“Learning how to artfully swipe is probably the most important skill a copywriter can have.”
— Harlan Kilstein
I have a big swipe file of complete sales letters, but more than anything, I like to swipe headlines
After all, each headline is really an angle, a hook in itself. If you get the headline right, much of the copy writes itself.
My favorite source for headlines to swipe is not direct response copy
As I’ve mentioned before, I regularly go to Hacker News, a nerd bulletin board, and I pay attention to which general interest articles I click on. I write all these headlines down on an index card and put them in a growing stack under my pillow.
When it’s time to write copy, I go to my swiped headlines stack
And I force myself to write at least 10 or so headlines, using entirely different templates. Here are 4 such shamelessly swiped headlines, and the reasoning behind each:
1. Dog bites Trump -> The content is in the list
The original headline is brilliant, and it might seem that the second headline has nothing to do with it. But what’s really going on? The first headline is simply a modification of saying that’s popular among a specific audience (journalists: “Man bites dog”). Unfortunately, I couldn’t work the uber-clickable “Trump” into my own headline, but I could tweak an existing popular saying (direct marketers: “The money is in the list”).
2. Poland was shockingly liberal during 13th century -> Antibiotics can be shockingly good at causing weight gain
I’m not crazy about power words like “shocking” because they’re overused — every wannabe viral article or video is either “jaw-dropping”, “shocking”, or “epic”. That doesn’t mean that power words cannot or do not work, particularly if the rest of the headline is actually interesting in itself. In both the original headline and my own version, the headline was an interesting fact (rather than a screaming benefit) and the “shocking” power word increased curiosity a notch or two.
3. Why you will marry the wrong person -> Why your kraut will develop mold
Ok, this one is straightforward: Why [major unspoken fear of your target audience]. (My version was a subject line for an email promoting a home fermenting product.)
4. “Close to tears, he left at intermission”: How Stanley Kubrick upset Arthur C. Clarke -> “Almost fell over at how bad I looked”: Essential oil adverse reaction report
This is a good example of a headline template that I never see in direct response copy — a dramatic quote followed by a curiosity-baiting description of the content. Even though it’s not common for direct response, it must work, because similar headlines have sucked millions of people into reading articles.