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The Headline Shaker Maker: An Easier Way to Write Better Headlines

July 19, 2013 by Amy Harrison 19 Comments

Have you ever sat down to write a headline, trying to think of that one ‘big idea’? The critical selling point that will get your customer’s attention?

And was it a struggle?

If so, you might find this brand new free tool useful. I call it the Headline Shaker Maker.

What is it?

The Headline Shaker Maker is a simple tool to help you see at-a-glance the benefits you have to make an eye-catching headline. It helps you ‘shake’ out all the selling points of your product so you can pick up the pieces you need to ‘make’ your headline!

How does it work?

In the download you’ll find a table made of columns for you to list the important details about your product. Once you have all these details, you can start circling the most attractive ones.

Like this:

shakermaker

Then you start to put the pieces together to make different headlines made up of different selling points. You can even then A/B test them to see which elements are more appealing to your audience.

From shaking to making

Once you have your most important pieces, list these on a separate piece of paper. In the above example, we would have:

  • 6 week long course
  • Weekly group calls
  • More sales and clients
  • Clearer vision for the business
  • Efficient and successful business growth
  • Only 10 in each group
  • Working long hours without results
  • Afraid they can’t succeed
  • Confident / excited / focused / in control
  • Direct access to mentor
  • Next group in August
  • Applications needed July

Now you can start playing around with different elements to include in your headline. Remember, a good headline format to follow is:

  1. Identifies your target audience
  2. Makes an attractive promise (for results or to solve a problem)
  3. Includes specific elements to show it is unique

In our above example we might have:

This August, Join 9 Other Excited Business Owners Who Will Revamp Their Marketing to Get More Sales and Clients in Just 6 Weeks.

Get 1:1 Marketing Mentoring, Weekly Support from Other Business Owners and Unleash Your Business Confidence

Stop Working Long Hours on Your Marketing Without Results. Join a 10-Strong Group of Business Owners in this 6 Week Marketing Course and Have More Clients and Sales by September.

Headline too long? Not a problem

Now the above examples are just drafts to illustrate how you can start putting together important selling points in your headline.

You might find yourself struggling with a headline being too long, or you might find that you have 5-6 important elements that you want to include in your headline, but you’ve only really got room for 2-3.

That’s not a problem.

At the top of your sales page you have space for 3 main eye-catching elements (not including photos).

These are:

  • Headline
  • Sub-heading
  • The first sentence of your copy (called the ‘lede’)

So if you find you have a lot of critical selling points that you want to include, just split them up between these 3 areas. For example:

Stop Working Long Hours on Your Marketing Without Results.

Join a 10-Strong Group of Business Owners in this 6 Week Marketing Course and Have More Clients and Sales by September.

Every week you’ll have direct access to me and my marketing experience…

Why is this approach different?

When you focus your concentration on just one selling point you can limit your creativity and end up staring at a blank page. The Headline Shaker Maker gives you lots of different possible angles to start from to make the process easier. It also lets you put together different combinations of selling points that you might otherwise have missed.

Download your copy here

Headline shaker maker from Harrisonamy Copywriting

I hope this helps you in the fight for writing better headlines! Let me know how you get on in the comments below.

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Filed Under: Copywriting, Fast Copy Friday Tip, Sales pages

About Amy Harrison

I am a copywriter, content-trainer, speaker and filmmaker teaching businesses how to avoid drab business content and write copy customers love to read. You can also find me hanging out and sharing content over on Google+.

Comments

  1. Steve Williams says

    November 30, 2014 at 1:45 pm

    Very useful tool! I’ve read several books on copywriting and never seen something like this. I will use it for sure!

    Reply
    • Amy Harrison says

      November 30, 2014 at 8:40 pm

      So glad you found it useful Steve, a lot of people have said it’s been a new approach for them to crack writing headlines. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Carole says

    July 19, 2013 at 8:31 pm

    What an awesome tool! I’ve always been terrible at headlines. I’ll have to play with this tonight.

    Reply
    • harrisonamy says

      July 20, 2013 at 8:11 am

      Good luck with it Carole, let us know how you get on!

      Reply
  3. LaVonne Ellis says

    July 19, 2013 at 8:24 pm

    OMG, that’s just what I need — how did you know? Thank you!!!

    Reply
    • harrisonamy says

      July 20, 2013 at 8:13 am

      You’re so welcome LaVonne! I’ve been chatting to a number of people recently about the challenges of headlines and wanted to get this tool out there. Have fun with it!

      Reply

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