David Ogilvy's advice on writing better headlines

David Ogilvy was a great marketer and copywriter. He is often referred to as the "father of advertising." He was born in 1911 and died in 1999. His tactics can be old or outdated, but he found them to be better than most of the general marketing advice.

Ogilvy was obsessed with learning about consumer habits. He wanted to study why people made decisions and what prompted them to do something and buy.

Ogilvy is best known for Rolls-Royce advertising. He wrote a long list of ads for Zippo, Hathaway, and other big companies. By 1972, his advertising agency had created $ 1,480,000,000 worth of ads and spent about $ 5,000,000 tracking results.

His life has been dedicated to advertising and marketing. And he often emphasized the importance of the headline of victory.

Heading Images are definitely an important part of your article, but your headline is much more important. Your headline will either convince them that they need to read your article, or convince them that your article is not worth their Whenever someone clicks on your article, they choose to waste their time, their most valuable asset. You can't get those 5 minutes back. Medium's home page has hundreds of articles each week. Even if I read it all day, I only scratched the surface of the available content. I only read articles with headlines that convince me that I need to read the entire article.

Here are some tips on how to write five simple headlines from David Ogilvy. These are included in one of Ogilvy's most famous ads, the one titled "How to Create an Ad to Sell".

please take it easy

Headlines are read by five times as many people as the text. David Ogilby

You've probaby heard of Ogilvy's famous Rolls-Royce advertising headline.

"At 60 mph, the biggest noise of the new Rolls-Royce comes from electric watches."

Many consider this to be one of the best commercials ever written. Ogilvy himself said it was the best headline he had ever written.

This wonderful headline wasn't written overnight. This wasn't the first headline idea David wrote. Before he came up with this, I read that he wrote over 60 different headline ideas. It required a lot of ideas and improvements.

Most people write a headline without thinking and never see it again before publishing it. If necessary, write down the idea for two different headings or change the word a bit.

Never write down ideas for 10, 20, or 60 headlines. It takes 30 seconds to write the headline and 1 hour to write the rest of the article.

And I wonder why I don't write money like Ogilvy.

If it's true that more than five times more people read our headlines, it's worth spending another 15 minutes writing down ideas for 10 different headlines. Slower. When the article is over, you can and should revisit the headline. And sometimes you need to come back tomorrow to review again.

Think really about your headline and ask yourself if it's creative, if it conveys the right message, and if it's easy to read and understand. Add benefits

Headlines that include benefits sell better than headlines that do not. David Ogilby

Whenever you write something, you sell something.

You probably won't create a product ad in Medium, but you'll still sell it. Maybe you are selling people's entertainment, mini courses, or some encouragement.

This article sells a 5-minute headline writing course.

Headlines promised that you could read this article and learn how to write better headlines. And David Ogilvy told you to help me teach the course. The advantage is to write better headlines from experts and learn how to draw more attention to the story. Remember that you have to convince people to give you their time. We all live in a world where everyone competes for attention. There is a reason people have to "be careful". It is not a free product.

If your headline isn't profitable, I don't have the opportunity to spend time reading your article.

Talk about breaking news

We have often found that it costs money to make real news headlines. David Ogilby

People love to stay up to date. We have a natural desire to learn about current events and changes around the world. We want to know, even if the news doesn't directly affect us.

Including the latest news in your headline has two advantages.

It will intrigue people. It will connect with people.

If people haven`t yet heard about the news in your headline, they`ll be curious. A big company did this yesterday? The government voted on that issue? My favorite celebrity said what?

Seeing news that we haven`t heard about makes us curious and hungry to learn more. The last thing we want is to be talking to a friend or coworker and be out of the loop.

If your reader has heard about the news in your headline, it creates a better connection. They`ll think “Oh! I heard about this yesterday I wonder what their opinion is about it.” They`ll want to hear your perspective, or learn about how the recent news could potentially impact their life.

Scrolling through popular news websites is a great way to get new article ideas.

I don't understand the grammar rules. If you're trying to convince people to do something or buy something, I think you should use their words. David Ogilby

When writing a headline, don't confuse "simple" with "boring."

Simple: Easy to understand or implement. Does not cause any problems. Boring: not interesting; tedious.

Your headlines can`t be boring, but they need to be simple. People need to have some idea of what your article is about, while not giving away the entire article. Your headline should give people a free sample of what`s in the full article.

Don`t try to be clever or overly crafty with your wording. Give people a reason to read easy-to-understand articles.

"Overrun the moral and ethical framework of the Care Consortium"

What exactly are you doing?

According to the literacy project, the average American reads in grades 7-8. It is also recommended to write medical information for the second year of junior high school. This means that you must not be accusated or talked about the ethical framework. Even if you use big words, you won't be intrigued or want more. No one understands what your article is and they don't click on it.