In The Winter of this Year's U.S. Presidential Primary Campaign Comes an Important Lesson About Headlines... from the Newsstand, of all places

I was at the grocery store today (Sunday) strolling past the magazine rack when these words jumped out at me:

There Will Be Blood
Why The Right Hates McCain

It was the cover headline for Newsweek magazine (which doesn't look like it's doing too well.  I say this as a former magazine editor myself.  This national magazine has 68 pages, including covers, and I counted 16 ad pages.  It should have a greater number of ad pages -- at least 23.  And it really should have more overall pages to be profitable. It looks like Newsweek's glory days may be buried in the past.)

A few interesting points here:

• The words in the first headline are familiar, because they are the same as the title of a popular movie ("There Will Be Blood"), now playing in theaters
• I found the headline intriguing enough (even though I've heard, seen and read versions the same story several times already in the last few weeks) to shell out $4.95 on a magazine I'm otherwise not all that interested in (with put-you-to-sleep-fast articles like "Chelsea Clinton Emerges on the Campaign Trail", "Will This One Be The Change Election?" and "How to Train a Husband," to name a few.)
• The headline on the magazine's cover was so catchy that my cashier at the check-out stopped, smiled, picked up the magazine, read the headline out loud and laughed. Then she examined the images on the cover more closely, pointed at one picture, and blurted out, "Oh, look!  There's a bible-thumper!"

Now we could be snide and say something like, "If they put half as much thought, effort and creativity into what's INSIDE the magazine as what's ON THE COVER, maybe they'd have more than starving-to-death 68 total pages -- and a just-scraping-by 16 advertising pages."

But let's skip that part.  It's pretty rough these days putting out a print publication of any sort and making money.  Seasoned pro's spend thousands of hours a week trying to figure out how to keep Newsweek (print edition) afloat, so I'm not going to second-guess them.

What I do want to point out is that headlines from proven headline structures work. They cause people to pay attention (not just me, but the cashier ringing up the magazine). And of course they induce people to buy.  (With a milder, namby-pambier headline on Newsweek's cover, I might have left the magazine in the store.)

I have repeatedly said in my courses, like Breakthrough Copywriting, that the headline is the most, most, most important part of your copy.  In Breakthrough Copywriting, I included twenty proven money-making headline templates with over 200 actual specific adaptations of headlines for different industries.

The course has helped many people become profitable copywriters. 

But please don't think I'm claiming to be the first person to talk about the importance of headlines.  Not by a long shot.  Madison Avenue advertising pioneer David Ogilvy, in the 1960s, pointed out that "When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar."

Here's another important point -- if you're a major national publication, even a limping one like Newsweek, you can get away with using someone else's movie title for your headline. I don't know the specifics of the law on this one. But my suggestion would be never to copy a headline word-for-word.

Instead, adapt a familiar headline, title or other phrase by changing a few words.

If your new creation works (and I mean really works) as a headline, you have saved hours upon hours of time (not to mention blood, sweat and tears) and you can expect highly profitable results from the advertising that follows.

David Garfinkel
Publisher, World Copywriting Newsletter

Comments

[Mauricio Martinez]

Hi David,

The number one tool in my arsenal of writing copy is your Copywriting Templates program.

Writing copy that sells is essential for me to survive and I find that even writing a letter is very difficult for me. So being able to use and modify what worked in the past has been extremely helpful.

I used to have such a difficult time writing headlines until you gave me the secret. It wasn't just using the templates. It was also making sure I wrote my headline last - not first.

Thanks,

Mauricio

[Kevin Francis]

David,

Interesting observation about the apparent problems at "Newsweek". Don't think they're alone. The New York Times is struggling and down here in Australia the "Bulletin", a magazine that had run for over a hundred years I believe, recently closed.

Headlines! Yup, at your prompting, I always keep an eye on magazines for headline ideas. Amazing the number of times the "templates" come up. There's almost an infinite variety, especially when you use the "Frankenstein" formula!

I'll add my "2 cents" about "Copywriting Templates". If you took all my copywriting resources away from me and would only let me have one course back, it would be "Copywriting Templates".

I don't recall you suggesting that you write the headline last. I always write out a whole stack of headlines (very easy to do when you have the "Templates") first and at least have a working headline deck before I write the copy. Why? Because for me the headline deck incorporates the "Big Idea" and makes it easier to write the body copy with a coherent thread.

I recently made the mistake of not having a reasonable headline in place before starting the letter. The result was a very tortuous process of rewrites before finally coming up with something reasonable.

I guess we're all different so to paraphrase the great Bruce Lee "Find what works for you".

[David Garfinkel]

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for the comment. I'm not sure when or why I advised Mauricio to write the headline last, but I whole-heartedly agree with you about the Bruce Lee advice!

David