30 Copywriting Secrets from the Best Ad Campaign of All Time

Headlines 12 lectures 01:02:21 Secret 1: Write a weak headline if your visual is strong preview When you sit down to write your headline, think visually. If you can find an intriguing or funny or puzzling visual to go with your headline, you can relax. Your headline doesn’t have to try so hard to be “strategic” and “on-brand.” And you can ignore that excellent conventional wisdom you’ve heard for years about how to write your headlines Secret 2: Sync your headline and your visual preview Contrary to popular opinion, a picture is rarely worth a thousand words. And a thousand words usually need a picture or two. A picture usually needs a headline. And a headline usually needs a picture. Your goal as a copywriter is to write headlines that only work when they are placed next to the picture. Your best headlines only work when they work with the visual. If your ad has a visual, your headline should not be able to work when the visual is removed. Secret 3: Write headlines that compel buyers to read your copy Headlines serve one essential goal: Compel potential customers to read your copy. That’s it. No more. Interrupting people isn’t enough. Grabbing their attention isn’t enough. Your headline must motivate them, tease them, intrigue them and compel them to read what you have to say in your body copy. So how do you do that? If you study the most successful ad campaign in history, you’ll discover three ways to get readers to read your body copy. Secret 4: Make your headline a zinger if your visual is lame Your first job as a copywriter is to interrupt people. No one is going to read your copy until you can first grab their attention and get them to pay attention to you. In print advertising and online, you only have two ways to grab people’s attention: a great headline, or a great visual. But what can you do if you don’t have a strong visual? What if your product is boring to look at? That’s the challenge that Volkswagen faced. They had to create advertising for the Volkswagen Beetle and the Volkswagen Station Wagon. Both vehicles were boring to look at. The ad agency on Volkswagen account knew that if your visual is lame, your headline has to be amazing. And so their copywriters wrote some of the most memorable headlines in advertising. Secret 5: If in doubt, ask a question Hey, want to know one of the easiest ways to grab the attention of a potential customer? Want to learn one of the easiest ways to write a headline? Ask a question. Putting a simple question mark at the end of your headline helps you take a straightforward feature or claim and make it a little more interesting and a lot more compelling. Secret 6: Start telling a story Writing a headline that starts telling a story is an effective way to grab attention and motivate prospective customers to read your ad. This technique works just as well for brochures, email newsletters, website landing pages and direct mail sales letters. People love a good story. So if you can start your ads as well as Jane Austen started her novels, you will always find work as a copywriter. Secret 7: Tie your headline to current events If you read just about any book on copywriting or advertising, the author will tell you that one of the best words to put in your headline is the word, “NEW.” That’s because people are fascinated with the latest news. The latest tablet. The latest weather report. The latest movie. If you put the word “new” into your headline, people will notice, and they’ll read your copy. That’s the theory. But what do you do if your product is no longer “new?” What if you don’t have any news to tell, but you still have a product to sell? What do you do then? You tie your product to the news. Find a subject or a person that is trending, and tie your advertising message to that. Secret 8: Aim for the “hunh?” factor The best headlines make you stop and think. They have a "hunh?" factor. The undisputed masters of this headline writing technique is the creative team who created the advertising for Volkswgen in the 1960s and 1970s. They wrote some of the most clever headlines in advertising history. Learn how. Secret 9: Make them smile What would you do if someone read your copy and started laughing? Would you be upset? You don’t have to be. Humour is one of the most effective tools in your copywriting toolbox. If you can craft headlines and body copy that put smiles on people’s faces, you’re a rare copywriter. And a valuable one. Secret 10: Use headlines for features, images for benefits One of your main jobs as a copywriter is to translate product features into benefits. People buy benefits, not features. In print advertising, one of the most effective ways to communicate product benefits is by demonstrating them with a visual. Secret 11: Comparing yourself? Better be clever As a copywriter, you have to talk about your competition. So how can you compare your product against a competing product without sounding like a high-pressure, boasting salesman? How can you compare your product against the competition in such a way that your potential customer feels respected, even flattered? By getting creative with your headline and your visual. Secret 12: Find headlines in your body copy If you’ve been writing copy for any length of time, you’ll know that one of the hardest things to write is a good headline. Headlines have one of the toughest jobs in advertising: grabbing the attention of distracted people and persuading them to pay attention. If people don’t read your headline, they don’t read your copy. So you can appreciate why headlines are so important. And why writing them is so difficult. Here’s a tip to help you write better headlines, faster. I learned this tip when I was a copywriter in Ottawa, back in the late 1980s. Write your body copy first, and find your headline in the copy that didn’t make it into your final draft. Headlines. 