Transcripts
1. Introduction: For anything where you need a persuasive first line
that grabs attention, whether it's the
title of a blog post, the subject line of an email, a social media caption or
the heading on a sales page, this class will help
you do it well. I'm especially excited to teach this topic because when it comes to marketing and
content creation, headlines are so important. If that first line
misses the mark, people won't read the rest. Hello, I'm Ruth, a
professional copywriter with experience across in house,
agency and freelance roles. My work is grounded in
recognised marketing principles, and the techniques
I teach here are the same ones I use every
day with my clients. In this class, I'm
drawing on decades of professional experience to show you how to write engaging, persuasive opening lines
for your blog or business. Many of you have told me that
you find writing headlines difficult and time consuming.
It doesn't have to be. I'll share practical tips, techniques and tools for writing persuasive first lines
quickly and with confidence. You'll also see how
to apply everything you learn through step
by step tutorials, featuring real client work and examples from well known brands. This is a beginner
friendly class. You only need a good
grasp of English and some basic
marketing awareness. What you're about to learn
will take your headline writing to the next
level. Let's get started.
2. Class and Project Overview: To begin, I'm going to quickly talk you through
how the lessons in this class are organised and introduce you to
the class project. We'll begin with the
four golden rules of persuasive headlines
and by putting the first rule into
action straightaway by filling out a simple
planning template. We'll then move on to explore speaking directly
to our audience. So your reader feels like you're talking to them and
not to a crowd. Next, you'll learn how to offer a clear benefit so people
know what's in it for them, followed by simple
ways to generate curiosity while still
staying honest. Then we'll move into asking
a relatable question, followed by how to report
something newsworthy, so your headline feels
timely and important. You'll also learn how to give a direct command when you
want your reader to act. Later, I'll share my emergency
six step headline formula. This is a tool you can
reach for when you're short on time and need to get
something written fast. We'll wrap up with
some advice on finding inspiration and ideas to
keep your writing fresh. All the way through, you'll see real examples from
well known brands. You'll also get to know
my fictional client, a bakery called Daily Bread. I'll walk you through step by step tutorials using copy I've
written for this business, so you can watch each
technique in action. To support you, I've created
three printable PDFs. There's a planning worksheet
to help you shape ideas, a simple formula sheet you
can keep by your desk, and a swipe file
of headline styles you can dip into whenever
you need inspiration. I'll show you how to use
each one during the class. For your project, I'd
like you to follow along and write your own headline
after each of the lessons. By the end, you'll
have a small set of headlines to choose from. Pick your favourite and
upload it as a project. In the next lesson, we'll begin with those four golden rules and set you up
with a strong base for every first line you write.
3. 4 Golden Rules: Let's start with the basics. A headline is a short phrase or sentence right at the
start of your poppy. It might be the slogan of a
magazine advert or poster, the subject line of an email, the title of a blog post, the main heading of a webpage or even an entire social
media post or caption. Marketing headlines like these, have the same
purpose as headlines in newspapers and magazines. They need to grab
people's attention and make them want
to keep reading. And that's not easy
because there are so many headlines
competing for attention, especially online, and people
are used to ignoring them. Just think of your own
social media feed or inbox. What you're looking
at is essentially a list of headlines, and I bet one of them
has to be pretty persuasive for you to stop
scrolling and pay attention. Headlines are so important because it doesn't
matter how good your blog post or your product or service or online course is, if you write a week headline, no one is going to
keep reading or click-through to find out
what you've got to offer. But writing a good
headline can be hard. And I'm speaking
from experience, I'm a professional copywriter, and headline and
first line writing is part of my job that I
find especially difficult. That's why I've put together
a package of resources and tools that I use to
help me write headlines, and I'm going to share
all of them with you today so that you
can use them too. I've also identified
the four golden rules of writing great
headlines consistently. Golden rule number one is to nail the basics
behind your headline, what it is you're promoting, where your headline will appear, your objective and
target audience. The headline planner printable will help you with this part. We'll go through it together
in a couple of minutes. Golden rule number two is
to experiment and test. Spend time trying out
different styles of headlines, see which sounds best. It'll be different every time. If you can, split test
your headlines or at least get someone else's
opinion of which they prefer. Advertising legend David
Ogilvy said he got ten times the response from the same ad with a
different headline. So it's well worth spending
a bit of extra time on your headlines to
see if they can be improved for better results. Golden rule number
three is to have a tried and tested fallback
headline formula you can use when you get
stuck and need to come up with a great
headline in a hurry. I've got one of
those for you, too, and I'll show you
how to use it later. It's perfect for when you're on the spot and you need to come
up with something quickly, or you're having
a creative block, and you need to get your
creative juices flowing. Finally, golden
rule number four, keep your eyes and ears open for great headlines you see
when you're out and about reading magazines or
browsing your social feeds and build them into a swipe file you can use for
inspiration later. There are so many
headlines all around you, but when it comes to
writing your own headlines, you don't need to
