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How To Craft a Killer Headline in 3 Easy Steps Part 1

Author: Paul Martinez   |   February 12th, 2010

As a MarketingForSuccess.com subscriber, you already know that headlines are the key to successful sales letters, web copy and email copy.

But if you’re like many business owners or marketers, you probably struggle when trying to come up with great headlines. The truth is, so do most copywriters.

That’s why good copywriters spend around 80% of their time on a promotion writing the headline.  To give you an idea of what that means, I’ll spend entire days working on the headline for a sales letter or website.  In some cases, I write hundreds of drafts.  I test every possible variation until I find the one that “clicks”.

Of course, a nice side benefit of this process is that you usually come up with the bullets, subhead, and crossheads.  And once that’s done, all you have to do is write the body copy.killer headlines copywriting tips

Why Swiping Headlines Can Kill Your Business

Now, many copywriters will simply tell you that you can simply swipe successful headlines from other markets.  And that’s true—to a degree.  But there are a few things you need to know before you start grabbing headlines and using them in your own copy.

You see, not all headlines work in all markets.  A headline that pulls tons of orders on an internet marketing product may fail miserably if you use it on a prospecting letter for a dentist.  Why? Because those two markets have radically different motivations for taking action.

The Internet marketing product prospect is motivated by the desire to make money.  More specifically, they’re motivated by the desire for freedom. Freedom from their boring job.  Freedom from their crushing debts.  Freedom from their current life.

On the other hand, a prospective dental patient has very different desires.  They want to know that getting their teeth cleaned won’t hurt too much.  They want to know if their teeth bleached so they can impress chicks with a 1,000-watt smile.  Or maybe they have a family and want a dentist who’s great with kids.

So a dentist’s prospects’ motivations may range from fear (painless dentistry), to acceptance (impressing other people), or security (knowing their kids’ teeth will be well cared for).  And underneath all of those desires is a deep need to trust the dentist.

As you might have guessed, a headline from an internet marketing promotion would probably fail if you tried to apply it to the dental market.  The motivations of the prospects are too different. They’re looking for different services, for different reasons, and with different underlying motivations. And that means you need to take completely different approaches to each market. Which brings us to the first step of how to craft killer headlines.

Killer Headline Secret #1Know Exactly What Your Market’s Deepest Needs Are.

Or, to put it another way: you must enter the conversation already taking place in your prospect’s mind. Robert Collier originally said that, and Dan Kennedy tries to pound it into people’s heads at every opportunity.

And for good reason.  Knowing how your prospects think is vital to writing good copy.  That’s why top copywriters will spend 100 hours (or more) researching a new market.  And great copywriters spend a lot of time learning about the product or service they’re selling.

Those two types of knowledge—market knowledge and product knowledge—are what helps you create great headlines.

Chances are, you already know your market intimately.  So before you write your next headline, spend some time really thinking about this question:

What’s your market’s deepest need or desire…and…how can you fulfill it?

You’ll know you’ll have the answer when you get to the simplest answers.

For instance, what does an internet marketing product buyer want?  Money.

Ok, why do they want money?

Well, to some people money means “freedom”.  To other people it can mean “ status” or “acceptance”.  And to some people money can just mean you have the ability to buy cool stuff.

That’s the level of motivation you need to dig down to. Do your prospects want “status”? Do they need “safety”? Or do they just want “fun”?

I can these “emotional motivators”. Once you know your prospects’ emotional motivators, you’ll be able to hit your market’s deepest emotional hot buttons…the ones they don’t even know exist.  And when you do that, you can create an incredible amount of motivation to buy.

Paul

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