If you want to write great headlines, you need to read great headlines. One of the best sources is 'Tested Advertising Methods' by John Caples.
John Caples is to copywriters what Donald Trump is to entrepreneurs. He was Vice President of the BBDO advertising agency and became famous as the copywriter who rigorously tested headlines and every element of advertising copy to make money for his clients.
In no particular order, here are 119 advertising headlines cited in 'Tested Advertising Methods' and to a lesser extent in 'How to Make Your Advertising Make Money'.
- They Laughed When I Sat Down At the Piano But When I Started to Play! –
- How I became popular overnight
- Would you invest $7 to be $1000 richer … without risking a cent?
- Do you make these mistakes in English?
- You can laugh at money worries if you follow this simple plan
- Corn Gone In 5 Days or Money Back
- NEXT 90 DAYS CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE – A Warning from the Wall Street Journal
- Greatest Bible News in 341 Years
- How a fool stunt made me a star salesman
- What’s wrong in this picture?
- How I improved my memory in one evening
- Give me 5 days and I’ll give you a Magnetic Personality … Let Me Prove It — FREE
- ANNOUNCING A new Course and Service for men who want to be independent in the next five years
- The deaf now hear whispers
- Wanted — your services as a high paid real-estate specialist
- Announcing a New Home Money-Making Plan
- “No time for Yale — took college home,” says well-known author
- I gambled a postage stamp and won $35,840 in 2 years
- Advice to Wives Whose Husbands Don’t Save Money
- How a strange accident save me from baldness
Source: ProcopyTips
Copy writing is so important and something that it is worth investing time and money in - be that attending training courses to improve your own copy writing or hiring a copy writer.
It can make a huge difference to the success of your marketing or communications programme.
With the advent of social media platforms the headline of your blog article or the content of your Tweet can entice or deter action by your reader.
This is an extract of an article by Dan Rieck who covers 117 tested advertising headlines that make money - I have included just 20 - check out the original article for the full 117 headlines.
What ideas does this give you?
And remember - model never copy!