Advertising legend David Ogilvy once said, “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent 80 cents out of your dollar.”
Obviously, writing good ad headlines is important work if you want your ads to succeed. I emphasize the word “work,” because it’s harder than it looks.
Here are five quick tips for writing good ad headlines:
1. Don’t settle on first efforts.
They’re often not as good as they first seem.
2. Give yourself time.
Unless you’re writing a text-heavy ad, spend most of your time on headlines.
3. Write a lot of headlines.
Don’t edit (at first), just write as many headlines as you can.
4. Try different headline types.
Direct, indirect, how to, news, question, testimonial and more.
5. Polish your best efforts.
Pick the most promising headlines and try to make them better.
This process should produce some workable ad headlines.
Neil Sagebiel 