The three secrets to a great headline are simply: (1) persuade readers to read the headline AND (2) read your entire article AND (3) promise them a reward for reading it.
This is Part 1 of a 4 Part Series of the “100 Best Ever Headlines And Why They Were Successful”.
The Sole Purpose of Headlines
Grab the attention of a person speeding past or through your site and get them to stop long enough to read your content and answer any calls to action you present.
There is a lot of noise and competition for your visitor’s time and attention. You must offer a reward for reading that is sweet enough for them to read beyond the headline.
- If you solve a problem, offer a solution, offer a product or a way to find or access a product or service that they think they need – you are offering them a reward.
An Advertising Legend’s Legacy
In 1958, Victor O Schwab published an advertisement “100 Good Advertising Headlines – and why they were so profitable”. Despite their vintage, the reasons why they were profitable and these fine examples are still relevant today.
Here are the first 25 Best Ever Advertising Headlines and why they were so profitable.
1. THE SECRET OF MAKING PEOPLE LIKE YOU
Almost $500,000 was spent profitably to run keyed ads displaying this headline. It drew many hundreds of thousands of readers into the body matter of a “people-mover” advertisement — one which, by itself, built a big business. Pretty irresistible, isn’t it?
2. A LITTLE MISTAKE THAT COST A FARMER $3,000 A YEAR
A sizable appropriation was spent successfully in farm magazines on this ad. Sometimes the negative idea of offsetting, reducing, or eliminating the “risk of loss” is even more attractive to the reader than the “prospect of gain.”
As the great business executive Chauncey Depew once said, “I would not stay up all of one night to make $100; but I would stay up all of seven nights to keep from losing it.” As Walter Norvath says in Six Successful Selling Techniques, “People will fight much harder to avoid losing something they already own than to gain something of greater value that they do not own.” It is also true that they have the feeling that losses and waste can often be more easily retrieved than new profits can be gained.
What farmer could pass up reading the copy under such a headline — to find out: “What was the mistake? Why was it ‘little’? Am I making it? If it cost a farmer a loss of $3,000 a year, maybe it’s costing me a lot more? Perhaps the copy will also tell me about other mistakes I might be making.”
3. ADVICE TO WIVES WHOSE HUSBANDS DON’T SAVE MONEY — BY A WIFE
The headline strength of the word “advice” has often been proven. Most people want it, regardless of whether or not they follow it. And the particular “ailment” referred to is common enough to interest a lot of readers. The “it happened to me” tag line, “by a wife,” increases the desire to read the copy. (This ad far out-pulled the advertiser’s previous best ad, Get Rid of Money Worries.)
4. THE CHILD WHO WON THE HEARTS OF ALL
This was a key-result ad which proved spectacularly profitable. It appeared in women’s magazines. The emotional-type copy described (and the photograph portrayed) the kind of little girl any parent would want their daughter to be. Laughing, rollicking, running forward with arms outstretched, right out of the ad and into the arms and heart of the reader.
5. ARE YOU EVER TONGUE-TIED AT A PARTY?
Pinpoints the myriads of self-conscious, inferiority-complexed wallflowers. “That’s me! I want to read this ad; maybe it tells me exactly what to do about it.”
As you go along, you will notice how many of these headlines are interrogative ones. They ask a question to which people want to read the answer. They excite curiosity and interest in the body matter which follows. They hit home — cut through verbose indirectness. The best ones are challenges, which are difficult to ignore, cannot be dismissed with a quick no or yes and without further reading, are pertinent and relevant to the reader. Note how many of the ones included here measure up to these specifications.
6. HOW A NEW DISCOVERY MADE A PLAIN GIRL BEAUTIFUL
Wide appeal; there are more plain girls than beautiful ones — and just about all of them want to be better looking.
7. HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE
This helped to sell millions of copies of the book of the same title. Strong basic appeal; we will all want to do it. But without the words “how to” the headline would become simply a trite wall motto.
