"11 Tips to Help You Discover Your Headline’s Holy Grail"

Your ‘Holy Grail’ when it comes to your sales message or your email subject line is your ability to get your message read. Once you have discovered your holy grail, this becomes your hook for your headline which is simply a unique piece of your sales story which arouses burning curiosity and FORCES your reader to read your copy.

It is your slant, your uniqueness, which no-one else has. You will instinctively know when you find your ‘Holy Grail’ and then you set about crafting this into a big hook.

You need to search for some detail of your product which others have paid no attention to. And this is another reason why you need to research your topic. Do your due diligence and it opens so many doors for you. Except this time, you are looking for the “human” connection.

When you find your hook, do you know the best place in your copy to use it?
It is in your Headline!

11 Tips to Help You Discover Your Headline’s Holy Grail

1. Your Guarantee

A guarantee can be your hook. It will need to be sensational, every outrageous. If it’s so different, so unusual, it could be your hook. As long as your product and or service doesn’t suck, your guarantee will not bit you on your ass because 99.2% of people are honest and will not ask you for a refund when they know they never got off their ass in the first place.

2. Testimonials from your satisfied customers

For example, a 65 year-old fat golfer, who won a tournament beating good opposition – including several pro golfers. Obviously, the hook here is:

“65 year-old, fat amateur golfer, who hadn’t even seen his toes in years . . . out drove, out teed and out played golf pros to wins tournament.”

3. Create a celebrity

Get a well-known celebrity to endorse your product and work this into your hook. Just look at any major products such as Nike who have a celebrity endorsing them or the perfumes which have the Hollywood Celebrities or models under contract or when Michael Jackson was signed to Pepsi. Celebrities work - no exceptions!

The way Tiger Woods is losing endorsements – who knows, he might be available soon to endorse your product!

4. Competitive Analysis

Create a spreadsheet and list all your competitors’ points. Price, guarantee, major benefit, etc. And then look for ways to be better than them. You may find your ‘Holy Grail’ and hook right here – at the very least you will uncover better content for your copy.

5. Do the opposite

If you find a competitor who has a really compelling hook . . . they may be bigger than you and you can’t hope to compete with them . . . however what you can do is maybe is to think of a hook which is the opposite of what they do. Or maybe something similar but with a different slant.

6. Book titles

Visit your local Barnes and Noble or Borders. Look at the book titles. Especially the well-known ones. You may be able to adapt one of them. Some obvious ones come to mind, but do some research of your own.

There are also some terrific titles in the Public Domain.

Here are a few examples:

Think and Grow Rich (1937 version is in the Public Domain)
Eat and Grow Thin (a book title from the public domain)
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Scientific Advertising (Public Domain)
Chicken Soup For The Soul
Who Moved My Cheese

7. Song Titles

Same here. Let some famous songs inspire you to come up with a great hook.
One which comes to mind is the Beatles song: “Let It Be.”

Other song titles are:

Swing Low Sweet Chariot
Pennies From Heaven
Over the Rainbow
Sound of Silence
Love is All Around
Simply Irresistible

8. Movie Titles

Eugene Schwartz (legendary copywriter) reckoned you should see every top box office movie to put you into the mindset of your prospects.

Here are a few movie titles for you to consider:

Fatal Attraction
Superman
Nightmare on Elm Street
The Seven Year Itch
Rebel Without a Cause
The Da Vinci Code
Walk The Line
Cinderella Man

And be careful about the demographics of your prospects.

9. News Stands

This is great for finding your hook. Grab a copy of National Enquirer. See which headlines they are using. Get a copy of the magazines which cover your niche. See what headlines are in use. For sure, they will be tried and tested. Reader’s Digest and Golf Digest are particularly good examples. Study some of the articles.

10. Television Shows

Another way to try and “brainstorm” your hook. Do this and you will uncover your Headline’s Holy Grail.

Here are 9 examples:

Big Brother
American Idol
The Apprentice
The Six Million Dollar Man
The Twilight Zone
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire
Deal Or No Deal
Survivor
Crocodile Dundee

11. Random Words

Use random words to fire your imagination. Get topical words to create strong images in your mind.

Here are just a few:

Navy Seals
Bazooka
Scorpion
Cobra
Taipan
Panther
Crocodile

One I have used:

“Trevor 'ToeCracker' Crook is the Crocodile Dundee of Advertising - Delivers The Biggest Advertising Knife so you can slash your competitors in half and leave them feeling like a one legged duck swimming in a crocodile infested creek!”

Mark Joyner, in his book “The Irresistible Offer” refers to finding your “touchstone.” And one of the ways he does this is by coming up with random words and finding ways to answer the following questions:

1. What are you trying to sell me?
2. How much does it cost?
3. What’s in it for me?
4. Why should I believe you?

What you must NOT do is try to fool your reader. Your holy grail and your hook must be honest and sincere. And believable. Even if it’s “almost” unbelievable. If you look hard enough you will find it. And don’t forget about the Internet as well.

You can visit news websites to check out the hottest stories too which can give you ideas for a hook or for an angle for your copy, an articles etc.
You too can discover your Holy Grail!

PS. Happy Hunting for your own Headline Holy Grail!