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Your Headline Can Instantly Double the Response of Any Ad, Letter or Web Promotion
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Masters of marketing know a secret that most business people
don't. I'm going to share it with you now: You can go from
losing money to making money - sometimes, a *lot* of money -
just by changing a few words.
What words are those? The first words... in any letter, ad
or Web page. The words that make up the headline.
Recently I was speaking to a business group about writing
killer copy, and to make my point, I took that day's edition
of USA Today and covered up all the headlines on the front
page with inch-wide white correction tape. I asked them
what was wrong with the newspaper.
"No headlines!" they blurted out, almost all at once.
"Then why," I asked, "e;do so many of your ads not have
headlines?"
It's a fact: We have been conditioned to decide what to read
based on the effect a few choice words have on our thoughts
and our feelings. With books, it's often the title. With
articles in the newspaper, it's the words in a headline.
With a magazine on the newsstand, it's the headlines on the
cover.
Whether you know it or not, we decide whether or not to read
ads, letters and Web pages the same way.
So, if that's the case, how do you write headlines to make
people want to read your copy, and get interested in doing
business with you?
Make your headline create a vivid picture and/or stimulate a
strong feeling!
In your business, many of your conversations are logical and
factual. That's the nature of business - and to do
otherwise would be considered "unbusinesslike."
However, about the worst thing you can do for your promotion
is to have a strictly factual, logical headline at the top
of your Web page, letter, ad, flyer or postcard. Oh yes,
the headline has to be believable and make sense. And what
your headline says has to be supported by logic and facts
later in your promotion.
But remember that the purpose of your killer copy headline
is to stir the emotions of your prospect in the direction of
buying what you have to sell... and to get your prospect
interested in reading what comes next in your copy.
Here's an example for a hypothetical product that helps
children do better at school.
First, an ineffective headline:
Children who don't do well at school will have many
problems later on in their lives
Now, a more effective headline:
"Daddy! Daddy! I got straight A's!" he said proudly.
Suddenly my son's future was looking much brighter...
Notice how the first headline states a fact but does not
stir emotions in a big way. The second headline, using the
same number of words (17), conveys 1) excitement 2) pride 3)
hope for the future, and it also creates a beautiful scene
in the reader's mind of a happy parent-child situation.
Action: When you are preparing or revising a promotion, take
the time you need, or get the help you need, to write a
great headline that creates a vivid picture and stimulates
strong feelings in the mind of your prospect.
Use headlines that make your prospect instantly understand
your most important benefit.
One of my favorite pieces of advertising is a headline (and
an old slogan) for a plumbing service. I'm not that big on
plumbing, personally - it's the kind of thing you wish would
work perfectly all the time so you never have to think about
it!
Why, then, am I so fond of an old plumbing headline? Because
it's a great example of making your prospect instantly aware
of the benefit of your service.
The company is Roto-Rooter. The headline is as follows:
Call Roto-Rooter - that's the name
- And away go troubles, down the drain!
Wow - is that perfection in a couple of lines, or what? You
get 1) a call to action 2) company identification and 3) a
visual description of the benefit.
That's hard to beat! If you've ever had a stopped-up drain,
you know exactly why this would be of benefit to you!
Killer Copy Point: Show your headline to people who are
unfamiliar with your product and company, but who would be
good prospects for what you are selling. See how slowly or
quickly they understand what you are saying - especially,
what would be the benefit to them. Keep rewriting your
headline until these people instantly "get it!"
Make your headline pass the "Shortcut Test"
Imagine all you were allowed to do was run your headline
plus a toll-free number... as a classified ad. Ask yourself
this question: Would it generate inquiries for you in that
form?
I'll give you an example from my own business. I'm taking
the headline and subheadline from a long-copy print
promotion for my product called Killer Copy Tactics:
Money-Making Secrets Every Business Owner Needs
For years, sales copywriting experts have quietly
made millions with these little-known secrets. Now you
can use this information yourself.
Call (000) 000-0000
I used this example for purposes of illustration. Read it
again, and ask yourself if these words alone, printed in the
right location, wouldn't prompt qualified prospects to call
for more information?
Killer Copy Point: Put your headline and subheadline through
the Shortcut Test. Make sure that these words alone plus a
toll-free number are likely to generate a response from
qualified prospects.
The art of writing headlines is a special skill well worth
the time and effort it takes to develop. There are many
known statistics in direct marketing that bear repeating
here:
- Five times as many people read the headline as read the ad
or letter.
- Changes in headlines have produced documented increases in
sales of 200%, 500% and, in one extreme case, 1,850% more
sales!
- It's a good idea to write 15 or 20 headlines for your
letter or ad, and use the "leftover" headlines as part of
the selling copy itself.
Become a student of headlines and a connoisseur of great
headlines. Collect them, think about them, practice writing
them. The reward for your efforts will show up every time
you get another order or inquiry that you never would have
gotten if you didn't make the effort!
(c) 2000 David Garfinkel. All rights reserved. David
Garfinkel is widely recognized by many "marketing gurus" as
their secret weapon. That is, he is known as "The World's
Greatest Copywriting Coach"; because, he can, like no other,
teach you how to turn words into cash. David is also the
author and narrator of Killer Copy Tactics, the Web's first
and only totally interactive audio/visual learning system
for writing killer sales copy. You can learn more about this
course at:
http://killercopytactics.com/index.htm?dgasub2_IM10268
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