Sales Letter Success...
Turning your words into wealth
Class #2
Headlines: Eyeball Magnets and Cash Flow Creators
Assignments From Module #1
• Write out 2 letters by hand
• Cosmo / Enquirer Headlines – Write 20 about
mothers day themes – pick your top 5 – email
your top 5 to me
• Apologize
• Promote
• Read Scientific Advertising
• Levenger – review the email – 3 reasons why it
works so well?
Time Tested Success Formula
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A-I-D-A
Attention = Talk their language, show them
you understand their problem or need
Interest = Give them a solution... Something
BIG you can deliver to them as an fix
Desire = Show them others just like them
bought from you in the past and are happy
Action = make them an offer they cannot
refuse
Attention = Talk their language, show them
you understand their problem or need
• theme or benefit presented in the headline
• likely to resonate powerfully with your best
prospects
• headline and lead instantly grab your attention
• believable?
• compelling benefits the prospect will derive in
return for reading this?
• Explain why it is crucial for the prospect to
read this right now?
• Establish the qualifications of the person
writing them
• Does it sell you on reading the opening?
• Opening copy connect directly with the
headline and lead – and intensify your desire
to read on?
The best things about headlines...
• Creating your features and benefits list helps
create headlines – plus you create your bullet
points (the headlines you don’t use)
• Headlines you don’t use can also be used as
subheadlines (for scanners and to break up
the copy)
• Headlines can be used as email subject lines
• They can be used as classified ads or display
ads
• They make you MONEY... So get good at them!
7 Steps Before Writing Your Headlines
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STEP #1: Know your ideal prospect inside and out
STEP #2: Create a complete features inventory
STEP #3: Figure out WHY each feature exists
STEP #4: Think about what each feature actually
DOES for the prospect
• STEP #5: Make the transition to emotional benefits
• STEP #6: Rank, select and combine your benefits
• STEP #7: Word your benefits for maximum impact
Types of headlines
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Testimonial type headline
Question they need to answer
Educational Headline
Benefit driven headline
Curiosity driven
Facts or announcements
Their top fears, worries and needs
Include ...
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Personal Safety
Job Security
Financial Security/Independence
Health
Romance & Sex
Marriage & Relationships
Successful Parenting
Social Status/Respect
Success With a Hobby
Ideas for headline themes...
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What are you (or your product) best known as?
What could you be known as?
What can you be FIRST at in your market place?
What category can you create?
Stay focused on what you are good at (and known for)
Secrets for bucking the system
Accurate forecasts
What is your character/personality known for?
Most credible in the business
Willing to battle the ___ on your behalf
What enemy can you take a common stance against?
Combines 2 different solutions to make a unique and powerful solution
Brutally honest and funny _______
Reverse engineer what others are doing
Highest paid _____ in the world (everytime you see a successful
product/person - ask what their position is)
• Myth buster
• Obnoxious ________
Benefit headlines
(only present the primary practical benefit your product offers)
• Who Else Wants A Whiter Wash – With No
Hard Work
• Super Spy Lets You See Through Walls,
Fences, and Locked Doors
• What’s Wrong With Getting Richer QUICKER?
Emotional Headlines
(address the emotional need, frustration or fear your product addresses)
• Lies, Lies Lies Why we investors are fed up
with everyone lying to us! But getting rich is
the best revenge!!
• You can laugh at money worries- if you follow
this simple plan
• Tell the “Health Police” To take a flying leap –
and return to life’s guiltiest pleasures
Combine Benefits and Emotions
(Present the benefit and either imply or state the emotional payoff for the prospect)
• They laughed when I sat down to play the
piano, but then I started to play…
• Forbidden cures! Remarkable cures censored
by knife-happy surgeons and greedy drug
companies
• The amazing face-lift-in-a-jar used by
Hollywood Stars who don’t want plastic
surgery
Curiosity
(Tease the benefit, or begin the conversation by telling a story)
• How I made a fortune with a fool idea
• How a bald headed barber helped save my
hair
• The Secret _____ doctors take when no ones
watching
• The compelling case against ____(traditional
belief you want to bust)____
Headline Ideas...
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Just Arrived
New method of _____________
New here
New modernized ____________
It’s here
Latest findings
New discovery
Just off the press
New invention
Just out
The world’s first ____________
At last
How To...
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How to get _________________
How to get the most out of ______________
How to have ________________
How to end ____________
How to start ________________
How to conquer _____________
How to improve _____________
How to become ______________
How to develop ______________
How you can ________________
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Seven ways to ___________
The truth about ___________
The one sensible way to ___________
Profitable tips for ________________
Plain talk with _____________
Confidential chats with ____________
Great email subjects (headlines)
• Wed 4/22 is Secret Password Day (rastaurant
and very creative marketers)
• The “Starbucks Stalker”
• Avoid This Natural Gas Trap (could easily be
modified to your business)
• A free book for 300 lucky readers
• Your best defence against a bad economy
(insert your own replacement for economy)
• Meditate like a Zen Monk
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This is why you’re broke
5 New Ways To _____ in 2009
Deck the halls with bills and dollars
Stop drinking water now
Would you rather me be blunt, truthful, or ...
We’ve been banned by Biker Magazine
You might need to read this twice
Body copy (deck copy)
• The trick with headlines is to write them in
way that the reader can easily see himself
being the main character in the story you are
telling them.
• You talk about their pains and make them feel
the pain as they are reading it
• You amaze them with your insights on how
much you seem to know about them
• You become one of them, and they feel you
are a friend and confidant
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JUNE EVENTS
International Men's Month
National Rose Month
Entrepreneurs Do It Yourself Marketing Month
Children's Awareness Month
Effective Communications Month
Gay and Lesbian Pride Month
Audio Book’s Month
Dairy Month
Professional Wellness Month
Rebuild Your Life Month
Sports America Kids Month
World Infertility Month
Caribbean – American Heritage Month
Zoo & Aquamarine Week
People Skill’s Week
• First Week: National Business Etiquette Week
/ Telemarketing Awareness Week / Superman
Week / Fishing Week
• Second Week: Families in Business Week /
National History Days / Bathroom Reading
Week / Hug Week / Men’s Health Week
• Third Week: Nursing Assistants Week / Meet
A Mate Week
• Fourth Week: Carpenter Awareness Week /
Fish Are Friends, Not Food! Week / National
Prevention of Eye Injuries Awareness
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School is Out (Activities for Kids)
Graduation
First Day of Summer
US Open (Golf)
Wimbledon (Tennis)
NBA/NHL Finals
Weddings (known for the largest #’s of marriages that occur this
month)
Gay Pride Celebrations (take place in honor of the Stonewall Riots)
June 5 – National Family Day
June 6 - Bonza Bottler Day
June 8 – Banana Split Day
June 13 - Alexander the Great dies from over eating (323BC)
June 25 - LEON Day (LEON is NOEL spelled backwards – 6 months
till Xmas)
June 26 - Fat, drunk King George IV dies from over eating (1830)
Assignment #2
• Handwrite out 50 of the best headlines given
• Then immediately write out 50 headlines for your
product – use variations of how, how to, what never to,
and any one of the other headline templates given
• Rank your 10 strongest ones (remembering to put
yourself in your BUYERS shoes... Not your own. What
would they most likely stop and pay attention to?)
• Finish the headline with a starting sentence (headline is
larger at the top, body copy continues below, starting
with dear friend... Continue the thought the headline
started)
• Send out one promotion this week – Mothers Day
Month or other... Let me know your results
• Start planning your June promotions (write out
headline ideas... Offer ideas... Plan of attack... Etc)