So what makes up a good headline? Take a look at a national newspaper, a magazine, billboard advertisements, even infomercials on late night TV. They’re all written by professional marketers and advertisers for a reason. Because they work! Take use of their examples.

I don’t normally write my LP copy, because, well, I hate my own work (even though everyone else I’ve worked with said I write like a god. You are your biggest critic). What I do notice from my best LPs and other LPs I’ve seen is some of the following:

• Catch people way off gaurd. Throw them for a trip. Give them something totally unexpected. One example was of a speech I was forced to listen to in high school. There were 1,200 kids in the high school auditorium. Everyone was talking, and when the speaker went up to the mic, no one shut up. “SEX!” … the room went quiet. “Alright! Now that I’ve got your attention…” It was completely irrelevent, but it totally worked. All eyes were on him for his whole speech.
• Big and bold is the way to go. This is pretty self-explanatory and kinda “duh!” You’ll notice that all headlines are bigger than the rest of the text. Yeah. Don’t be a dumbass! Make your headline bigger than the normal font. Since you want it to be the statement that draws them in, its gotta be the biggest font above the fold. Users eyes will naturally be drawn to it.
• The use of emotion helps drag people in. Making a headline exciting or sad can help create a connection with your potential lead. People are dumb and gullible. Use that to your advantage and make them feel bad about themselves. Rather than “Is this person fat? They could use Acai berry to slim up.” try, “Are you tired of being called a fatty? Thin up with Acai!” Target their own emotions, not someone elses.
• Use a question as your headline. This is straight out of 10th grade. Rather than start off a paper with “This paper is written by me, Justin Dupre, and I am going to be writing about how to write better headlines.” Knock that shit off and try something like, “Do you want to write headlines that made people like Justin Dupre bajillionairs?” It’s exciting, engages the potential lead, and begs them for an answer. HELL YES I WANT TO MAKE A BAJILLION MONIES!

I’ll try and find some more real life examples and we can examine them in-depth for a future post. In the mean-time sign up for Tatto Media and win some free stuff!