How to Supercharge Any Headline

by Leah on November 25, 2008

Want to supercharge your headline? Then you need to “set the mood.”

Imagine that you’re coming home your sweetie at the end of the day.  When you walk in the door, do you want to be greeted with a passionate embrace?  Your bodies writhing against each other and your lips pressed together in a blissful urgency full of promise and desire?  

Or would you rather be greeted with indifference and a recitation of the items that you still need to complete on your mile-long “honey-do” list?

If you choose the “passionate embrace” option, then you probably know how you can increase the odds in your favor.  Slipping a romantic love note into a pocket for your sweetie to find later in the day; sending a flirty email to get thoughts racing and blood flowing; maybe even having a special gift delivered ‘just because’.

You know that all of these thoughtful gestures will trigger the right emotions and help set the mood for romance when the two of you finally connect at the end of the day. 

Copywriting is no different.  

You want your writing to trigger the right emotion and set the mood for your prospect.  When you set the mood, they’ll be more receptive to your copy.  And the sooner you set the mood, the more effective your copy will be.

Now if you’ve studied copywriting at all, you know that the Headline gets all the love – as well it should.  It’s what catches the reader’s eye and gets prospects to stop what they’re doing and read your ad.  John Caples pointed out that if the headline doesn’t draw the reader into the copy, the best copy in the world can’t sell the product because the copy won’t be read.

So, given the importance of the headline, wouldn’t you like to set the mood for the prospect before they even read your headline?

Heck yeah, you do!

And the way you set the mood is by using a prehead.  The most powerful way to use a prehead is to trigger the right emotional state and then tap into that state with the headline.

I’ll give you an example.  Think of the Biz Op market.  Let’s start with a headline example:

Slash Your Learning Curve And Explode Your Online Profits Now…
By Doing Two Simple Things That You Already Do Every Single Day!

Now, let’s think about your biz op prospects.

The prospects are people who are dissatisfied with their income and with the restrictions of a “j-o-b”.  They dream of being their own boss, controlling their own schedules and raking in the dough so they can be free to spend their time as they like.

On top of all that, because they are reading magazines, surfing the internet and watching infomercials about how to achiever the freedom the dream of, they’re inundated with success stories and images of wealth.  As a result, they feel like they are the ONLY ones on the planet that aren’t living the good life.  

In the world they’re exposed to, EVERYONE (but them) is driving a Ferrari, living in a mansion, and working 1 hour a month under a palm tree on a beach.

Now imagine you’re one of these prospects, you’ve been trying to make money online without much success, and you come across this prehead, followed by the headline:
 

Tired of struggling online while everyone else is getting rich and living lives of freedom?                  

Slash Your Learning Curve And Explode Your Online Profits Now…
By Doing Two Simple Things That You Already Do Every Single Day!
 

Can you see how the prehead sets the emotional state for the reader and supercharges the headline? Very powerful stuff.

I guarantee that tapping into the emotional power of the prehead is the equivalent to romancing your sweetie throughout the day.

Remember that.  Then, go do something nice for your sweetheart.

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