[[Copywriter Brain]] How To Write FIRE HEADLINES

One of the greatest "things" you can get better at quickly that also had a major impact on the results of your ads/marketing is writing headlines.

Headlines are usually the first thing people see and a good headline draws them in while a bad headline repels them.

David Ogilvy said that a good headline accounts for about 80% of the success of a sales letter.

I agree.

That's why it's so important to get your headlines right.

How To Write FIRE Headlines

When it comes to writing headlines, you want to make sure you have an approach that works and that you can rely on again and again. There are many headline writing formulas you can use, but I like to keep things simple.

I break headlines into 4 types. The cool thing here is once you have your headline concept, the rest of the copy sort of 'writes itself" because the type of headline you choose leads into the "Lead" which is the next component of the sales letter.

Here's the breakdown for my 4 types of headlines:

Fear

Inspire

Relate

Educate

You may notice those also make the acronym FIRE. So, that is why I say you can write FIRE headlines. 😉

But, let's break down each headline concept just a little bit.

FEAR

For this type of headline you want to focus on targeting that primitive part of the human brain that is risk averse. This FEAR angle is not my favorite, in fact, I go out of my way not to use it.

But, it does work like gangbusters and I think if your product can really help save or help people, you can use a little fear to grab their attention.

Example industries where FEAR works well is the survival niche, gun sales, politics, health and wellness, Financial and safety products.

Example:

"Could This One Food Lead To An Early Death?"

Notice that death is rather jarring and curiosity draws you write in. Fear can be a strong motivator to change. Like a heart attack can lead a 60 year old man to finally take his health seriously.

INSPIRE

This is my favorite type of headline. This pulls people in with a promise or big claim that you can later prove. This is the traditional type of marketing that we all learn.

What does your product or service do best? How fast does it work? What can it do to make my life better?

You can also give positive messages and use inspiration/motivation to get lift your prospects spirits.

Example:

"This Simple Food May Hold The Key To Adding Years To Your Life"

Obviously this has to be complaint, but notice how this makes you feel much better and gives you HOPE?

RELATE

This is my 2nd favorite headline type. Relate means that you want to use a story to connect with a prospect. Stories are great to use when you lack a great hook or the product isn't all that unique.

Like a diet program teaching keto. It's been around for a while. It's nearly the same diet. It's well founded now in studies. So what can you do? Find a great customer story and build your copy around that. Or interview the founder and get their story.

Then tell the story from a 1st person perspective and use the story to connect to the prospect.

Example:

"I Cried When My Doctor Said I Was 'Too Fat' To Get Pregnant… 2 Years Later I Dropped 74 Pounds And Had My First Child"

Ok, this isn't my best work, but you can see the idea. The story element pulls you in. You want to know how she did it. And here's a hot tip. If at all possible, angle the story to reach the target prospect you are going after. A Woman who wants to lose enough weight to get pregnant will read every word of this ad.

EDUCATE

And finally we have Educate. This is a good angle when you are selling a service especially that requires that you show off your knowledge. It's also a great way to pull people in who may be too "sophisticated" for a story angle.

Stats, Studies, numbers… this is what makes a great Educate headline.

Example

"One in Three Women Suffer From Dry Skin… Here's Why You Don't Have To Be Another Statistic"

This stat is just a made up example, but you want to look for really shocking stats if you can find them. When someone sees a stat that jars them, they are more likely to read or watch the presentation.

Again, use this one as needed, but Inspire and Relate are probably your two best angles.

SURPRISE

Ok, there's a surprise I wanted to share with you. The real secret to making Headlines that spit FIRE is to combine 2 or more of these headline types together.

By doing this, you set yourself up for some really powerful results.

Watch This Video

I put together this video as well which further explains the process if you prefer to watch as opposed to reading.

Practice Makes Perfect

You'll get better at writing headlines by writing a lot of headlines. My framework should help you think of different angles to try and that's a great start.

But the day to day work of a copywriter is to write. I hope you will make use of the community of copywriters we've created inside of Copywriter Brain to get feedback and share your thoughts and ideas.

Together We Grow,

Mike Giannulis

https://CopywriterBrain.com