reinvent the wheel. So take a note of
successful headlines and adapt them to suit your own
purposes. It's not cheating. Professional copywriters
do this all the time. I've put together a beginner's
headline swipe file for you to get you started, and I'm going to show you
lots of other great examples of really brilliant headlines
throughout this class. Let's kick off with
that first golden rule. Be clear on the basics
behind your headline, starting with what it
is you're promoting, where your headline will appear, your call to action,
and your objective. That may sound
obvious, but you'd be amazed how many people
jump into writing a piece of copy without being entirely clear on these
fundamental things. The headline planner will help you quickly and easily
clarify those basics. I've based it on the
briefing template I fill out when I start working
with a new freelance client. I'm going to start filling
out the headline planner with all the information
about my client Daily Bread's new product, a gluten free sourdough loaf. Follow along and answer the same questions for
your own product, service or blog post. I'm going to be writing
headlines about this product for three
different platforms. The headlines will
appear on a poster in the bakery, as the subject
line of an email to the bakery's email
subscription list and as the title of a blog
post about the product. Think about where
your own headline or headlines will be seen. As well as clarifying where
each headline will appear, you also need to define each
call to action what you want people to do straight after reading your opening line. For the poster
inside the bakery, I want people to be immediately prompted to try a free taster of the bread or to be
intrigued enough to find out more about it by
asking a staff member. The other two headlines have
a very simple job to do. They just need to encourage
people to keep reading, either the email
or the blog post. And this is important
to remember. If your headline is
the title of an email, blog post, social post, article, anything where there's plenty more copy below or behind it, the main role of the
headline is just to persuade people to keep reading
or to click-throughs. But we mustn't lose sight
of our overarching aim. The main point of the campaign, which in Daily Bread's case, is to sell loads of
sourdough loaves. If you're writing
copy for a business, your objective will
most likely be around selling a particular
product or service. Alongside that, you may have objectives around
building brand loyalty or brand recognition or positioning yourself as an expert
in your field. Write all those
objectives in here. In the next lesson,
we'll identify our audience and look at some techniques for
writing headlines that appeal to our target group.
4. Speak to Your Audience: If you've taken any of my other copywriting classes
on Skillshare, you'll know that one of
my unbreakable rules is to always write with
your audience in mind. Headlines are no different. There's space on the
headline planner for you to define the audience for
whatever you're promoting. Be as specific as you can. In the case of the Daily Bread's gluten free sourdough loaf, their main audience is people
who are either allergic or intolerant to gluten and
a little more generally, people who are on board with
the whole wellness trend. Defining your audience
is so important because headlines are
conversation starters. They tell your readers what you want to talk to them about. In most cases, you'll want your reader to understand
what your copy is about straightaway so that they understand that
it's aimed at them. If they don't, they may stop reading and your message
may never read them. So target your reader
with your headlines. Remember, you don't want
attention from everybody, just the audience you've
identified in your planner. Trying to get attention
from everyone will dilute the message
of your headline, so you'll end up getting
attention from nobody. I'm going to use this
principle to create a very basic audience focused
headline for daily bread. I'm going to start by
addressing my audience directly with the phrase
"Calling all celiacs". Other ways of doing
this might be with "Attention celiacs" or even just "Celiac?" with a
question mark after. Then I'm simply going to
describe the product, and I'm going to pop the word "introducing" in front to make
it more conversational. Again, there are variations of how you could introduce
your product here. For example, you could say, "Try our new gluten free
sourdough bread", or "You'll love our new
gluten free sourdough bread". Let's look at some more examples of audience focused headlines. This headline in an
advertisement for digital gaming vouchers
is a great example of an audience focused theme setting headline: "One more game". Straightaway, we
know this content is aimed specifically at gamers. It's speaking their
language by using a phrase many gaming addicts often say
to themselves and others. Anyone with a healthy
gaming addiction and anyone who shares
their home with a dedicated gamer is going to have their attention
grabbed by this headline. Using insider
language like this also makes your target
reader feel like you're on their side
and that you're both part of a particular group. It creates rapport. Here's a slightly
different example. This is an impact report I wrote for the charity
Practical Action. This report went out in a direct mailing to
existing donors. Its purpose was to thank
them for their support, show them its impact, and
encourage future donations. "Your support makes a
world of difference". In this headline,
I've reached out to my audience by addressing
them directly with "your". This is a very effective way to build instant rapport
with your reader. It feels natural
and human because it's like you're talking
to them face to face. For that reason,
it's a technique that's used a lot in
the charity sector. For many years, I
wrote this blog about my local area,
Clarendon Park. I often used audience
focused headlines to get people to click through
from Twitter and Facebook, which is where I did
most of my promotion. "Clarendon Bark: 8 things to do in Clarendon
Park with your dog". I used "you" here, too, and I made it very
clear in the title that the blog post is
meant for dog owners. I even got a little cheeky in the first paragraph by hammering home the
audience it's aimed at. Alongside the featured
