Did I get your attention?

I hope so.

Because it means that my headline worked.

The headline, as you probably know, is that bit in red and black at the top of this email.

It’s also the subject line that made you open the email.

A headline is the main reason why people click on a link… read an article… or look at an advert…

When you see a headline, a flurry of thoughts and emotions pass through you in a millisecond.

They make you decide whether the content beneath the headline is worth pursuing, or not.

You’ll have seen dozens today already – probably more – sometimes without realising it.

The ones you failed to register are ones that were either poorly written – or which didn’t speak to you because you weren’t the target audience.

This is why headlines are crucial.

They can make or break a sales promotion.

They can be the difference between an article that gets hundreds of readers and one that gets ignored.

So what’s the secret of creating a good one?

Well, there are tried and tested formulas that work.

You’ll know that this is true from the way that they are used in what is known as ‘clickbait’.

Clickbait headlines are those little ads you see on news website and social media which say things like…

“What this mother of two did next will SHOCK YOU”.

Or…

“What the girls from Abba look like now is jaw dropping.”

Or…

“One weird trick to cut your phone bill by half”

When you click on the link, it’s usually disappointing.

The shocking thing is really not that shocking at all.

The weird trick is not that weird.

It’s all empty calories, really.

Of course, the clickbaiters don’t care. They’ve done their job, which is simply getting you to click.

However, what is interesting is that they continually repeat the same kinds of formulas.

And that’s because there are headline formulas that work.

To prove it, I stole one of their naughty clickbait tricks for part of this email’s headline (“the reason will SHOCK you”.)

However the same principles apply to good, ethical promotions too.

In fact, if you don’t apply the principles to your own headlines, you’re going to really struggle.

For instance, look at these classic direct mail headlines…

• They laughed when I sat down at the piano… but when they heard me play…
• Do you make these mistakes in English?
• Why some foods ‘explode’ in your stomach
• How I improved my memory in one evening
• Discover the fortune that lies in your attic

These are not much different from clickbait style headlines are they?

Yet these come from long before the internet, and were used in successful adverts for many years.

And you still see them today.

You can use the formulas of such headlines to make sure your emails, blog posts, sales promotions and adverts grab attention and actually get read.

Now, there are loads of different headline formulas around, so there’s a lot of choice.

I’ve been at seminars and courses where we’ve spent a whole day looking at them.

So I won’t attempt a headline masterclass in a short email like this.

But for the sake of illustration, let’s focus on one, so you can see how they work and perhaps you can try it in your own business (headlines can be used in almost every business…after all a subject line in an email is a headline…so you may even just use this technique to get your emails read more frequently!).

The example I’m about to show you is one of the most simple but packs in the most urgency imaginable.

And it’s based on what is considered one of the most successful headlines used by the US direct mail publishing company, Boardroom:

Or to translate this into British parlance…

“What never to eat on an aeroplane”.

The headline works because it gives you incomplete information…

This adds to the intrigue, compelling you to find out more.

What could the answer possibly be?

But the headline also works because it is full of urgency – certainly if you are someone who travels on planes you would want to know what could be so dangerous to eat.

The alternative is to NOT find out and risk something bad happening to you.

It also works because it’s very specific – compared to, say, a headline like this, “What never to eat when travelling”, or “What never to eat”.

The reader thinks, why a plane, precisely?

Finally, the headline works because it arouses an emotion.

That emotion is ‘fear’ – one of the strongest emotions to tap into in advertising.

The reader of the headline will worry that they might do something in the future that causes themselves harm.

They’ll feel compelled to read the article in order to avoid any future pain and injury.

That’s a lot to pack into seven words, isn’t it?

Which is precisely the power of a good headline.

Other versions of this headline include:

Never swim if the water looks like this

Hurry and do this as soon as your dog eats grass

Why you should never drink from this kind of bottle

So how could you adapt this?

Well you can copy the formula exactly.

For instance…

• What NEVER to put in a dishwater
• What NEVER to say to a client
• What NEVER to wear in a job interview

Or you can think of ways to get a similar intrigue, urgency, specificity and emotion into your headline.

For instance…

• What you should do within 8 seconds of seeing this red signal on a trading chart.
• Hurry and do this if you burp after eating an oyster
• Seniors, never do THIS in bed
• The one thing you should never add to pasta.
• Why you should never answer this 0800 number

The ultimate aim is to make people feel compelled to click and find out more.

However, unlike the clickbaiters, make sure that you do then deliver information that really helps them, entertains them or surprises them.

This way, they’ll look forward to future communications from you – and they’ll be more likely to act on your next headline.

I’ve got plenty more headline formulas up my sleeve that I’m happy to share with you… It’s such a great skill to have and with the formulas you can start using it yourself in your products, in your sales, even in your day to day email subject lines 😉

So if you found this useful and you want more just reply to this email with ‘more formulas please!’ in the subject line 😊.