Copywriting Tips - Mastering Your Headlines

If you put me up against a brick wall with a gun to my head and asked me what the most important part of copywriting is, I'd say, without any hesitation, your headline. The reason for this is simple. Headlines will make up about 80% of your sales. In other words, if you're headline is weak, your sales are going to suffer dramatically. So how can we go about mastering them? What I am about to share with you is what I have found to be there best process for mastering headlines.

First off, it's important to understand just what it is that makes a headline effective. The answer is as simple as the process. It must be direct and to the point. It essentially has to say what your whole copy is about in one or two sentences. This is no easy task. Copywriters slave away for hours working on their headlines until they come up with a number of them. Each has his or her own way of going through the process. I am going to show you the one that works best for me.

Start with a very general headline. Let's say for argument sake that you're writing copy that is selling a make money online product. The product is going to teach the buyer how to go about making money on the Internet. This is a very common product to sell, and a niche that many marketers get into, so you should be able to relate to this example. What I do is start with a very general headline...something like. "Discover How To Make A Living On The Internet The Easy Way!" Now let me tell you something. This is a terrible headline. Why? Because it's not specific enough. That's what we're going to shoot for in our next revision.

So what we do is take that headline and modify it some. How about something like..."How To Earn 6 Figures Annually On The Internet...The Easy Way." Okay, it's a little more specific. We went from earn money to earn 6 figures, so we've more zeroed in on a target. But it's still not good enough. We could still further improve it with something like..."Discover How To Earn 6 Figures Annually On The Internet...In 3 Easy Steps!" Ah, okay...now we're getting a little more specific. We've gone from easy to 3 easy steps. So now we have some idea of the process.

We keep improving the headline in this manner until we finally get to something like..."Discover How A Retired School Teacher Banked $123,972 In Her First Year Marketing Online...In Just 3 Easy Steps!"

Now THAT is a very specific headline. We know a retired school teacher made the money. We know exactly how much she made and we know it was her first year marketing online. We also know it's a easy 3 step process.

That is what you should be shooting for when you create your headlines. Make them as specific as you can.

If you'd like more great tips on headlines and sales copy in general, please check out the link in my signature. The resource there will turn you into a top gun copywriter in a matter of weeks.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to save $2,500 to $15,000 in copywriting costs? Want to write copy yourself that can command that kind of payday? Visit my site at http://www.bcipe.com/ and discover killer copywriting tips that have allowed me to write my own copy for years and earn myself a 6 figure a year income selling my own products.

Want a Sticky Site That Sells? Forget Content!
Getting Over Copy Shock
The Secret to Web Copywriting Gurudom
The Lead: Sinking The Hook Into Your Prospect
Finding Your Clients Business Problem Leads to Better Copy
10 Eye Popping, Jaw Dropping Ad Copy Secrets
Do You Make These 5 Mistakes When Writing Sales Copy?
3 Steps to Great Copy
A Quick Free n Easy Content Writing Course
Kick-Start Your Juices
A Writers Secrets
Five Sections of Your Copy Guaranteed To Get Read
Copyright, Copyrighting, and Online Copyright Abuse - Save Yourself the Headache by Reading This!
How Your $2-an-Article Ghostwriter is Like a Cheap Pair of Pants
How to Write a Sizzling Sales Letter, Part 1
Writing Online In Two Syllables or Less
Freelance Writing As A Career
Top 7 Things To Do Before You Hire A Copywriter
Promote Your Business and Get Paid for Doing It!
Killer Ad Copy
Top 3 Rules for Writing Effective Copy
Boost Your B to B Marketing Copy: 3 Major Copywriting Blunders and How to Correct Them
How To Ethically Use A Swipe File For Your Ad Copy
Web Copy ? How Much is Enough?
Lapsed Donors: How to Write a Fundraising Letter That Wins Them Back