Without a doubt, the headline is the most important part of any ad.

The reason is that if people read the headline and aren’t drawn to it, they won’t read the rest of your ad. And if they don’t read the rest of your ad, then they can’t buy your product.

The headline is fucking important!

Which begs the question…what exactly makes a great headline?

It’s a fantastic question… and in the hope of shedding some light on the matter, I’m going to reveal the 4 elements that I think make a great headline.

Now, before I get into what exactly these 4 elements are… I must point out a small caveat. Not all great headlines contain these 4 elements.

Some only contain 2.

Some even only have 1.

But they are, IMHO, the exceptions to the rule. And if you can pack your headlines with the 4 elements I’m about to reveal…and keep your headline inside your world of prospects…then you CANNOT go wrong!

So I’ve said enough… and at this point you’re probably yelling at your monitor… “Get to 4 elements already!”

well well…

If you insist.

The 4 elements of a great headline are:

Curiosity

Self interest (profit)

News

Instant Gratification (quick and easy way to…)

I’ll dive into each of those elements in a bit more detail shortly… but first… perhaps the easiest way to explain what I mean by each of these elements is to show them in action.

So here is a fantastic headline by John Carlton that he wrote for a golf product, containing each of these 4 elements.

The amazing secret discovered by a one-legged golfer adds 50 yards to your shots, eliminates hooks and cuts… and can cut up to 10 shots off your game almost overnight!

Now, if you were a golfer (maybe you are…), there’s no way you wouldn’t read the rest of that ad.

The reason is that the headline contains each of the 4 crucial elements that make up a great headline.

Let’s break it down quickly.

Incredible Secret Discovered By One-Legged Golfer – Curiosity + News

Adds 50 yards to your shots, eliminates hooks and slices… and can cut up to 10 shots out of your game – self-interest (huge benefit)

Almost all night! – Instant gratification

Let’s pick a random headline from my headline slider archive

Well… let’s see…

I’m not entirely sure who wrote this one, but it’s pretty cool.

Medical Breakthrough offers arthritis pain relief to millions! Try it for free!

Medical Breakthrough – News

Offering arthritis pain relief to millions! Try it for free! – Self-interest (great benefit)

The headline incites curiosity by not being specific, just dodging some sort of medical breakthrough.

The only element really missing from the title is instant gratification.

Perhaps the headline could be improved with the addition of the word “fast”.

Medical Breakthrough offers fast arthritis pain relief to millions! Try it for free!

Of course, I’m not familiar with the product this headline is selling…so it might not offer “quick” pain relief…but if it did…it sounds like the headline would definitely be worth trying with the word fast added.

So now that I’ve revealed each of the elements that make up a great headline, let’s break down why these elements are so important.

We’ll start with curiosity.

It may surprise you… but the main purpose of a headline is not to sell the product. If you can help do that, then this is great… but it’s not the main purpose.

No. The main purpose of an ad headline should be to get the reader to read the opening sentence of the ad. And the main purpose of the opening sentence should be to get the reader to read the next line of the ad. And so on and so on.

And one of the best ways to capture the reader’s attention and make them want to read the entire ad is to spark curiosity in the reader’s mind.

Curiosity is an incredibly powerful force.

In fact, I think it’s the most powerful emotion in advertising.

Perhaps the best way to get someone (especially children) to take some kind of action is to tell them not to do it at some point… but not to tell them why they shouldn’t.

Most of the time, their curiosity will get the best of them, and they’ll do it anyway just to see what happens.

This is why you should always include some kind of curiosity element in your title. Whether it’s bringing up a secret discovered by a one-legged golfer or dodging some kind of medical breakthrough, you should always include curiosity.

The next step is self interest.

Now the reason why you should include self-interest in your headlines should be blindingly obvious.

As the great salesman Zig Ziglar used to say. “All your prospects listen to the same radio station. WIIFM… What’s in it for me?”

People, unsurprisingly, are interested in reading and buying things that can benefit them. So be sure to include something of self-interest in your headline.

Moving on to the next item, News.

People love to read about news. So include some news in your ad.

Now, you may be thinking, there’s nothing really new about the product I’m selling that I can write about… And to that I say nonsense!

Have you ever heard that saying “that’s news to me!”

Of course you have!

Well, let your mind ponder that for a second.

There may not be anything NEW about the product you are selling to them. But when it comes to writing an ad, forget about YOU and think about WHO is going to read your ad.

The reader probably doesn’t know absolutely everything about your product… so tell them something that’s new to them.

And finally… last but not least… the fourth element that makes a great headline… Instant Gratification.

What we want? GRATIFICATION!

When do we want it? NOW!

And in the age of smartphones with 24/7 access to email and social media, and same-day delivery from Amazon…now more than ever…we live in the age of instant gratification.

Most people don’t like to think of having to work hard and spend time and effort to solve their problems.

People want the quick fix.

That’s why clichéd headlines like “a weird trick to quickly…” work so well.

So give them what they want and find a way to add some sort of instant gratification element to your headline.

And on that note, that wraps things up for today.

Try creating your own headlines with those 4 elements and see how they work.

I bet they’ll do pretty well!

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