Your headline doesn’t have to be cute or humorous… it just has to grab the attention of the people you are aiming it at (or “prospects” or “audience” or “target market” as we call them) that you want to respond to your advertisement.

It can be one word like…

Parents!

Or a dozen words like

Here’s great news for people who own championship dogs, bitches and puppies!

If you are not a parent or you don’t own a championship dog, bitch or puppy you’re probably not going to be attracted by those headlines. On the other hand, if you are or if you do, then they’ll almost certainly grab your attention. They’ll literally flag you down.

Some

So, let’s have a look at some other great headlines that will work their backsides off! Notice how well they flag down attention.

This first one was written many years ago by a great advertising man, John Caples, and has worked gangbusters ever since.  You’ll see it used in all sorts of variations for all sorts of products or services.  The original headline was

“They laughed when I sat down at the piano but when I started to play…”

If you were a travel agent you could change that to

“They laughed when I suggested going to Bangkok but when they heard about my sensational experiences…”

In each instance the body copy would tell the story of what happened.  Would it interest some people?  Sure would.