image of two cute dogs, this is guaranteed to grab
the attention of dog lovers. This may not be a
subtle approach, but when you're
promoting your blog post on a crowded social feed, this directness and clarity
can be very effective. This classic ad for the car brand Saab is less
direct but very clever. "The sports sedan for people who inherited brains
instead of wealth". The key selling
point here is price. What Saab is saying is that their sports sedan is cheaper
than its competitors. But they've wrapped
that message up in another message that massages the reader's ego and
makes them feel like Saab's product is also
an intelligent choice. This headline is going to get the attention of a
reader who likes to think of themselves as smart and who doesn't
have a huge budget. That type of customer now
has two reasons to buy. They save money and
they get to feel like they've demonstrated
their intellect. Now look at the product, service, online course or blog
post you're promoting. Create a headline that speaks directly to the target audience you've identified using one of the techniques we've
covered in this lesson. If you get stuck, use my Daily Bread headline
as inspiration. Just replace "celiac" with
your own audience and "gluten free sourdough bread"
with your product or service. In the next lesson,
you'll learn how to write benefit focused headlines.
5. Offer a Benefit: When readers come to a piece
of copy for the first time, they're thinking,
What's in this for me? At that early stage,
they're not even asking what they could
get from the product, but whether it's even worthwhile reading the rest of your copy. A classic way to draw the
reader in and encourage them to keep reading is to include
a benefit in your headline. A benefit headline says, Hey, here's something
you might like. Can I tell you about it? Nothing interests
like self interest, which is why headlines with
benefits work so well. There's space on the
headline planner to list the benefits of your
product service or post, and you'll notice that it's next to this section about features. That's because the
easiest way to draw out your products or
service's benefits to the customer is by
starting with its features, the cold, hard facts about it, then to work out how those
features benefit the user. So the main features of Daily Bread's new gluten
free sourdough loaf are pretty easy to list. Now we just need to
answer the question. So why are these features beneficial to the
potential customer? The fact that the
bread is gluten free has health benefits, particularly for people with
an allergy or intolerance, it means it won't make them ill. The fact that it's sourdough
makes it super fashionable. It's also healthier than
some other types of bread, and it has a distinctive taste and texture that
lots of people like. Finally, the fact that this is a brand new product
adds novelty, and means people will have the kudos of being one
of the first to try it. There's room for some additional selling points at the
bottom of the planner. We'll come back to those later. Don't try to cram too many
benefits into each headline, feature one or two at the most, and unpack the rest
in your body copy. For Daily Bread's benefit
focused headline, I'm going to focus in on the health benefit of
gluten free bread. I'm going to follow a really
simple three step format. First, I'll make my point by telling the readers the
good thing they'll get, the opportunity to
enjoy artisan bread. Then I'll tell them
the negative thing they'll avoid: the bloating. And finally, I'll link that
benefit to the product. And just as an aside, clearly and simply stating
what you're selling in your headline like
this is extremely important in some
online contexts. If you want your headline to
show up in search results, you want to make
sure it contains the keywords your target
audience will be searching for. That's why it's
often better to save your more creative
headlines for things like print and email subject lines where
SEO isn't an issue. Let's look at some more examples of benefit focused headlines. This charity mailing announces, "Join our new lottery to flip your one pound entry
into 500 pounds. That's a pretty clear benefit that's going to
get the attention of anyone who's fond of a
flutter. But there's more. When I turn over, I'm presented
with another benefit, by joining the lottery, I'll
also be saving the planet. Excellent. First appealing
to a reader's self interest, then reassuring them that
they're actually doing something selfless
is a useful tactic, especially if you're
writing for a charity. Notice how WWF is also using novelty as an extra little
selling point here. This ad for an expandable
suitcase by Trip isn't really encouraging us
to steal hotel bathrobes. It's using exaggeration to sell the main benefit
of the suitcase, the fact that you can
fit loads into it. This ad is audience as
well as benefit focused. The reference to stealing
hotel toiletries will be understood by the target
audience of frequent travellers. The ad is building a
rapport with those readers, and then going on to
explain how the product eases a common
traveler pain point, not having enough room
in your suitcase. Some of the best ads are like this one in that
they incorporate two or three of the styles or techniques we'll
explore in this class. So I don't feel like
your ads have to fit neatly into one category. Sometimes you can feel like
you're bragging when you sing the praises of your
own products or services. After all, your reader may well respond with, "Well,
you would say that". One way around this is to use a positive customer review or testimonial in your headline. Look at this example from Graze. If Graze themselves came
right out and said, "This will probably be the best thing you've
done all year", it would sound
hyperbolic and arrogant. But using a positive
review that says the same thing gives the
message added authenticity. Think about the product, service online course or
blog post you're promoting and the
benefits you've identified on your
headline planner. Now create a headline
that promotes one of those benefits using one of the techniques we've
covered in this lesson. And if you're having
trouble getting started, use my Daily Bread
headline for inspo. Follow the simple format of enjoy the good thing without the bad thing with our product. In the next lesson,
you'll learn how to write curiosity focused headlines without resorting to clickbait.