8. THE LAST 2 HOURS ARE THE LONGEST — AND THOSE ARE THE 2 HOURS YOU SAVE
An airline ad featured a faster jet-powered flight. Headline is a bull’s-eye for air-experienced travelers who know what those last two interminable hours can do to their nerves and patience. Like many fine headlines, it doubtless came right out of the personal experience of its writer. This headline (and all the others discussed here) would have been good even if it had not been supported by any picture at all. But its effect was heightened by a photo of a wristwatch with the hour marks indicating 1 to 10 bunched together — and 10, 11, and 12 stretched wide apart.
9. WHO ELSE WANTS A SCREEN STAR FIGURE?
Who doesn’t? Except men — and this successful and much-fun ad is not addressed to them. “Who else” also has a “get on the bandwagon” connotation: not “Can it be done?” but “Who else wants to have it?”
10. DO YOU MAKE THESE MISTAKES IN ENGLISH?
A direct challenge. Now read the headline back, eliminating the vital word “these.” This word is the “hook” that almost forces you into the copy. “What are these particular mistakes? Do I make them?” Also notice (as with many of the other headline reviewed) that this one promised to provide helpful personal information in its own context, not merely “advertising talk.”
The attraction of the Specific: In this first breather let us stop to impress upon your mind how significant a part the “specific” plays in so many good headlines. It appears in many of our first ten. And it will appear in a surprising number of the next ninety. You will see how magnetically it helps to draw the reader into the body matter of an advertisement. So notice, as you continue reading, how many of these headlines contain specific words or phrases that make the ad promise to tell you: How, Here’s, These, Which of these, Who Else, Where, When, What, Why. Also, note frequently exact amounts are used: number of days, evenings, hours, minutes, dollars, ways, types of. This “attraction of the specific” is worth your special attention — not only as relating to words and phrases, but also concerning headline ideas themselves. For example, compare the appeal of “We’ll Help You Make More Money” with “We’ll Help You Pay the Rent.”
11. WHY SOME FOODS “EXPLODE” IN YOUR STOMACH
A provocative “why” headline. Based upon the completely understandable fact that some food combinations virtually “explode” in the stomach. Broad appeal. (Relevant picture of chemical retort shaped like a stomach, starting to explode.)
12. HANDS THAT LOOK LOVELIER IN 24 HOURS — OR YOUR MONEY BACK
Universal appeal to women. Result guaranteed: “Or Your Money Back.”
13. YOU CAN LAUGH AT MONEY WORRIES — IF YOU FOLLOW THIS SIMPLE PLAN
Something everybody wants to be able to do. A successful keyed ad upon which many thousands have been spent.
14. WHY SOME PEOPLE ALMOST ALWAYS MAKE MONEY IN THE STOCK MARKET
A profitable check-results ad selling a book written by a partner in a well-known and highly regarded brokerage house. Important key words: “some” and “almost” — which make the headline credible.
15. WHEN DOCTORS “FEEL ROTTEN” THIS IS WHAT THEY DO
What’s the secret of the success of this well-known ad? First: the suggestion of a paradox. We seldom think of doctors as being in poor health themselves. And when they are, what they do about it is information “right from the horse’s mouth”; carries a note of authority and greater assurance of “reward for reading the ad.” Note the positive promise of reward in “This Is What They Do.”
Also, the use of the unabashed colloquialism “feel rotten” gets attention, sounds human, natural. Besides, it has surprise value — since the vocabulary of the advertising pages has a certain sameness and stilted quality. Many a headline fails to stop readers because its vocabulary is so hackneyed. No word or phrase in it has any attention-arresting element of surprise, no words, expressions, or ideas not commonly used or expected in the headline of an advertisement. This ad pulled only half the number of responses when a test was made changing “When Doctors Feel Rotten” to “When Doctors Don’t Feel Up To Par.” (Other examples of the use of common colloquialisms and words are given, and commented upon, in many of these good headlines.)
Since the idea of using headline words not commonly utilized in the lexicon of advertising is worth such serious consideration, let us cite a few more examples. For a book on scientific weight control: the one word “Pot-Belly”! (Not very elegant, but it proved an effective stopper.) For a dictionary: a single word (onion, hog, shad, pelican, skunk, kangaroo, etc.) as the boldface headline of each in a series of small-space advertisements. You couldn’t miss it on the page and you wanted to know what it was all about. The copy followed through by illustrating how simple and clear the definitions were in that particular dictionary. For a book of golf instruction: “Don’t Belly-Ache About Your Golf This Year!”
