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In my last post, I discussed three questions I ask about the physical requirements of a piece of copy. But in this one, I’m going to dive into the six essential pieces of information you need to know about what you’re selling: Who’s the company, and are they well known or unknown to your audience? …

6 Questions to Ask About Your Offer Read »

When I’m researching a piece of copy, I organize the questions I ask into four groups: Questions about the requirements of the copywriting job itself Questions about the offer Questions about the audience, and Questions about the competition. Over this and the next few posts here, I’ll go through them. Questions about copy requirements What …

To get more clarity, ask better questions Read »

Clayton Makepeace, a high-paid direct-response copywriter, once offered six questions you can ask when you think you’ve got a good headline. Does your headline offer the reader a reward for reading? What specifics can you add to make your headline more intriguing and believable?  Does your headline trigger a strong emotion that your reader already …

Six questions to help you assess long headlines Read »

I want to share a tool I love because it helps me write better headlines—the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer. CoSchedule uses data compiled from millions of headlines on the web to look at three factors: 1. Headline types that get people to pay attention. These are things like lists, how-tos, and questions. 2. Word types that …

An invaluable tool to help you “grade” your headlines Read »

What’s the “supposedly secret but actually hiding-in-plain-sight” way to write better headlines? (The way that’s probably going to make you weep?) Here it is: write at least 25 headlines each time—for each piece of copy.  Yes, 25.  Back when I used to teach copywriting in night school—yes, this Rule of 25 consistently made my students …

The “Rule of 25”—and how it can force you to get creative Read »

I briefly taught copywriting at the University of Toronto. (It was fun for a couple of terms… Until it wasn’t.) When I did, I would walk people through classic headlines they could use to inspire their creativity. But it’s hard to look at 80- or 100-year old examples and think of something that gets us fired …

The only six headline formulas you’ll need Read »