6. Generate Curiosity: In the last lesson,
we saw how offering a benefit is a tried
and trusted way to draw your reader in, but it's not the only way to go. You could write something less direct that piques your
reader's curiosity. Then as they lean in
and start reading, you reveal more details, linking the headline
to the product and throwing in some benefits. Look at this headline for
Daily Bread's new product. Rather than coming right out and telling them what it is
and what the benefit is, I've taken a more
circuitous route. I'm still mentioning the gluten free element of the product, but I'm drawing on my
reader's curiosity, too. What are those
other ingredients? I've also brought in one of
the extra selling points I identified in the last
section of the headline plant, the fact that this
bread is made with just a few simple components. Bringing in less obvious
features of your product like this can work really well
in this kind of headline. Here's another example of a curiosity based headline in an ad for a plant
based sleeping aid. The start of this ad,
"Night night, sleep tight" will immediately get the attention of the
target audience, people who have
trouble sleeping. Then, instead of the expected
"don't let the bedbugs bite", we have the name of
an obscure chemical. Altering well known phrases like this so that
something familiar is combined with
something unexpected is a useful
copywriting technique. It works well here, and the
mention of this chemical, which turns out to be
a synthetic ingredient used in prescription sleep aids, is going to encourage the target audience to keep reading. With this sort of
approach, you're gambling short term relevance in the hope of winning
longer term interest. A headline like this one doesn't say much
about the product, but it does speak directly to an experience that relevant
readers have probably had. If the gamble pays off,
they'll be more absorbed and curious upfront than they might have been with a
simple benefit headline, like those we saw in
the previous lesson. There's another type of
curiosity based headline, and that's the type
made famous by websites like Upworthy
and Buzzfeed. These websites have
built their business creating headlines with
enough seduction in the headline to
inspire a reader to click through to find out
the rest of the story. Upworthy calls this a
curiosity gap and says, a good social media headline
seduces people to click through by telling them enough
to whet their curiosity, but not enough to fulfil it. The problem is that
this technique gets a little tiresome and requires
more and more hyperbole. It can also devalue your brand. But done right, the curiosity gap technique can be useful. The trick is to remain honest
and only use headlines like this when they're genuinely helpful for your audience. So go ahead and use "29 genius buys that will
make cleaning your entire home incredibly easy". But only if the 29
buys are likely to be considered as genuinely
genius to your audience. Likewise, this blog post
title will only work if the buys in question really do make cleaning
incredibly easy. In short, the key
is to deliver in your copy what you
promise in your headline. Not doing so is not
only unethical. It's not going to help you
achieve your end objective. And in online contexts, it's going to send your
bounce rate through the roof. In my experience, I found that curiosity style headlines
work especially well as blog post titles where the blog already has an
established following. I think that's
because if you write a blog and you already
have a loyal following, your followers will
trust that you're not trying to mislead
them with clickbait, and an intriguing blog
title might be all it takes to encourage them to click-throughs and
read your post. I often used this technique
on my Clarendon Spark blog. This particular
post was based on the memories of an elderly
resident of the area. Picking out some of the more
unusual things mentioned in the post was a great
way to draw people in and much more persuasive than if I'd called the post
something like "An elderly resident
remembers what Clarendon Park was
like in the 1930s". Spend some time drawing
out what's unusual about the product, service or
post you're promoting. This technique does need
a bit more creativity than the others we've looked at, so take your time and try to
be a bit playful with it. See if you can create
a headline that will peek at the curiosity
of your target reader. And if you're struggling,
you can always use my Daily Bread headlines
as a starting point. Try the following format. Our product has this
number of something. This one bad thing
isn't one of them. In the next lesson,
you'll learn how to use questions in a headline to build rapport with your reader.
