How not to write headlines that will motivate donors

The most important copy you write anywhere is headlines. In newsletters. On print ads. In the form of direct-mail envelope teasers. Even email subject lines are a type of headlines. If your headlines are weak, dull, and unpromising, nobody is going to read everything else you've written.

So here's some important help from Copyblogger: Don't Do These 12 Things When Writing Headlines. Here they are:

1. Don't be original
2. Don't blend in
3. Don't be clever
4. Don't get desperate
5. Don't ignore your readers
6. Don't ignore your peers
7. Don't ignore social media
8. Don't ignore your personal style
9. Don't ask for opinions
10. Don't settle
11. Don't sweat the failures
12. Don't ask too much

More detail at the source. Don't miss it.

Veteran copywriters will always tell you that you should spend as much time on the headline as on everything else. Write a whole bunch of them and pick your best ones. The pay-off is huge.

Technorati Tags: copywriting, headlines

Comments

[Dhaval Udani]

I would add a 13th cardinal sin

Don't write an article about "don'ts" and make it tougher for a person to read it as he needs to twist everything in his head to a "Do"