David Ogilvy / our application · Messaging
Make the headline carry the message
David Ogilvy held that far more people read the headline than the body copy. So get to know the product and the reader, then write a headline that promises a specific benefit or delivers news – and that the rest of the copy can live up to.
When it helps
When the headline, email subject line or intro is interchangeable, overloaded or promises more than the copy shows – or when nobody reads on, opens the newsletter or stays on the page.
Keep in mind
When a headline rule is treated as a guarantee of results, or when the headline would promise something the product doesn't deliver.
How to apply it
- Write the headline as if it's the only thing the reader will see. It should stand on its own and still tell them what they'll get from reading on.
- Promise a specific benefit or share real news, and make it clear who the headline is for. Ogilvy preferred plain, specific headlines to puns and riddles that only make sense once you've read the body copy.
- Find the idea in product knowledge: do your homework, use the product and talk to customers until you find what is genuinely interesting. Ogilvy believed that is where the best ideas come from.
- Let the body copy prove the promise with facts, detail and terms. A headline the copy can't live up to costs more trust than it earns.
- Test the headline in its channel: a newsletter subject line, an ad and a web page are read differently. Check that it sounds like the sender and that it's clear who is speaking when the headline stands alone.
Questions to work with
- If the reader sees only the headline, what have they learned?
- What benefit or news does the headline promise, and to whom?
- Where in the copy do we prove the promise?
A fictional example
Fictional: an online grocer lets customers choose a two-hour delivery slot. No exact delivery time is guaranteed.
Draft
Delivery exactly when you want it. Every time.
Revised
You choose the two hours your groceries arrive.
The headline promises a specific, true benefit the body copy can back up, without turning the choice into a guarantee of an exact time.
Read the original sources
The application and example are our own. The example is fictional and has not been conversion-tested.