> I use Ted Nicholas’ index card system of
> finding the Features-Benefits of the product
> I’m promoting. There are several good ways
> of finding/discovering the greatest benefits
> of any product but Ted’s way is simple and
> it works…enough said.

HOW TO WRITE HEADLINES THAT MAKE SALES SOAR!
By Ted Nicholas

Dear Friend and Subscriber:

No one in the world teaches the strategies you will get here. How do I know that? Because every idea comes from my own experience, tests of mailings and space ads over $100 million worth. And 23 years of 12-16 hour workdays!

I'm excited. I'm fulfilling a dream. Doing a special, one-of-a-kind newsletter for the people in the world I most admire and respect entrepreneurs and writers! And the biggest beneficiaries of all are the small business owners who sell products and services other than books. Reason? As Robert Collier said many years ago, "If you can sell books you can sell anything!"

Dedicated to my favorite people in the world . . . In case you have not seen my new book, How To Publish a Book and Sell a Million Copies, the dedication best sums up how I feel about you: "Perhaps the most precious and important right of all free people is freedom of speech. In America we are guaranteed this right under the First Amendment of the Constitution. "In dictatorships, it is no accident that as soon as leaders assume power, one of their first acts is to take away the citizens' freedom of expression. Censorship and control of the printing presses are sought by all despots. " This book is dedicated to the real unsung heroes of all human societies the writers and publishers who, through their efforts, keep everyone free."

The goal of this newsletter is: To help you succeed in direct marketing and self-publishing. SAVE MONEY, TIME AND HASSLES You will save lots of heartache, time, and money. Unless you feel compelled to invest 20 years and get "beaten up" in the marketplace, there is no need for you to make the same mistakes I've made. You can avoid them once you are forewarned.

This issue features writing effective headlines. Reason? Ninety percent of the success or failure of any sales offer, whether in a space ad or sales letter, is the headline. Teaser copy on an envelope and the title of a book are as crucially important as is the headline in a sales letter or ad. So I feel headline writing is the best place to start. I'll show you how to ignite your sales by creating headlines with amazing power! What the legends in advertising say . . . In case you have any doubt about the importance of headlines, here is what two of the greats in advertising have to say: "

Advice to copywriters:
When you are assigned to write an ad, write a lot of headlines first. Spend hours writing headlines or days if necessary. If you happen to think of a headline while walking down the street or while riding the bus, take out pencil and paper and write it down." John Caples "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." David Ogilvy.

Headline writing is an area in which everyone, including professional copywriters, can be stronger. But, I'm unaware of anyone in the world today who teaches the art of the headline effectively. Unfortunately, many direct marketing seminar speakers have learned from a book instead of the real world. Often they teach mythology that doesn't work.

What does a headline do? An effective headline is important for many reasons. It: Attracts attention; Communicates a strong benefit; Appeals to the self-interest of the reader. It answers the question, "What's in it for me?"; Sets the tone for the offer. A headline acts like a marquee does for a movie theatre and Selects the right audience. Based on hundreds of tests conducted, a good headline can be as much as 17 times more effective than a so-so headline. And this is with exactly the same body copy!

Because it is so important, I always write many headlines for an ad or book title. For instance, for How To Form Your Own Corporation Without a Lawyer for Under $75, I wrote 217 titles before I published the book. And the final title also became the headline for my first ad.

Here are some guidelines I use for the way a headline is written and presented.
The promise must be believable.
Never use more than 17 words.
Use quotation marks because it is more memorable.
Use reverse type sparingly, because it is hard to read.
Use upper and lower case letters not all caps for reading ease.
If a large photograph is used, place the headline below it.
Do not vary type size.

How to start writing great headlines . . . On any product, including an information product, book, Special Report, newsletter, tape, floppy disk . . . re-review the product, element by element.

Step back from the product. If you have written or created the product, take off the producer's cap and look at it with a "marketer's eye". Identify all the benefit and feature of the product from the buyer's point of view. Benefits are the real hot buttons Benefits are those elements of the product that provide the answer to, "So what?".

