Today I’m going to tell you the secret to writing killer headlines. For this we’re using a book called Breakthrough Advertising, by Eugene Schwartz.
This just happens to be the most sought after copywriting book in history.
In fact, there’s a brand-new copy on Amazon right now for £1,200 pounds. But you don’t have to spend that much to find out what’s inside.
Table of Contents:
How to write killer headlines
So I’m gonna give you a quick lesson from this book because I think this is stuff that everybody needs to know about.
I’m gonna simplify it, and I’m gonna put my own spin on it with my own twist – that’s unique to Profit Copilot.
The very first lesson I’ve got for you it’s all about desire. Specifically how to use desire in your headline.
The truth about desire
Breakthrough Advertising says something very true, that you cannot create desire.
You can only tap into and exploit existing desire and direct that towards your product.
Now this is a fundamental mistake that a lot of copywriters and Internet marketers make.
They try to manufacture a desire for something that doesn’t exist.
So your job is to really locate the desire that already exists and then redirect that to your product.
You see, you might have the best product on Earth and it might give your audience absolutely what they need.
But that doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is what the market wants – what they desire.
It’s not about what they need. We’re talking about mass desire.
Breakthrough Advertising says that mass desire is ‘a public spread of a private want‘.
What does that mean?
Well, when it comes to mass desire we’ve got two categories that things tend to fall into.
Types of mass desire
We’ve got ‘permanent forces‘, so it could be the desire to feel healthy.
And then the second category that we’ve got is ‘force of change‘ and these are trends and fads and things that change over time.
You have to decide which category your product falls into.
Is it going to be something that’s around forever and just a part of our natural human desire?
Or does it fall into the second category where it’s more of a trend with a beginning, middle and an ending?
Once you know that how exactly do you channel this mass desire to your product?
Simply put you’ve got to choose the most powerful desire that can be applied to your product.
Mass desire dimensions
Eugene Schwartz says we need to inject ‘dimensions’ into our headline, so we’ve got; urgency, intensity, and the demand to be satisfied.
Think about the urgency of the problem that your audience is facing; think about the intensity of that problem, and the demand for that need to be satisfied.
Figure out how those three things relate to your product.
For example think about pain, arthritis vs a headache. They’re both pain, but very different types.
Also think about the staying power of the problem, think about the degree of repetition, and the inability for your marketplace to become satisfied.
How do those three things relate to your product?
For example, Eugene Schwartz talks about hunger.
We’ve got hungry as a starving need vs a different type of hunger which is just a craving.
Every product you promote will appeal to several dimensions but only one will dominate your headline.
This means you have get it right and you have to make sure that you are speaking to your market in a language that they can understand.
Then you’ll be you’re speaking directly to their desire, to their need.
And that creates an immediate connection to you and your message.
A three-step formula for killer headlines
When it comes to crafting the perfect headline for your advert there’s a little three-step formula that we can follow.
The first thing is to acknowledge the desire, then reinforce it, and then offer a way to satisfy that desire.
If you have all those three things in your headline, then you will speak directly to your market in a more efficient and effective way.
Then they’ll know that they are in the right spot at the right time on the right product to match their desires.
So there you go, I thought I’d just share a little lesson from Breakthrough Advertising, on how to write a killer headline.