses headlines in their original layout, so after you’ve scanned the scrumptious headlines below, you can print out the ad to keep on your desk for quick reference.

100 Good Advertising Headlines (1-megabyte PDF) This is a 3,000+ word ad, so if you choose to print it out, you’ll need larger paper or just use the magnifier in your PDF Reader.

1. THE SECRET OF MAKING PEOPLE LIKE YOU

Almost $500,000 was spent profitably to run keyed ads displaying this headline. It drew many hundreds of thousands of readers into the body matter of a “people-mover” advertisement — one which, by itself, built a big business. Pretty irresistible, isn’t it?

2. A LITTLE MISTAKE THAT COST A FARMER $3,000 A YEAR

A sizable appropriation was spent successfully in farm magazines on this ad. Sometimes the negative idea of offsetting, reducing, or eliminating the “risk of loss” is even more attractive to the reader than the “prospect of gain.”

As the great business executive Chauncey Depew once said, “I would not stay up all of one night to make $100; but I would stay up all of seven nights to keep from losing it.” As Walter Norvath says in Six Successful Selling Techniques, “People will fight much harder to avoid losing something they already own than to gain something of greater value that they do not own.” It is also true that they have the feeling that losses and waste can often be more easily retrieved than new profits can be gained.

What farmer could pass up reading the copy under such a headline — to find out: “What was the mistake? Why was it ‘little’? Am I making it? If it cost a farmer a loss of $3,000 a year, maybe it’s costing me a lot more? Perhaps the copy will also tell me about other mistakes I might be making.” [Read more…] about 100 Good Advertising Headlines (by Victor Schwab)

Many A-list copywriters argue headline templates, and swipe files in general, are a waste of time. They don’t work.

Most purveyors of copywriting material, on the other hand, praise the plug-and-play simplicity of templates for selling any product or service.

As in most cases with two disparate views (and agendas), the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Few A-list writers would consider submitting a direct mail package with a swiped headline, no matter how successful the original. Not even if the derivative headline were undetectable.

The A-listers may have synthesized the knowledge of hundreds of headline split tests but they’re generally bound to the creation-from-scratch mentality that their clients expect from them.

Almost without exception, the purveyors of copywriting material claim that creating winning advertising is an easy process. All you need to do is insert your details into a readymade template, smooth over a few patches and presto, out pops a profitable ad. [Read more…] about 9 Headline Templates That Have a Prayer

Imagine having to wake up each morning and come up with a startling, new headline to sell your product.

Furthermore, imagine you’re in a cut-throat industry in which yesterday’s laurels mean diddley and constant threats like union strikes hang over your head.

To top it off, industry or niche specialization offers no advantage. Your market is any literate person with a pulse. Your only job is to sell, sell, sell.

Your headline must be so arresting, it causes an i-banker racing down the street…with a briefcase in one hand…a Starbucks cup in the other…and a Bluetooth headset on his ear…to crane his neck and soak up the marvel of copy calling out to him like a blue collar siren.

Tough assignment…huh?

This is precisely what the publishers and editors of the New York City tabloids have had to deal with for decades and that’s why they house some of the deftest headline writers.

Take, “Headless Body In Topless Bar.” If this isn’t the most elegantly compact and titillating crime headline ever written, then I’ll freely stand in the way of that hood’s front page kick.

Or New York Daily News editor, William Brink’s masterful “Ford To City: Drop Dead,” a day after Ford vowed to veto any proposed Federal bailout of the City.

These are two of the most memorable newspaper headlines ever written. The Post and The News seem destined to battle each other in this gladiatorial headline game till one or both of them drop.

And what of the “old gray lady,” The New York Times?

Unintentionally, it can be just as entertaining as its lesser colleagues. Like this 1984 classic, “Unknown Arm of Sicilian Mafia Is Uncovered in the United States.”

For anyone who’s ever cursed the blank page…here’s a collection of 127 Winning Headlines from a copywriter who’s sold over a BILLION dollars worth of products, books and newsletters in dozens of different markets.

Very few direct marketers today even know of their existence…let alone have seen them.

You’ll also be able to print out this collection of 127 headlines to keep on your desk for ready reference and “lightning inspiration” for those dreaded blank-out moments.

Such a rare compilation could easily sell for $197 but it’s YOURS FREE…for the next week at least.