7. Ask a Question: Do questions work as first lines? Yes, as long as your reader answers the question the
way you want them to. The simplest approach is to ask a leading question that
invites a yes or no response. "Celiac?" This question
couldn't be simpler. And if the reader answers, yes, we at Daily Bread know that
they're our target audience, and we've got their attention. Notice how this is also an
audience focused tactic. We can follow that simple
opener with another question. "Dream of eating tasty
sourdough bread?" Again, our target audience is
likely to answer yes here. Actually, this is
just a slightly more engaging version
of the headline. "Now celiacs can eat
tasty sourdough bread". It's also another benefit
focused headline. You see what I mean
about there being a lot of overlap between
these categories. What makes this headline stand out from a simple
benefit headline is the conversational tone and those unspoken yeses
from the reader. They make the difference between passive acceptance
and active agreement, and they make for a very
persuasive headline. Just to seal the deal and make sure our readers
get the message, let's add a positive little
"Now you can" on the end. Here's another example of a question headline that
prompts the answer yes. Anyone with a vinyl record
collection to sell is going to answer in the affirmative and go on to read the
rest of the ad. This example is a
little different. By asking, "did you know you
can have more than one ISA?" Scottish Friendly is actually hoping that their target reader will answer no and be interested
enough to keep reading. "Did you know" can be a good
opener for a headline. Just make sure the fact you're announcing is
interesting enough that your reader
isn't tempted to answer No, and I don't care. Next level up is something with a bit more emotional power like this example from Christian Aid. This ad is encouraging people to take small
steps like turning their heating down to
make a big difference to people living on the front
line of climate change. The message is given added
gravitas because it's framed as coming directly from the person in
the photograph. And that's an important thing to remember when you're
writing headlines. Your headline will often
appear next to an image. In fact, some of the
best advertisements ever written have
been successful because they've
combined a headline and an image in a creative
original way. Just something else to
bear in mind when you're experimenting with
different headline styles. Back to question headlines. Not all questions work as well as the examples
we've seen so far. One that can cause
problems is "why not?" "Why not eat insects?" Clearly, the title of this book is supposed
to shock people. There's an element of
the curiosity style of headline at work here. But the problem with
asking why not is that it invites the reader to think about why they wouldn't
want to do something. I've never eaten insects before. I might not like the flavour, because that sounds
really gross and so on. It's a question you don't
really want them to answer. Some questions
encourage readers to reflect more deeply on
themselves and their situation. In neurolinguistic programming, they're called
metamodel questions. They usually begin
with what or how, inviting a thoughtful, descriptive answer
rather than yes or no. For example, The Planetary
Society asks people to imagine how they could use a new service to send items to the moon. This headline by NAPA Tech
does a similar thing, but links the question
to a benefit, the benefit being low cost. "What will you do with
all the money you save in your Edge data centre?" By asking a question like this, you can prompt the
reader to start speculating about their future. Then your copy positions
the product as the first step to making
that future a reality. A word of warning on using
questions in your copy, make sure you don't overdo it. Questions can come across
as confrontational, and if you ask too
many in a row, your reader can start
to feel hassled. Let's look at the Scottish
Friendly leaflet again. Did you know you can
have more than one ISA? Did you know we also offer
an investment junior ISA? Can't apply online? Why choose Scottish friendly? Overdoing this
technique is lazy, and it quickly gets boring. Instead of
interrogating a reader who can't actually answer, move on to what you
have to say to them. Think about whatever it is
you're promoting and create a headline that
includes a question using one of the techniques
we've covered in this lesson. You can make it either very straightforward or
more emotional, and you can combine
it with any of the other headline styles we've explored so far in this class. Remember, if you're struggling, you can use my Daily Bread question headline
as inspiration. Start by calling
out your audience. Then use the words dream of, followed by a benefit. Add now you can or a similar positive
reinforcement on the end. In the next lesson, you'll learn a few journalistic
techniques to help you write newsworthy headlines.