Use strong action verbs. For example: "Discover how to slash your taxes by 95%". The word slash is a strong action word. A feature is a fact about the product that builds credibility: "It's ll x l7 inches, 244 pages and has 13 illustrations." Both features and benefits are necessary in your copy. But benefits are where to place the emphasis. Benefits close the sale. Reason? People act 90 percent on their emotions. Benefits help bring out emotions. Everyone then justifies their decisions by using logic. The best strategy is to capture benefits.

Here is a great technique. Using 3 x 5 cards, write one benefit or feature on each card. If, for example, the product is a book or tape, from some pages or segments you will write several benefits and features. On others, only one or even none. Do this throughout the review of the product. When you have completed this process, review the 3 x 5 cards. Sometimes you will have 50, 75, 100 up to 200 and even more.

In some cases the strongest benefit you can find on a card is also the best headline. It can just pop out at you sometimes! A benefit you have isolated on your 3 x 5 card can become what sometimes is called your "unique selling proposition" your USP.

The obvious can be your key to wealth! When you isolate the obvious benefits, you will start building wealth. You will immediately start earning a great deal of money as a marketer. Why? Many marketers miss isolating the obvious benefits of their product. You will have many headline choices. And the benefits you have isolated will help you write the rest of the body copy. Your entire message needs to be filled with benefits. Put the strongest ones first in order of priority when you get into writing body copy. Put drama, power and passion into your benefits.

Here is a special technique that can be even more powerful than the procedure I have just described. A technique NOBODY teaches originated by me so only I know it. I call it . . . Finding the hidden benefit I often create headlines that do not arise from studying the product itself. Yes! That is not a misprint. By using this special strategy, I've written some of the most successful headlines in direct marketing history. Here is how it works . . . Ask yourself this question, "If I had unlimited, god-like powers and could grant my prospective customer the biggest benefit I can possibly imagine he or she would ideally want from my product, what would that be?"

Write down your answer. Here is a specific example. While writing The Complete Book of Corporate Forms, to sell it I naturally wanted to dramatize the book and excite my prospects about its benefits. How could I possibly do that? Numerous publishers sold legal form books. Not as good as mine, mind you, but still form books. (Mine was, and still is, the easiest to use.) What could I do to differentiate my product? How could I make a book of forms (sounds dull, doesn't it?) exciting!? So I stood back and asked myself that question. I quickly realized that entrepreneurs don't care a whit about forms. Most abhor paperwork. What they want is the benefit from using the forms.

I knew entrepreneurs, more than anyone else, hate to pay taxes. And what every entrepreneur desperately wants is to preserve the corporation's tax shelter status. No one wants to lose that precious benefit. So it came to me. I wrote the headline, "What Will You Do When the IRS Suddenly Wipes Out Your Corporation's Tax Shelter Benefits?" Of course, the book has narrative information about the importance of keeping good records to maintain the corporate protection. But, while it happens all the time, there is nothing whatsoever in the book about the IRS taking away benefits. That is why I call it a hidden benefit. The rest of the copy for the ad was easy to do once I had the lead.

You too will find your copywriting task will be simpler. I used this headline for a 7 x 10 inch space ad. Later I used the same headline for a successful sales letter. A card deck offer selling the book on a postcard was also very successful. Wow! Did it work! Results? Since 1979, 350,000 copies of the book have been sold at $70 per copy. That's 24.5 million dollars worth of product sales. And it is still selling just as well today! Selling a million copies of this book in the next few years is easily within reach!

One caveat on the "hidden benefit" headline strategy. Make sure your product actually delivers on the headline's promise. If you have the slightest doubt, here is what to do: change or revise the product! Result? You will both deliver the benefit and greatly add to the product's sales appeal!!

Other examples of headlines I have written that have nothing whatsoever to do directly with the product, but nonetheless have set sales records, include the ads I did for my book How To Form Your Own Corporation Without a Lawyer for Under $75: "The Eighth Wonder of the World" "Wage Your Own Personal Tax Revolt" "Only Way Left For Little Guy to Get Rich" And the most successful headline I ever wrote for that product... "The Ultimate Tax Shelter".

Another example of the technique is the headline: "What Will You Do When Your Personal Assets Are Seized to Satisfy a Judgment Against Your Corporation?" - Product: The Complete Book of Corporate Forms Use the "hidden benefit" technique when you are writing headlines and watch your sales explode.

