How do you outsmart your biggest competitors?
Back in the day, the Yellow Pages were a HUGE Goliath. But then, something happened…
Google Adwords came along like a modern day David, and brought them to their knees.
I remember this period, because I used to write Yellow Pages ads for clients. And it was one of my best ways to get in the door because there was so much riding on their success.
When Google entered the scene, I could have run an ad along the lines of…
“Is the Yellow Pages a Thing of the Past?”
I’m sure it would have been a winner.
Truth is, if you’re working in an industry where your product or service has an edge over the competition…
And you have a revolutionary new technology or approach…
Then the ‘thing of the past’ headline hack can be extremely effective.
For instance, let’s say you sell property like Stephen Aitken.
And you’ve found auctions don’t work in your area.
You’ve built out a better approach and your clients are selling their houses for more.
Your headline could be…
“Selling Houses via Auction in SUBURB May be a Thing of the Past”
Likewise, if you’re a personal trainer and high intensity interval training is all the rage in your industry…
But you’ve found it flat out doesn’t work…
Your headline could be:
HIIT Training May be a Thing of the Past
Or if you sell sales training like Ari Galper, and everyone else is using closing scripts, but you’re finding they don’t work…
You could test a headline along the lines of…
Why “Closing the Sale” May be a Thing of the Past
Of course you’ve got to back it up and explain the specifics of why your approach is superior.
So where is your industry outdated?
Where could you offer a better solution that stands out?
And how could you turn this into a “stop the scroll” headline?
P.S. If you enjoyed this headline hack…
There’s 100 more in my 101 Headline Hacks report, which is based on real experience from writing over 9,127 subject lines for emails – and seeing split-test results over a period of over 14 years.