8. Report Some News: The power of the news headline
is that it promises readers some information or benefit that they couldn't
have had before. That neutralises their reflex to say not interested
or don't need it. If what you're
offering is truly new, they've got to find out more before they can be sure
it's not for them. And everybody likes novelty. Newness is always more
interesting than sameness unless the reader is 100% happy with what
they've got already. And since the grass
is always greener on the other side, that's
pretty unlikely. On top of that, newness
usually means progress. So whatever readers know
about the product already, news still promises
some extra benefit, even if it's only a
slight improvement. To signal novelty, you
can use words like new, now, the first, introducing
discover and so on. Here's an example from BT, "The UK's first
unbreakable Wi Fi". To make this work, you need to have genuine news to share. You've probably bought a
new and improved product like a laundry detergent, where you couldn't actually
identify what had changed. If your news isn't
really that big a deal, consider whether
there's a better way to frame your message, so it doesn't set
the reader up for disappointment or even worse, get labeled as clickbait. This Habitat headline fits into the news category because it's promoting the fact that
habitat is changing. But look at the word
they've used, "revolting". It's a clever play on words because revolting
means changing, but it also means disgusting. Imagine the difference if this headline was just
"Habitat is changing". It would have nowhere
near the same impact. That's why it's
good to experiment with lively words
in your headlines. They paint a picture in
the mind of your readers, look out for useful double
meanings like Habitat is done, and try using
positive adjectives like ultimate, brilliant, awesome, intense, hilarious,
smart, critical, surprising. Remember what we learned
in the curiosity lesson, though, and don't
get carried away. Only use these words if they honestly represent the
content or product. A variation of the news
headline is to explain why. Starting your headline with why or how is a good
approach if you need to explain something to the reader before you
start selling to them. The headline promises something useful or interesting knowledge while the body copy
goes on to deliver it. The Daily Bread's new product is a great opportunity to
use this technique. How about "Why that
bloated feeling you get after eating bread
is a thing of the past?" Why and how are
powerful because they promise insight as
well as information. The reader feels
they're going to gain some deeper
understanding instead of just being handed
a bunch of facts. I wrote the title
for this blog post on Practical Action's website. Using how makes the headline more engaging than
if I'd gone with something like "Partnerships are reducing flood risks" or similar. The explaining technique
works well for higher value products
and services, too, because it's likely that the
reader will want to find out more information to justify their purchase if they're
spending a lot of money. It's time to create your own newsworthy headline
for your product, service, course or blog post. Use one of the techniques
we've covered in this lesson. Consider where your
headline will appear. A more straightforward
headline using new or introducing might be more suitable for a print
poster or advertisement, whereas why and
how headlines work brilliantly for blog
posts and articles. You can use my Daily Bread
question headline as inspiration if you're
struggling. Use the format. Why X is a thing of the past with X being your
customer's pain point, the problem your product
helps them to solve. In the next lesson, you'll
learn how to cut to the chase with headlines
that use direct commands.
9. Give a Command: Go ahead. Use a command. Come right out and tell
the reader what to do. As Nike would say, just do it. Commands are powerful and they get attention
because we don't receive that many simple
direct orders in normal life. Unless you're in uniform,
even instructions from superiors at work are usually softened
with something like, "do you think you
might be able to" or "could you just". One of the main ways to use commands in copywriting is in calls to action at the
end of your copy. But they can work at the
other end in headlines, too. Sometimes the effect is similar
to describing a benefit. For example, "Do your gut a favour, Try our gluten free sourdough bread". Same product, same benefit, but issuing a direct command does give it an extra bit
of punch, doesn't it? Speaking of punch, this is an advertisement for
an advertising agency. Yes, it's all getting
a bit meta. But it's difficult to
imagine a more direct, full on command than this, and notice how the command is combined with an
element of curiosity. Here's a less confrontational
example from Very Lazy, a company that aims to take
the hard work out of cooking. This headline, "Make
delicious meals", isn't really telling
the reader to do anything other than
try the product. What the reader takes away is buy our stuff and you'll
be a better cook. But that's still
a strong message, and the command gets it
across in only three words, and it follows up those with
the product main benefit, how easy it is to use. Essentially, this
headline is commanding the reader to do something
they probably want to do anyway, it's giving
them permission. Here's a famous example of
that technique at work. KitKat's "Have a
break, have a KitKat". Another context that this type of command headline works well in is tutorials or how to
guides or online courses. Let's take a look at
Skillshare's homepage. Create iconic logo designs. Draw realistic humans. Start scrapbooking. Make
your own clothing. Command headlines are short and sharp and
attention grabbing. They're perfect for tutorials because they tell your reader exactly what they'll be able to do as a result of
taking your class. At a higher level,
commands can be inspirational as with
Nike's famous slogan, challenging its
customers to perform better and achieve
more. Just do it. Here's another example of an aspirational command headline on the front of Boden's
latest catalogue. Boden is a clothing company. Their target demographic is middle class, middle aged women. Remember what I said earlier about matching your
headline to your images. Everything about this
cover is aspirational. We've got a beautiful
young woman relaxing on a classic
yacht at sunset, and the headline
"Get swept away" is essentially selling this
whole aspirational image. It's saying buy our stuff and you look and feel like this. Perhaps there's something
else going on here, too. By commanding us
to get swept away, maybe Boden are encouraging
us to throw caution to the wind and spend
more money than we normally would
on their products. Another more gentle
approach to command headlines is to subtly
guide the reader towards a particular
state of mind by talking about
something less concrete. Charity Care International asks you to imagine a
life without water. It's a command that stops you in your tracks as you consider the implications of living without something many
of us take for granted. The blog post then explores those implications for people in Southern Africa for
whom getting water to drink and cook with
is a daily struggle. It makes a strong
case for support, but it's set up by
that initial command to imagine a very
different world. See if you can create
your own headline using a simple direct command using one of the techniques
we've used in this lesson. If you're not sure
where to start, use my Daily Bread headline
as a starting point. Take the format,
do your X a favour, and change the X
to whatever makes sense to the product or
service you're promoting. The second part of the headline
can then just be the word "try" followed by the solution
you're offering the reader. In the next lesson,
I'll show you a simple six step
headline formula you can use to generate
headlines in a hurry.