16. IT SEEMS INCREDIBLE THAT YOU CAN OFFER THESE SIGNED ORIGINAL ETCHINGS — FOR ONLY $5 EACH
Anticipates the reader’s natural incredulity concerning such an exceptional bargain. Thus helping to overcome his doubt in advance, by acknowledging the likelihood of it.
17. FIVE FAMILIAR SKIN TROUBLES — WHICH DO YOU WANT TO OVERCOME?
“Let me keep reading — to see if I have one of the five.” The old “which of these” selling technique; not “do you want?” but “which do you want?” (Interrogative headline helps entice readers into the copy. Note how many of these hundred are interrogative headlines.)
18. WHICH OF THESE $2.50 TO $5 BEST SELLERS DO YOU WANT — FOR ONLY $1 EACH?
This keyed ad sold hundreds of thousands of books. Strong comparative-price bargain appeal.
19. WHO EVER HEARD OF A WOMAN LOSING WEIGHT — AND ENJOYING 3 DELICIOUS MEALS AT THE SAME TIME?
Another example of a headline which anticipates incredulity in order to help overcome it.
20. HOW I IMPROVED MY MEMORY IN ONE EVENING
This is the famous “Addsion Sims of Seattle” ad which coined that household phrase. Could you escape wanting to read it?
21. DISCOVER THE FORTUNE THAT LIES HIDDEN IN YOUR SALARY
One of those good “discover what lies hidden” headlines. (Note others here.) A proven puller for an advertiser offering sound securities on a “pay out of income” basis.
22. DOCTORS PROVE 2 OUT OF 3 WOMEN CAN HAVE MORE BEAUTIFUL SKIN IN 14 DAYS
Women want it. “Why two out of three? Am I one of the two? How have doctors proven it? Quick results are what I want….Only fourteen days!”
How Many Words Should a Headline Contain? …You have probably often read about the desirability of having no more than a certain number of words in your headline. Yet, in this second breather, we want to point out that many of the headlines already quoted (and others to follow) are, by ordinary standards, quite long. Yet, despite their length, they were successful. Obviously, it is not wise to make a headline any lengthier than its primary function actually requires. However, greater-than-usual length need not worry you…provided the headline’s high spots of interest are physically well broken up and clearly displayed — and provided the personal advantages promised to the reader are presented so oppositely that it is almost as though his own name appeared in the headline. Worth recounting is the story of Max Hart (of Hart, Schaffner and Marx) and his advertising manager, the late and great George L. Dyer. They were arguing about long copy. To clinch the argument Mr. Dyer said, “I’ll bet you $10 I can write a newspaper page of solid types and you’d read every word of it.” Mr. Hart scoffed at the idea. “I don’t have to write a line of it to prove my point,” Mr. Dyer responded. “I’ll only tell you the headline: “This page is all about Max Hart!”
23. HOW I MADE A FORTUNE WITH A “FOOL IDEA”
Paradoxes excite interest. Broad appeal: almost everyone has once had a pet moneymaking idea that others have thought foolish and impractical. Sympathy for the underdog: “What’s the story of this man who ‘turned the tables’ on the people who ridiculed him?”
24. HOW OFTEN DO YOU HEAR YOURSELF SAYING: “NO, I HAVEN’T READ IT: I’VE BEEN MEANING TO!”
A well-known book club has spent a great deal of money on this ad. Headline aimed accurately at large market — people who “mean to” keep up with the new books but somehow “never get around to it.”
25. THOUSANDS HAVE THIS PRICELESS GIFT — BUT NEVER DISCOVER IT!
“What ‘priceless gift’? Why is it ‘priceless’? If ‘thousands’ have it, perhaps I should have it too.” The “undiscovered” angle has great attraction. Legions of people are convinced that they possess talents and abilities which others have never discovered. Consequently, their world is unfortunately inclined to underrate or misjudge them.
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Thanks for the explanation of all these – I’ve only seen the list before and not the explanations.
AWESOME!
wow! how good and so vital indeed. as a copywriter, i think i should have read u before. ur guidance is eye opening, mind openening and prospects opening for a person like me. thanks a lot.
ashok