The Ultimate Guide to Writing Great Sales Letter Headlines

If you want to write great sales letter headlines that stop your ideal prospects in their tracks, so they read the rest of your copy and ultimately buy from you, then this post is going to be one of the most important things you’ll ever read.

Right, what is the most important part of any sales letter?

The bullets?

Testimonials?

Close?

No, no and not again. Instead, it is the title of your sales letter.

Now, I know what you’re thinking…

How can something as small as your headline be the most important thing in all of your copy?

Well, look at it like this:

It doesn’t matter how good your offer is, how compelling the story you write, how powerful your testimonials are, if no one reads your copy.

So the first “win” you should get from writing copy is getting your prospects to actually read it.

You do it through your title.

With me so far?

Good. Forward.

Now, how do you write a great sales letter headline?

Well this is what most people do:

They build a slip archive of all the biggest headlines throughout history.

So far, so good.

The thing is, instead of using these headlines as inspiration to write their own headline, they literally swipe through them word for word.

They just add and subtract a couple of words here and there, so it applies to your own product or market. And that’s it.

At first glance, you might think he’s smart.

If it worked once, it will work again, right?

Well, not so fast.

You see, there’s a reason those headlines worked so well. And it all boils down to this:

The writers who wrote them knew their markets inside out.

Specifically, they knew two things:

1) How much did the market know about your product?

(This included what the product did, the mechanisms involved, and how well it satisfied a problem or want they had.)

2) How AWARE your market was of any problems or desires they might have been experiencing at the time.

In his book “Breakthrough Advertising”, one of the great copywriters of all time, Eugene Schwartz, called this the “state of consciousness” of the market.

And he said you have to write your headline keeping in mind the CURRENT state of awareness of your market.

If you don’t, then your sales letter headline won’t reach your prospects…

Will fail…

And people who would have otherwise bought from you won’t even read the rest of your copy.

Which would be a real pain in the rear, right?

Anyway, there are 5 different states of consciousness that you need to be in. aware from. (Get it?)

These are:

Stage 1: Your potential customer knows about your product and wants it, but hasn’t made up his mind to buy it yet.

Stage 2: Your prospect knows about your product but does NOT want to buy it yet.

Stage 3: Your prospect is NOT aware of your product, but they are aware of a desire they have that your product would fulfill.

Stage 4: Your prospect does not know about your product, although he has a NEED that must be satisfied.

Stage 5: Your prospect is unaware of your product AND unaware of any needs or wants they have related to what your product does.

Look:

You MUST know what stage of knowledge your prospects are in, right now.

Why?

Because you have to use a different title “formula” for each stage.

What are these formulas? Let me tell you…

Stage 1: Your potential customer knows about your product and wants it, but hasn’t made up his mind to buy it yet.

This one is easy.

All you really need to do in your headline is state the name of your product and a bargain price.

People at this stage of awareness will buy.

For example, everyone knows what an iPhone is. And there are millions of people who want one, but haven’t decided to buy it yet.

If iPhone wrote a headline that said something as simple as:

“iPhone (whatever the latest model) – now available at half price”, people would flock to it.

The thing is, most products don’t fall into this category. And if they don’t, then this kind of headline would suck worse than my balls after ten sets of squats.

On that nice thought, let’s move on…

Stage 2: Your potential customer knows about your product but doesn’t want to buy it yet.

Things are a bit more complicated now…

But not much else.

Here, you just need to strengthen your title in one of the following 7 ways:

1) Reinforce your prospect’s desire for the result your product can help them achieve.

2) Accentuate the image of your product in action, in the mind of your prospect.

David Ogilvy’s famous ‘Rolls-Royce’ ad headline is a great example of this:

“At 60 mph, the loudest sound in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.”

Now you can imagine driving a Rolls-Royce as smooth as shit, right?

Amazing images.

3) Emphasize WHEN and WHERE your prospect can use and benefit from your product.

For example, I never bothered with Netflix.

Until, of course, I went on a trip to Thailand and wanted to watch some movies in my spare time.

I didn’t think I would be able to get Netflix on my phone.

But guess that? I saw a headline saying there was a Netflix mobile app and you could stream movies from anywhere in the world.

Of course, then I signed up, because I was no longer limited to watching movies in my bedroom in England: I could watch them anywhere in the world, anytime I wanted.

4) Emphasize new documentation or evidence that supports the quality/effectiveness of your product.

5) Mention a new mechanism in your product that makes it “work” better than before.

6) Mention a new mechanism in your product that overcomes a previous limitation it had.

For example, if there was a new ingredient in a beer that would prevent hangovers, the company would be stupid not to mention it in their headline!

7) Finally, you may want to completely change your potential customer’s image of your product, to eliminate it from the competition and/or to enter a new market.

Lucozade did this.

It used to be a drink that people had when they were sick. Then they repositioned it as an energy drink that you can drink on a daily basis.

genius.

Right, that’s “Stage 2” on the Scale of Consciousness done.

Let’s move on to stage 3…

Stage 3: Your prospect is NOT aware of your product, but they are aware of a desire they have that your product would fulfill.

Remember this:

If your potential customer doesn’t know about your product yet and doesn’t know what you can do for them, don’t mention it in your title.

I understand?

Good.

Instead, you need to start with the WANT your prospect has.

Your body copy must show that the desire can be achieved.

And finally, you need to show them that your product is the best/only way they can fulfill that desire.

Next.

Stage 4: Your prospect does not know about your product, although he has a NEED that must be satisfied.

This is similar to “stage 3”, so we won’t spend much time on this.

Here, you want to name the need and/or its solution in your title.

Then you really want to rub salt in the wound, so to speak, by making your prospect realize how badly he needs a solution to his need.

And as before, he presents his product as the solution.

Stage 5: Your prospect is unaware of your product AND unaware of any needs or wants they have related to what your product does.

Right, this is where a top copywriter makes their money.

If your sales letter headline can attract people in this category, you should get a lot more sales and more money in your bank.

The thing is, how do you do it?

Well, as you might have guessed, you can’t mention your product.

You can’t mention a wish either, they aren’t aware of it yet.

Price? Definitely not. At this stage, the price is too irrelevant.

Then what do you do?

You start with (drum roll, please)…

YOUR MARKET!

Yes, when you target a market in this fifth stage of awareness, you must first “call out” your market, so that they can identify with your ad.

If they don’t even identify with it, then they won’t keep reading. Done.

Then, only after they’ve identified with your ad through your headline, do the following in your main body copy:

First of all, they need to be aware of the problem or desire.

Then make them realize that there is a solution.

And finally, as before, make sure they see YOUR product as the obvious solution.

Regardless, all of this might overwhelm you at first. I’m sure he did it to me.

It’s a lot to take in.

But if you can master just this one aspect of copywriting, your copy will convert better than 90% of your competitors.

It means more money for you.