12 lectures 01:02:21 Secret 1: Write a weak headline if your visual is strong preview When you sit down to write your headline, think visually. If you can find an intriguing or funny or puzzling visual to go with your headline, you can relax. Your headline doesn’t have to try so hard to be “strategic” and “on-brand.” And you can ignore that excellent conventional wisdom you’ve heard for years about how to write your headlines Secret 2: Sync your headline and your visual preview Contrary to popular opinion, a picture is rarely worth a thousand words. And a thousand words usually need a picture or two. A picture usually needs a headline. And a headline usually needs a picture. Your goal as a copywriter is to write headlines that only work when they are placed next to the picture. Your best headlines only work when they work with the visual. If your ad has a visual, your headline should not be able to work when the visual is removed. Secret 3: Write headlines that compel buyers to read your copy Headlines serve one essential goal: Compel potential customers to read your copy. That’s it. No more. Interrupting people isn’t enough. Grabbing their attention isn’t enough. Your headline must motivate them, tease them, intrigue them and compel them to read what you have to say in your body copy. So how do you do that? If you study the most successful ad campaign in history, you’ll discover three ways to get readers to read your body copy. Secret 4: Make your headline a zinger if your visual is lame Your first job as a copywriter is to interrupt people. No one is going to read your copy until you can first grab their attention and get them to pay attention to you. In print advertising and online, you only have two ways to grab people’s attention: a great headline, or a great visual. But what can you do if you don’t have a strong visual? What if your product is boring to look at? That’s the challenge that Volkswagen faced. They had to create advertising for the Volkswagen Beetle and the Volkswagen Station Wagon. Both vehicles were boring to look at. The ad agency on Volkswagen account knew that if your visual is lame, your headline has to be amazing. And so their copywriters wrote some of the most memorable headlines in advertising. Secret 5: If in doubt, ask a question Hey, want to know one of the easiest ways to grab the attention of a potential customer? Want to learn one of the easiest ways to write a headline? Ask a question. Putting a simple question mark at the end of your headline helps you take a straightforward feature or claim and make it a little more interesting and a lot more compelling. Secret 6: Start telling a story Writing a headline that starts telling a story is an effective way to grab attention and motivate prospective customers to read your ad. This technique works just as well for brochures, email newsletters, website landing pages and direct mail sales letters. People love a good story. So if you can start your ads as well as Jane Austen started her novels, you will always find work as a copywriter. Secret 7: Tie your headline to current events If you read just about any book on copywriting or advertising, the author will tell you that one of the best words to put in your headline is the word, “NEW.” That’s because people are fascinated with the latest news. The latest tablet. The latest weather report. The latest movie. If you put the word “new” into your headline, people will notice, and they’ll read your copy. That’s the theory. But what do you do if your product is no longer “new?” What if you don’t have any news to tell, but you still have a product to sell? What do you do then? You tie your product to the news. Find a subject or a person that is trending, and tie your advertising message to that. Secret 8: Aim for the “hunh?” factor The best headlines make you stop and think. They have a "hunh?" factor. The undisputed masters of this headline writing technique is the creative team who created the advertising for Volkswgen in the 1960s and 1970s. They wrote some of the most clever headlines in advertising history. Learn how. Secret 9: Make them smile What would you do if someone read your copy and started laughing? Would you be upset? You don’t have to be. Humour is one of the most effective tools in your copywriting toolbox. If you can craft headlines and body copy that put smiles on people’s faces, you’re a rare copywriter. And a valuable one. Secret 10: Use headlines for features, images for benefits One of your main jobs as a copywriter is to translate product features into benefits. People buy benefits, not features. In print advertising, one of the most effective ways to communicate product benefits is by demonstrating them with a visual. Secret 11: Comparing