One of the things I’ve done for more than 30 years is write headlines.
Thousands of them.
I was looking through my journals from 1997 this morning and found two pages filled with nothing but headlines.
Some had check marks beside them. Some eventually became chapters in books. Some became ads. Some went nowhere.
That wasn’t really the point.
The point was the practice.
Eben Pagan and I used to have a little game we’d play whenever the new issue of Cosmo arrived.
We were probably two of the only men in America eagerly awaiting our subscriptions. 😂
We weren’t reading it for the articles.
We were studying the headlines.
We’d independently go through them and look for the patterns.
How to…
When to…
Why…
A little-known secret…
Then we’d take those patterns and use them as prompts for headlines in our own businesses.
Because here’s what happens when you force yourself to write headlines:
You force yourself to get clear about what people actually want.
Try writing:
How to ________.
Now you’ve got to fill in the blank with a transformation somebody wants.
Or:
When to ________ to get the best ________.
Or:
How to ________ even if ________.
Now you’re thinking about what they want and the thing they believe might prevent them from getting it.
so much of the work is in the headline
That’s why I’ve always believed so much of the work is in the headline.
If you can’t get someone’s attention with the headline, it doesn’t matter how brilliant everything underneath it is.
So here’s an exercise for you today.
Take two blank sheets of paper.
Write 25 headlines for your business.
Don’t judge them.
Don’t try to find THE headline.
Just write 25.
Look at headlines that have worked on you. Deconstruct them. Borrow the patterns. Fill in the blanks with the things your prospects want.
Because somewhere in those 25 headlines you may discover something more valuable than a clever way to get attention.
You may discover a clearer way to articulate exactly what you do for people.
And that’s worth a couple sheets of paper.