Gurus who half-way understand what they're doing give half-way good advice. One such piece of advice is to talk about the customer's problem in your headline.

Makes sense, right? You've got to tell the customer what problem you're going to solve, or they won't be interested in the product.

Well, that's true, but how you talk about to the problem makes a big difference. Studies have shown that positive marketing sells better than negative marketing.

So how do you talk about the problem without getting negative? Glenn Livingston wrote a great post about 'Marketing to the "Not Me"' -- to the dirty little part of your customer (and yourself) that you don't want to admit exists:

You can't see the strongest emotional hot buttons in your market if you're not open to the ugliest parts of yourself... you've got to be willing to admit that the "not me" really COULD be you if it weren't for your commitment to be a socially valuable and loving human being.

Sounds like we're headed toward a negative headline. But here's Glenn's big secret: "Use a headline which immediately PROTECTS them from these dark thoughts, but also sets them up to experience and agitate them".

In other words, you've got to know what the negative is that your customers are motivated to avoid, and write a headline that promises the opposite. Once you've protected them with that promise, you can talk about their dark little inner thoughts without making them run away from your negative marketing.

Read Glenn's post for more information and an example that illustrates the approach really well.