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One kind of headline is the “hook”. John Carlton is legendary for this style of headline. What makes a good hook?
Basically a good hook is born from good research. Look for the unuaual twist that makes your subject stand out.
“Amazing Secret Discovered by a One-Legged Golfer Adds 50 Yards to Your Drives, Eliminates Hooks and Slices…. And Can Slash Up To 10 Strokes From Your Game Almost Overnight!”
This i s one of Carlton’s headlines.
Even if you don’t play golf you might be tempted to read this just to get the skinny on this one-legged golfer guy.
John continues on with the story promised by the headline. Now think about this. Tthis headline..
- arouses your curiosity
- promsies a story
- offers some believable yet highly desireable benefits
As for your own headlines… you should put your best benefit in it. If you can find some extraordinary tidbit of information you can build your message around like the one-legged golfer secret - you can use some sort of hook like this one.
But beware! Make sure you can back it up! Don’t go around making outrageous claims you can’t prove. It’s called false advertising and it’s illegal. Even if you can make a fairly incredible claim and back it up - don’t make it too incredible because folks may not believe it anyway.
In the copy to Carlton’s page, it goes on to explain, quite reasonably, how all this makes sense AND gave credence to the secret that could only be revealed to those who ordered.