And remember: Write as many headlines as you can. Test, test, test You will undoubtedly want to test more than one headline or "teaser" before you choose your final "control" headline. And even after you have a control, it is imperative to keep running new headline tests against it for two reasons: 1) to see if you can beat it, and . . . 2) every headline eventually becomes tired and you need to change it. But not too soon! You will tire of a headline much faster than will your customers. If it is working never, never, never, never change it until, or unless, you beat the results with a new headline.

Using photography to boost sales A new trend affecting the art of writing headlines is the increased use of photography in ads and sales letters. People are influenced more than ever before, probably because of the increased watching of video and TV. Think visually about your headlines. If your headline message can be depicted visually, try using a photograph for up to 1/3 of the first page of a letter or ad. Do at least one variation of the ad with a photo. The old saying is true: "A picture is worth a thousand words". But here is the key. The headline and photography must work together. Ideally the photography emphasizes the headline. An example of the headline supported by a photo A project I am currently doing for a client uses a photo. The product is a wonderful manual designed for business people and leaders of all kinds who want to improve their public speeches, as do nearly all of them who want to get ahead. (Did you know that 54 percent of Americans would rather face death than make a speech?!)

The headline I wrote is "How To Get Enthusiastic Applause Even a Standing Ovation Every Time You Speak". The ad photo depicts an audience smiling, clapping and giving a standing ovation as the speech ends. I bet you can even feel the attention-getting pulling power of the ad as you read this description. Can't you? Doesn't that knock your socks off? The ad has yet to be tested, but I would be very surprised if it isn't a smash hit.

A photograph cannot replace a headline But no matter how good the photograph, the headline has even more responsibility. The goal? To get readers into the body copy. And the copy should be directly under the photograph, right after the caption. On the ad for the public speaking book, the headline's promise is not specifically mentioned in the product, as such. It is another example of a "hidden benefit". However, the excellent information contained in the product delivers on that promise. I know because it kept the promise for me in a recent speech.

Powerful headline words Here are my favorite headline words. The safest headline begins with "How To". It immediately appeals to the reader's self-interest. It piques curiosity. If the benefit is powerful, the reader will move on to the body copy. You are involving the reader immediately. Did you know there are over 7,000 books in print with titles that start with "How To"? This phrase cannot be overdone.

Here are 26 other provocative words and phrases I like to use in a headline:

1. announcing 9. advice to 17. yes
2. secrets of 10. the truth of 18. love
3. new 11. protect 19. how much
4. now 12. life 20. how would
5. amazing 13. here 21. this
6. facts you 14. discover 22. only
7. breakthrough 15. do you 23. sale
8. at last 16. bargains 24. hate

And finally, the two most powerful headline words:
25. free 26. you

Other important headline points:
Avoid headlines that merely create curiosity. If the headline does not tie to the product or to the benefit derived from using the product, the reader will feel deceived and will stop reading. And, of course, your product will not be ordered.

A good headline is the first step in prompting an action on the part of a reader. The headline must stir an emotion. It must get the reader excited or fearful or protective. It must motivate. Use present tense, not the future tense, for added power and life. It adds more "juice" to the promise and makes the promise more credible and believable. The present tense is also far more emphatic.

Use the first or second person.
Use verbs which are colorful, vital and strong.
Use short words that create images or pictures.
Eliminate most adverbs and adjectives; they belong in longer body copy where you can support them.
Do not try to be "catchy" or "cute" as do many copywriters. Instead of dramatizing the product, they call attention to the copy itself which is distracting. Make the product the "hero", not the copy.

Next month . . . More on making headlines pull sales. I will also reveal subhead strategies that will add far more sales appeal to your offers. Sincerely, Ted Nicholas P.S. People often ask me to reveal the "secrets" of what really makes a successful ad or sales letter work. On these pages I will give you my strategies and analyze ads by others as well. This process is the most valuable known teaching method of copywriting and direct marketing. I have wondered for years why so little of it is being done. That is one of the big reasons I started this newsletter! Subscription information now available in Compuserve Electronic Mall; Just type GO ND or respond directly to Nicholas Direct 19918 Gulf Blvd #7 Indian Shore, Fl 34635 1- 800- 730- 7777.