The Ultimate Headline Secret

At least 95% of businesses make a crucial mistake when it comes to one of the easiest, most obvious things in marketing:

The headline. 

Headlines are one of the most important parts of any ad, website, letter, even conversation. 

In any marketing message, the headline lays the foundation of what you want to tell people.

Getting it wrong could easily turn a great ad into a non-performer.

Johan Cruyff, a famous Dutch football player, once famously said: “You’ll only start getting it once you understand it.”

Having been through this I can confidently say that Johan was right. I’ve seen businesses grow by leaps and bounds after they figured out how to fix this. Let me show you.

The real purpose of the headline

Headlines exist for only one reason.

To give your audience a reason to be interested.

If the headline fails to do this, they move on.

When you cannot get the reader interested in the first line, the chances of them staying around plummets.

Anything that exists after the headline becomes invisible, no matter how good it is.

Never do this

I remember having a call with a client about their ads.

I asked if they’ve had any experience making ads.

To answer my question, they sent over an ad that they created in the past.

The ad had supposedly run for months but yielded little to no results.

When I opened the file, the first thing that caught my eye told me everything I needed to know about the ad.

The headline.

It read: “In for a dollar…”

After seeing the headline I asked, “What’s going on? I don’t get it…”

To which the client replied, “You know, if you read the ad you will understand.”

I replied, “Well, that won’t happen. Will it?”

The client pushed on, “No, no. It’s really smart, if you read it, it harkens back to the headline.”

Scenarios like this pop up far more often than you would expect.

Although the rest of the ad was very interesting, it didn’t matter.

99% of people saw the headline and moved on in a split second.

This is the reason when I review any ad, if the headline doesn’t work, I stop there and address it first before moving on.

Doing headlines the right way

When writing a headline, you must ask yourself one crucial question.

“What will get the reader interested?”

Very simple. No requirement for magic spells or superhuman IQ.

Let me give you some examples of headlines I have written in the past:

“Your home sold within 94 days, or we pay you £1500.” 

“How to easily get more clients without increasing your ad budget.” 

“Finally, a definitive solution for the crippling effects of burnout.”

Notice how these headlines are not only intriguing, but they could even stand their ground without any body copy.

That is exactly what a headline needs to do.

It really is one of the easiest things to do, but also one of the easiest to mess up.

All you need to do is ask yourself, “Will this interest the reader?” Forget about the rest of the ad for now, and focus on this one critical factor.

Once you have done this, you can move on to the rest of the ad. Just like the reader will if done correctly.

Give it a try when writing your next ad.

If you want to know how we can create ultra-effective ads for your company, please contact us for a free consultation.