John Caples

Yet another clickbait subject line

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“I was furious…”

“Did you get a chance to see this?”

“I almost forgot to tell you!”

I’ve seen an uptick recently in flat-out clickbait subject lines like these. And by “clickbait,” I mean subject lines that have little (or nothing) to do with the actual content of the email. They are simply tacked on as an afterthought, and could work just as well with any other content.

But what’s the problem? The more the merrier, right? People can’t read your message unless they click on it, and if a subject line gets them to click, then it’s done its job.

Perhaps. But like salt, curiosity rarely makes a filling meal on its own. That’s not my conclusion. Instead, it comes from one of the greatest copywriters of the last century, John Caples, who wrote about headlines:

“Avoid headlines that merely provoke curiosity. Curiosity combined with news or self-interest is an excellent aid to the pulling power of your headline, but curiosity by itself is seldom enough. This fundamental rule is violated more often than any other.”

And then then we get to the very other extreme. You might call this “the fewer the merrier.” It’s an idea promoted by the likes of marketing expert Travis Sago, who has made himself and his clients millions of dollars, often solely through email. Travis advises that you “write your subject lines like you have to pay for every open.”

So what to do? Who’s right?

Well, I think there’s actually no single right answer. There might be situations where clickbait headlines (“Whoa!”) make sense and make sales. Cold emails to businesses might be one example. Personally, I don’t like these kinds of subject lines, but that’s just a matter of artisanal pride.

I also think that if you’re looking to play the long game with your marketing, meaning you want an ongoing relationship with your readers, then it makes sense not to piss those readers off. Will they click on your email and feel like they’ve been scammed into reading something irrelevant? Then maybe it’s time to consider making your subject line less clickbaity, more transparent, and more specific.

They promised us violence but when the theater doors opened…

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For the past few days, newspapers around the country have been trying to scare us into seeing the new Joker movie. Here are some of the recent headlines:

“WEEKEND: ‘JOKER’ OPENS AS VIOLENCE FEARS SIMMER…”

“Studio Exec Warned: ‘Don’t Make This Movie’…”

“FBI on alert…”

Maybe I’m jaded, but this feels like a transparent marketing ploy by Hollywood execs.

Because I saw the trailer for the Joker a few nights ago. It didn’t seem interesting or intriguing. Though it did have a reference to the old Bob Monkouse joke:

“They laughed when I said I wanted to be a comedian. Well, they’re not laughing now!”

I can’t prove it, but I suspect this joke is itself a reference to a very famous ad headline:

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

This headline has been ripped off, directly and indirectly, in hundreds or thousands of ads.

It’s become one of the great headline archetypes, along with “Do you make these mistakes in English?” and “How to win friends and influence people.”

But what makes the “They laughed” headline so effective?

Well, in just a few words, it starts to tell a story…

It introduces high stakes (nobody likes being humiliated)…

It creates intrigue and curiosity (“What happened when you sat down?”)…

And it implies a benefit (“I bet you showed them!”).

All that in just 15 words. I think that’s more excitement than you’re likely to get in 121 minutes of The Joker.

Anyways, keep the power of the “They laughed” headline in mind when writing simple stories in your marketing materials.

And if you want help in making those stories intriguing and curiosity-pumping, then you can find some specific advice in the following book on copywriting for advertorials:

https://bejakovic.com/advertorials/

“Fugitive” headline on run for 45 years captured in 2019 ad

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I read in today’s news that a fugitive in China, on the lam for 17 years, was finally caught inside the cave where he had been hiding.

Police couldn’t track him down for years.

But they finally found him by flying drones over a wooded mountain region where he had been living a Yeti-like existence for so long that he had forgotten how to speak.

This modern use of technology to rope in poor fugitive scum made me think of a much older technology.

The WANTED poster.

Or rather, the WANTED headline.

In his 1974 book Tested Advertising Methods, famed copywriter John Caples wrote that “Wanted” is a good word to use in headlines.

“Wanted — Man with car to run a store on wheels”

Fast forward to 2019, and this WANTED idea was just spotted scurrying across a subject line for an Health Sciences Institute email, which ran twice this month.

The thing is, not all headline formats that worked back in 1974 work today.

And in spite of the HSI email, you probably shouldn’t count on WANTED being a great headline format today.

However, the underlying idea is still very sound.

And that idea is to specifically call out your audience.

So looking back over the last couple of years, here are some examples of successful headline complexes that do exactly this:

* Confirmed: If you are over 60 as of January 1, 2019, you need to protect yourself now…
* Warren Buffett’s Shocking Advice to Americans Who Hope to Retire in the Next 5-7 Years
* Attention: Men & Women Over Age 50:

By the way, did you know Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan wrote a song titled “Wanted Man” back in 1967?

Cash sang it live at San Quentin Prison to a crowd of felons.

I’ve always liked this song for its list of no-name American towns that still meant something fifty years ago, as well as for the backing vocals, courtesy of Johnny Cash’s wife and her family.

If you have 3 minutes and 24 seconds, and you want to give this song a listen, here’s the original, outlaw recording:

A hot tip for copywriters and others

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Get ready for some hard-as-headboards teaching. To set it up, let me give you some example headlines:

A. Retire in 15 years
B. How to have a cool, quiet bedroom
C. Key to fitness at any age

Decent headlines, right? All of them have a benefit, all of them are clear, all of them are short.

However, let’s say for the sake of argumance that you wanted to do better.

How might you tweak the above headlines to increase the number of grateful readers who fall into your ad and start reading your copy?

Take a moment and really think about it.

I’ll tell you in a second, but think about it first.

All right, thought some?

Well, here are alternate versions of the above headlines. All of these alternate versions outperformed the versions listed first. And if you look carefully, all of these alternate versions have something in common:

A. How a man of 40 can retire in 15 years
B. How to have a cool, quiet bedroom — even on hot nights
C. Key to fitness at any age for men and women

We know these alternate versions outperformed the originals because these were all case studies reported by the great John Caples in his book Tested Advertising Methods.

So what’s the lesson contained in Caples’s case studies?

Well if you look at the alternate headlines, you could slice the changes in different ways:

– calling out the audience
– addressing objections
– intensifying the promise

But I think all of these different slices can be put under the single, powerful, and shady umbrella of:

Specificity.

Sure, “Retire in 15 years” actually implies “How a man of 40 can retire in 40 years.”

But that’s not how people read ads.

You’ve got a fraction of an unconscious second to wake up your slumbering prospect and get him to hear what you have to say.

Don’t count on his tired brain to do any calculating in your favor.

Instead, use as much specificity as you can. Even if it’s redundant or not actually specific, such as saying “Key to fitness for men and women.”

So that’s my hot tip for copywriters.

Or others, such as business owners who hire copywriters.

​​And if that’s you, and you are looking for more specific copywriting tips (that have to do with increasing sales), then you might like the following:

https://bejakovic.com/advertorials/