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Marketing Concept: Use these headline techniques if you dare

  

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Marketing Concept: Headlines eh? Doncha love ’em.
Guest post by Andy Maslen

Most copywriters, while happy to plough on through dense thickets of body copy, will do almost anything to avoid sweating over the really hard work: the headline. 

Over the years, many copywriters, myself included, have offered up rules, regulations, mnemonics and other helpful guides on the ‘best’ way to write headlines. 

Here’s a summary of some of the more useful ones. 

Michael Masterson 

The ‘4 U’s. 

Your headline should be:    

1. Useful   

2. Unique   

3. Ultra-specific   

4. Urgent 

“How to…” solves the first U. 

If you can’t substitute another business name or product for yours in the headline, you have the second U down 

“Save £34.97’ is more powerful than “Save money” for the third U. 

Using “Now’, “Right away” or a deadline covers the fourth U. 

Sean D’Souza 

Ask a question in your headline. People love being asked questions and can’t help starting to think of the answer. 

Get their curiosity buzzing. We’re hard-wired to solve problems. Ever see a chimp fishing for termites with a leaf mid-rib? 

Focus on the problem, not the solution. “Why should you be the only one in your street with tired, sad-looking windows?” is more powerful than “Acme double glazing makes your windows sparkle”. 

Brian Clark

Brian borrows from the late great Maxwell Sackheim for the classic: Do you make these [number] mistakes in your [activity]. 

You could say… 

Do you make these 7 mistakes in your blog posts? 

Do you make this fatal mistake when pricing your work? 

Do you make these three wealth-destroying mistakes when picking stocks? 

Headline writing IS hard. But it’s also fun. If you’re stuck for ideas, read a book, like the three guys above have done; or read a blog; or Google it; or go back to your product and dig deeper.