*So, Citizen John has been looking for an architectural firm to contract with, and that just happens to be exactly what you do. John runs across an article published in a local paper that was based entirely on your press release. What would article have to do to inspire John to actually hire you instead of someone else? Call to action. If there are no motivational reasons for John to get in gear on calling you, you've just lost a sale.

*Finally, don't write your release from your own point of view. After all, you are already sold on yourself, right? If you want to grab attention of reader, try stepping into their shoes. Write what would interest them, what they want to hear. It's not designed to stroke their ego, but rather, focus on what public pays most attention to.

Is writing a press release that follows all these guidelines guaranteed to bring in more business than you can handle? Not necessarily, but it might. Alvin Apple, one of our inhouse editors here at DrNunley.com, wrote a release for customer Gary Blair last week. A few days later Gary got back to us saying that Barbara Walter's "The View", a day time talk show, had contacted him for a guest appearance on account of information contained in his press release. Not bad, eh?

That just goes to show that with a little bit of practice and a lot of determination, press releases really can work, despite what anybody says.

So, how do we make it sparkle?

First, we cut out brand name “Copywriter’s Companion.” That’s a horrible waste of words and no one cares what it’s called.

Now headline looks like this:

“A manual of time saving tips that show how copywriters do it and get paid a lot of money”.

Yes, I know. It’s still very drab.

So, I would rework it a little to shorten it up and make it clearer. I might write something like this:

“Write Sales Letters Fast And Make Thousands Each Project With My New Manual.”

Now it’s starting to take a little better shape.

Next I would make a few changes to make headline a little more specific. Instead of just plain old sales letters, I would write, “open your wallet sales letters”!

Then I would turn my headline into a promise. Very important step. The reader has to be assured that if they invest time reading your sales letter that they’ll get a reward.

So, I would place a guarantee in headline. It works to instantly put them at ease that everything I’m about to tell them is true.

Second, I would put word you in headline. It speaks right to reader. And it points out that I’m giving promise to them directly.

With that, here’s my finished headline:

“You Can Write Get Your Wallet Out Sales Letters Fast, And Get Paid Hundreds of Thousands To Do It, With My Guaranteed, Step-By-Step System”!

I think it works!

Let me briefly sum up what above headline does. You can use this summary for every headline you write from now on.

First, it addresses reader directly.

Second, it makes a promise. The reader knows they’ll be able to write hard-hitting sales letters and make hundred of thousands.

And they now believe headline and it benefits because I’m guaranteeing it.

And that’s my three-step plan for killer headlines. Address reader, make a promise, and make them believe it. If you do, you’ll have awesome headlines that lead your customer into rest of your sales letter. From there it’s up to you. But it’s been said before that you can’t write a bad sales letter if you have a good headline.