10. Emergency Formula: Can you remember the
third golden rule of epic headline writing? It's to have a tried and tested headline formula you can use when you get stuck
and need to come up with a great
headline in a hurry. I've got a formula that
will help you do just that. Download and print
this cheat sheet and have it handy for when you need to come up with a basic but effective headline
at short notice. It will help you define your product's key benefits and get the creative juices flowing. Let's go through the
six steps together. Step one is to
define your offer. To do that, you
complete the statement, "My product helps my customers because..." when you're
working on this step, try to use everyday language and not be too formal about it. Imagine you're explaining to a friend what your product or service is or what your latest
blog post offers readers. In the case of the Daily Bread's
new product, I might say, "My product helps customers
because they can get their sourdough bread
fix with zero gluten." For step two, we shorten our previous sentence
by getting rid of everything up to and
including the word because. By doing this, we're
effectively taking away the prompt.
That's done its job, and we're left with a
concise explanation of our product's main benefit. "They can get their sourdough
bread fix with zero gluten". For step three, we're
going to turn it around so that we're speaking
directly to our audience. We'll do that by changing
the words them and they and their to you and your. "You can get your sourdough
bread fix with zero gluten". Don't you think that step
has made so much difference? It's taken the statement from a general indirect comment to something totally focused
on our target reader. In doing so, it's really
brought that benefit to life. Now, this is a perfectly
adequate headline on its own, but what I'd like
to do is inject a bit of urgency and
emotion into it. There are a number of
ways of doing this, and we've explored some
of them in this class. To keep things simple
with this formula, we add "Now: An easy way
to..." at the beginning. "Now: An easy way to get your sourdough bread
fixed with zero gluten." And if that headline
is working for you, you can absolutely
leave it at that. But if using the formula
and thinking about your key benefit has got you thinking of different
options, you can go further. Another step is to create more variations
of your headline, using the techniques you've
learned in this class. I've listed the different styles we've covered as a reminder. I'm going to finish filling
in the cheat sheet with the Daily Bread's headlines I've written during this class. Step six is to choose
your favourite headline. And remember, you don't necessarily need to
choose just one. You might choose different
headlines depending on the platforms they'll
appear on and your CTA. For example, I think
headline number three, the curiosity
driven one, would be perfect for the poster
inside the bakery, where we want to
encourage people to try the product and ask the staff for more
information about it. Whereas headline number five, the newsworthy one, would make a brilliant email subject line. It will really encourage
people to open the email and read
about our new product. I'm also a big fan
of headline number six, the direct command. So many people are concerned
with good health these days, and I think leading with that
could be very persuasive. Maybe this would make
a good log post title. What do you think? There's just one small
thing we need to do before these headlines
are ready to go, and that's a little
bit of formatting. We should convert
the written numbers seven and one into numerals. Many studies have shown that
when used in a headline, numerals are more
attention grabbing. They also make
headlines shorter, so it's a real win win. And there are some of these
headlines that we could shorten in other ways to
make them more punchy. We could replace this "and"
with a colon, for example. Finally, we need to convert our headlines into title case, which means
capitalising the first, last and important words. Now, writing in title case is a bit of an inexact science, and there are differences in opinion about how
it should be done. Don't get too bogged down in it. I sometimes use an online Title Case Converter
tool like this one. This is the one that's
actually recommended by Skillshare to teachers for when we're writing class titles, so it's a safe bet. You just copy and
paste your headline in and it converts
it immediately. Once you've done that,
I'd recommend just taking a look at the result and making sure you're
happy with it. These tools aren't foolproof, so just alter
anything that looks really off, then
you're good to go. Generally speaking,
you should avoid writing a headline in all caps. It can look aggressive, but putting important words in all caps can help
your headline pop. In this case, I'm going
to write NOW in all caps. Write a headline for your
own product or service using the emergency six step
headline formula and fill in the variation section with the other headlines you've
created during this class. In the next lesson,
I'll introduce you to the headline
swipe file and a few more tips and tools to help you really ace
your headline game.
