MRR Central Blog

Written on June 4, 2009 – 2:13 am | by Jeffrey |

Believe it or not but these are the top 5 direct marketing headlines in history. They’ve been responsible for selling mega millions of dollars worth of products throughout the years.

The common theme that connects of all these headlines is that they raise curiosity and they’ve all been written in very plain, simple English.

The reason to keep your language plain is because the reading level that the average American is accustomed to reading is at around the 8th grade mark.

This isn’t to say that they can’t read at a 10th or 12th grade level or higher but simply because they don’t have the time to. Most people are so busy that they don’t have the time to sift through flowery, expressive language. Check out commercials and listen to the language being used to see what I mean.

Your writing should stir emotion and cause your prospect to take action not to draw attention to itself. Complicated, drawn out, longwinded language distracts and will cause your prospects to lose interest.

So aim to your language at the 8 grade level when writing your sales copy.

1.”They laughed when I sat down at the piano – but when I started to play!”

The number one, best selling headline of all time responsible for grossing hundreds of millions of dollars in sales over the past 50 plus years.

Why it works:

Everyone loves a great story, from the time we are children we’ve been conditioned to love them. We want to know what happens next, that coupled with the curiosity factor hooks people in and keeps them reading. It’s our nature as human beings to be curious; we want to know what people’s reactions were when he started to play the piano so we get hooked in for the ride.

This headline still works and only requires a modern day adjustment to suit your own product. Writing great copy can be as simple as borrowing from the best. Knowing what works and then making a few alterations to fit your own sales copy. You just got a thousand dollar copywriting education from standing on the shoulders of giants, free.

For example:

“They laughed when I told them I make money online – but when I showed them my PayPal account!”

How’s that for curiosity and with the proof to boot? People will be reading just to know how much this person made and was it really so much it stopped the laughing dead in its tracks?

Put your own spin on it.

Practice by slotting in your own words, you have a multimillion dollar headline for free here, so put it to good use.

“They laughed when I ________________ but when I ________________!”

2. They grinned when the waiter spoke to me in French – but their laughter changed to amazement at my reply.

This is very similar to the first headline and works for the same reasons.

This time it’s French instead of piano, reply instead of playing resulting in both groups having the laughter shocked out of them with amazement.

It’s basically just a modified version of the first headline, proving it works just as well even when changing the situation.

Again it’s the curiosity factor that draws the reader in. They want to know why the people were amazed. What did the person say to the waiter that caused the laughter to turn to astonishment?

3. Do you make these mistakes in English?

I still see this headline everywhere today in many different forms because it has so many applications, i.e. do you make these mistakes with the opposite sex? do you make these mistakes in your business? do you make these mistakes with your diet?

People will do anything in life to do either of two things, to achieve pleasure or to avoid pain. Being aware of your mistakes helps you to avoid the pain of embarrassment, loneliness, humiliation, financial loss, heartache, failure, unhappiness.

This is why this very simple headline still works extremely well today because it appeals to the very basic human need to be accepted and we achieve this by avoiding the pain that comes from making mistakes.

Substitute your own words:

Do you make these mistakes in ___________?

4. How a “fool stunt” made me a star salesman

People respond well to “How” type headlines and this one works particularly well because it sounds more like a story than just a headline. We want to know how a fool stunt could make anyone famous so we stick around and read the whole sales copy to find the answer.

You could use it this way:

How one “accidental mistake” made me a superstar copywriter.

How a “__________” made me a star ___________

5. Free to brides – $2 to others

This appeals to pride, being a part of an exclusive group makes people feel special and superior, it’s a headline that speaks directly to its targeted prospects, in this case to “brides”. This is an effective method for targeting only the group that you want by singling them out.

Free to bus drivers – $__ to others
Free to dog owners – $__ to others
Free to scuba divers – $__ to others

Use your own:

Free to ____________ $__ to others

Here are some of the top 100 headlines from Mr. Jay Abrahams, copywriting genius extraordinaire. Study them and get a feel for them. The more you use great headlines the more they will come naturally when writing your own.

http://www.abraham.com/articles/100_Greatest_Headlines_Ever_Written.html

Now that we’ve looked at 5 of the best headlines in history we’re going to get down to the specifics of writing our own great headline.