Technique: Love at first paragraph.
Write a first paragraph that expands a lil more the claim you made in your headline.
Every trade has it tricks.
You see, in copywriting, getting people's attention is the job of the headline.
That's why headlines are like doors. They serve as the connecting link to new possibilities on the other side.
But after you stopped people with your headline, how can you keep their attention?
Here's a trick you learn as a copywriter.
Write a first paragraph that expands a lil more the claim you made in your headline.
Your headline is a BIG promise. Something your reader really, really wants (and can get from you).
To keep the reader interested, your first paragraph should clarify the big promise you made in the headline. But if you interrupt the reader with a different thought, you'll lose their interest.
So let’s see this trick in action.
Here’s a classic Lee Jeans ad written by George Gier, one of the best copywriters at Fallon McElligott Rice in the 1980s/90s.
1. Start with a headline that makes a claim and is written in a curiosity-inducing way ⇝ “Your body is beautiful. It’s your jeans that are out of proportion”
2. Let your first paragraph continue the same thought of the headline ⇝ “Even the most beautiful body can get lost under the wrong pair of jeans.”
The first paragraph starts by adding a lil more fuego to the pain dramatized in the headline (“it’s your jeans that are out of proportion”): “Even the most beautiful body can get lost under the wrong pair of jeans.”
Then it teases the magic relief: “That’s why it’s important to wear jeans that let you look your best, jeans that make the most of what you’ve got. Like our Relaxed Riders.”
Each sentence is written in a curiosity-inducing way.
In other words, the headline is there to persuade you to read the first sentence.
Then the first sentence is written to give continuity to the claim made in the headline and get you interested enough to read the second sentence.
And the purpose of the second sentence is to get you to read the next sentence. And so on.
So make each sentence interesting enough and easier to read than to ignore.