yourself? Better be clever As a copywriter, you have to talk about your competition. So how can you compare your product against a competing product without sounding like a high-pressure, boasting salesman? How can you compare your product against the competition in such a way that your potential customer feels respected, even flattered? By getting creative with your headline and your visual. Secret 12: Find headlines in your body copy If you’ve been writing copy for any length of time, you’ll know that one of the hardest things to write is a good headline. Headlines have one of the toughest jobs in advertising: grabbing the attention of distracted people and persuading them to pay attention. If people don’t read your headline, they don’t read your copy. So you can appreciate why headlines are so important. And why writing them is so difficult. Here’s a tip to help you write better headlines, faster. I learned this tip when I was a copywriter in Ottawa, back in the late 1980s. Write your body copy first, and find your headline in the copy that didn’t make it into your final draft. Secret 1: Write a weak headline if your visual is strong preview When you sit down to write your headline, think visually. If you can find an intriguing or funny or puzzling visual to go with your headline, you can relax. Your headline doesn’t have to try so hard to be “strategic” and “on-brand.” And you can ignore that excellent conventional wisdom you’ve heard for years about how to write your headlines Secret 1: Write a weak headline if your visual is strong preview When you sit down to write your headline, think visually. If you can find an intriguing or funny or puzzling visual to go with your headline, you can relax. Your headline doesn’t have to try so hard to be “strategic” and “on-brand.” And you can ignore that excellent conventional wisdom you’ve heard for years about how to write your headlines Secret 1: Write a weak headline if your visual is strong preview When you sit down to write your headline, think visually. If you can find an intriguing or funny or puzzling visual to go with your headline, you can relax. Your headline doesn’t have to try so hard to be “strategic” and “on-brand.” And you can ignore that excellent conventional wisdom you’ve heard for years about how to write your headlines Secret 1: Write a weak headline if your visual is strong preview When you sit down to write your headline, think visually. If you can find an intriguing or funny or puzzling visual to go with your headline, you can relax. Your headline doesn’t have to try so hard to be “strategic” and “on-brand.” And you can ignore that excellent conventional wisdom you’ve heard for years about how to write your headlines When you sit down to write your headline, think visually. If you can find an intriguing or funny or puzzling visual to go with your headline, you can relax. Your headline doesn’t have to try so hard to be “strategic” and “on-brand.” And you can ignore that excellent conventional wisdom you’ve heard for years about how to write your headlines When you sit down to write your headline, think visually. If you can find an intriguing or funny or puzzling visual to go with your headline, you can relax. Your headline doesn’t have to try so hard to be “strategic” and “on-brand.” And you can ignore that excellent conventional wisdom you’ve heard for years about how to write your headlines Secret 2: Sync your headline and your visual preview Contrary to popular opinion, a picture is rarely worth a thousand words. And a thousand words usually need a picture or two. A picture usually needs a headline. And a headline usually needs a picture. Your goal as a copywriter is to write headlines that only work when they are placed next to the picture. Your best headlines only work when they work with the visual. If your ad has a visual, your headline should not be able to work when the visual is removed. Secret 2: Sync your headline and your visual preview Contrary to popular opinion, a picture is rarely worth a thousand words. And a thousand words usually need a picture or two. A picture usually needs a headline. And a headline usually needs a picture. Your goal as a copywriter is to write headlines that only work when they are placed next to the picture. Your best headlines only work when they work with the visual. If your ad has a visual, your headline should not be able to work when the visual is removed. Secret 2: Sync your headline and your visual preview Contrary to popular opinion, a picture is rarely worth a thousand words. And a thousand words usually need a picture or two. A picture usually needs a headline. And a headline usually needs a picture. Your goal as a copywriter is to write headlines that only work when they are placed next to the picture. Your best headlines only work when they work with the visual. If your ad has a visual, your headline should not be able to work when the visual is removed. Secret 2: Sync your headline and your visual preview Contrary to popular opinion, a picture is rarely worth a thousand words. And a thousand words usually need a picture or two. A picture usually needs a headline. And a headline usually needs a picture. Your goal as a copywriter is to write headlines that only work when they are placed next to the picture rst job as a copywriter is to interrupt...