11. Inspiration and Ideas: There's just one golden rule of headline
writing left to explore, and it's one that will keep you improving long after
this class ends. Golden rule number
four is to keep your eyes and ears open for
great headlines you see when you're out and about
reading magazines or browsing your social feeds
and build them into a swipe file you can
use for inspiration. This is what helps you stay
inspired as you write, and it gives you a
steady flow of ideas to draw on whenever you
create new content. I believe that the best way to become a better writer
is to read more. Whatever kind of writing you do, whether it's marketing
copy like we're talking about today or something
more creative, reading widely and taking inspiration from what's
successful is a no brainer. This is equally
true of headlines. Check out the headlines in marketing materials you
see in the newspaper, on TV, on the sides of
buses or anywhere else. Treat them as ongoing
sources of ideas. Note down your favourites
until you have a swipe file. Then you can adapt and tweak your favourite formats and approaches to suit
your own brand. This becomes a long
term source of inspiration you can return
to again and again. I've put together a list of 30 headlines to get you started. There's a real mix here of
benefit headlines, news ones, headlines that create intrigue, commands, everything we've
explored in this class. If you want more inspiration, I can highly recommend
The Copy Book It's a chunky compendium
of brilliant headlines accompanied by notes from the
copywriters who wrote them. I've used lots of examples from The Copy Book during this class. It's a real gold mine of ideas, and it also gives
an insight into the creative
copywriting process. There's a link in the
class description. Other brilliant
place to look for headline ideas is the
Facebook Ad Library. This is a public
database of all the ads currently active on Facebook
Messenger and Instagram. Facebook have made all the
ads on their platforms viewable to everyone in
the name of transparency, but it's also a massively
useful tool for marketers, and it's a great place for
headline ideas because the best social media posts
are just one sentence, short and punchy,
just like a headline. You can get some great
inspiration from browsing the Ad library,
but here's an idea. How about spying on
the ads of others who are in the same sort
of industry as you or who sell similar products to
see how they advertise them? This habit of noticing, collecting and analysing
headlines will keep you inspired long after
you finish this class, and it will help you
create strong first lines every time you sit
down to write. In the next lesson,
we'll recap what we've learned and talk about
our class project and some potential
next steps for you to improve your marketing
content even more.
12. Next Steps: Thank you for choosing this
class, and congratulations. You've just learned practical techniques you can start using straightaway to improve
your first lines and grow your brand. Now it's time to put
what you've learned into action with
your class project. Write a selection of
headlines based on the styles and approaches
you've learned in this class, and then post your favourite
or all of them as a project. I love reading your projects, and I can't wait to see how
you use your new skills. If you need feedback
on something specific or have questions, don't hesitate to reach out. And don't forget
about your three printables: The
planning worksheet, the super simple formula, and the swipe file of headlines you can use
for inspo the go. If you found this class helpful, please take a moment
and leave a review. Your feedback helps me improve
future classes and helps other students find classes that will suit their
learning needs. Now, what would you
like to learn next? If you're looking to define your brand with clarity
and confidence, my 15-Minute Mission
Statement and Tagline classes are
the perfect next step. In just minutes, you can shape a mission statement that
anchors your business and craft a focused tagline that strengthens every piece
of marketing you create. Together, they
give you a simple, structured way to articulate what you do and why it matters. Or if you're ready to supercharge
your social media copy, my social media
copywriting master class covers everything from crafting a professional bio to time saving techniques for
writing persuasive posts. It's my most popular
class on Skillshare, and I update it annually to make sure you've got
the most relevant, timely advice for each plat. And if you're looking to
home a specific skill, whether that's
crafting punchy ads, making your content
more SEO friendly or finessing your writing style and tone, I've got you covered. Visit my profile page to
see my full collection of classes and hit follow
for updates on new ones. Thank you again for
learning with me. I'm excited to see your
headlines in action.
Ruth Clowes, Professional Copywriter
