Secrets For Writing Headlines That Grab Attention and Get Your Audience to Read What You've Written

I get a LOT of email, some that I never open, some that I glance at and file away for future reference, and then some that I open right away. I read a lot of sales pages and ad copy. What makes the difference? Well, it's the headline of the article or page, or the subject line of the email. I quickly scan the subject lines and perhaps the headline, and in less than 3 seconds, I'm hitting the delete button...or not. Over the past couple of years, I have kept hundreds of emails and sales page links that I don't have any intention of actually taking any action on, but I was grabbed by the headline, so I've created a "swipe file" of emails and sales pages that have great headlines.

By the way, headlines are not just for sales letters and marketing emails. Here is a brief overview of ways that great headlines count:

 Captions for pictures or graphics used in your blog or other social media sites
 The sub-headings in an article, sales page, or even your blog posts.
 Your Email subject lines
 Your signature line for your business emails (use a good short headline)
 Your business cards


So, as you can see, headlines are extremely useful and are the key to getting your material read, no matter what it is. Now that you understand how important a great headline is, how do you learn to write great headlines?

Learn to Spot the Difference

When I was homeschooling my children, many years ago, I was at a conference and I'll never forget what the speaker said. It applies to this today. The speaker said that when the FBI or any other branch of government is training people to spot counterfeit money, they never show them a counterfeit bill. Instead they are only shown the real money. The point is if you are so familiar with the real, you'll instantly know the difference. I think the same thing applies here, in that if you learn what good, effective writing is, you'll instantly know what is not. So, study good writing.

I've already mentioned that I don't delete all emails even if I am not interested in the subject. The ones that have headlines that grab me are always kept for future reference. Here are some other ways to learn about and get familiar with great headlines:

Do a Google search for "100 best headlines." You'll find that no matter how you word that statement, the legendary copywriter Jay Abraham's website comes up first. Definitely click on his link and read those great headlines. You'll see a pattern.

Take those best headlines and rewrite them to fit your business. Don't just do it once - write at least a couple dozen variations. When you get to about #20, you'll probably find your best work.


I have found this book to be one of the best marketing investments I have ever made:
It talks about writing great headlines and so much more! Its value to me has been priceless and it's well worth the few dollars it costs.

Thank you for reading.

Jeanne Kolenda is a small business marketing coach, specializing in bringing offline businesses online. Logon to http://www.businesstrainingteam.com and download a free eBook entitled Local Business Marketing On the Internet. To contact Jeanne, email