HOW TO CONSTRUCT A RIVETING HEADLINE

According to David Ogilvy, founder of the Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency and author of Confessions of an Advertising Man (rev. ed., Atheneum, 1988) and Ogilvy on Advertising (John Wiley & Sons, 1983), “On the average, five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy. It follows that, unless your headline sells your product, you have wasted 90 percent of your money.”

Here’s a plan for crafting never-fail headlines:

Step 1. Write 30 to 50 headlines before you decide on the one you’re going to use.

Step 2. Step back from the headline for a day and read it again with a fresh perspective.

Step 3. Ask yourself, “How can this headline be better?” “Is this the best possible headline for my objective, ...

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