Your ad has to have one!

Having NO headline is probably the biggest mistake an advertiser could make.

And your company name DOES NOT qualify as your headline.

HEADLINE EVALUATIONS

1. What are you trying to communicate, in simple terms?
2. What "HOT BUTTON" issue are you trying to hit?
3. Can the reader get a good idea from your headline alone of what you're selling?
4. Does the headline paint a mental picture? If so, what is the mental picture? If not, why not?
5. Would the reader be interested in taking action based on the headline?
6. Would you be willing to mortgage your home to pay for the ad with this headline?

Example of a poor headline: ABC Construction
OOhhh doesn't this one just draw you in and make you want to keep reading? (Hardly.)

Sit down and write no fewer than 15 or 20 headlines for your ads before even starting to write the rest of the ad. That's right, 15 to 20 headlines. I've written as many as 180 to 200 headlines for a single project and I routinely write 30 to 50 headlines for any given project.

Why so many? Well...

a.         It forces you to gather your ideas and focus them into short, one phrase or one sentence pieces.

b.         Once you've written the headlines, writing the rest of the ad actually becomes a lot easier. If I gave you a headline that said,

"We Had The Biggest, Fattest Guy We Could Find Jump Up And Down On Our HS-27 Control Panel For 12 Minutes...Just To Make Sure It Could Endure Any Punishment Your Customers Could Dish Out."

You could probably write the rest of the ad while hardly knowing a thing about HS-27 Control Panels. I'm telling you, you could write the rest of that ad. Do you know why? Because after you've written that headline, you've already told 90% of the story - in one single headline!

c.         If you write 20 headlines, chances are you're going to have 4 or 5 good ones. 4 or 5 good headlines are usually enough to write a couple of good ads, especially if you use some of them as sub-headlines.

So how do you write 20 headlines for a project you're working on? Well, there are three basic ways to come up with good headlines:

1. Simply write straightforward headlines in plain English.

2. Use one of the twelve headline starters:

                         Bold Claim                                 News

                         Comparison                                Numbers

                         Guarantee                                   Problem/Solution

                         How To                                     Questions

                         Inflammatory                              Testimonials

                         The OFFER                               Who, Which, What, Why

3. Use Our Headline Bank - http://www.exselleration.y2webbuilder.com/page/edit_single_page/4869800.htm

Remember...say it in plain English