Few things are more important to the success of your marketing
efforts than the headlines you lead off with in your sales letters,
display ads, and web pages. An attention-getting, arresting
headline has the power to pull in many more prospects and
customers.
A headline is nothing more than a collection of words designed to
get qualified prospects to sit up and take notice. As such, its
task is a huge and vital one. To create a winning headline, distill
your most unique benefits down to one powerful sentence that packs
a punch. Following are 13 easy-to-follow tips to help you create
more successful headlines.
1) Do your homework. Start by gathering important information.
Decide on the venue for your headline, then, identify the 6 key
elements of successful marketing materials. These include: 1. The
product or service. 2. The benefits 3. The market. 4. What the
market really desires and the most common problem it encounters. 5.
Any special offer or inducement you can think of that would
increase interest. 6. The competition and any claims they may be
making.
2) Isolate your most impressive and unique competitive advantage.
Look at your product or service the way your customers and
prospects do. Put yourself in their shoes. What would get these
people to pay attention? What is the strongest benefit you can
offer?
If your product was the "dream solution", the answer to
your
customers deepest desires, what would it do for them? Now your job
is to create a headline that clearly contrasts from other competing
headlines, all vying to attract the same audience.
3) Get started and write as many headlines as you can. Your first
headline probably won’t be your best work. But as you continue
writing, you’ll find better ways to express your thoughts in
a more
compelling, provocative or arresting way.
Try several different formats from questions to combination-style
headlines. Don’t worry about perfect spelling or presentation
--simply let your ideas flow and jot them down. This strategy is
shared by some of the best copywriters in the world. After you’ve
created a lengthy list of possibilities, choose your top 3 to 5
headlines and tweak them for maximum impact. Testing will reveal
your most responsive headline.
4) Brainstorm words and phrases that colorfully express your
product’s unique benefits. In a short space of time, you can
generate a plethora of vibrant, expressive words and original
phrases that can help make your headline stand out from all others.
With brainstorming, best results are obtained with a pre-set time
frame of 5 minutes or so. Simply allow your creative juices to flow
and record every word, without judgment. Ignore the temptation to
evaluate the merit of any particular suggestion. After a few short
minutes, you’ll have plenty of power-packed, benefit-oriented
headline words to choose from.
5) Deliver a clear, concise, and complete message. Edit your
headline for clarity. Make sure your words are easily understood
and do not evoke mixed messages. Be direct rather than subtle...
benefit-oriented rather than amusing or "catchy". Readers
generally
digest a headline as one item, simultaneously taking in all the
words as a complete unit and processing it as a single image. You
want to be sure that the image your headline delivers is
crystal-clear and not open to misinterpretation.
6) Capture attention, pique the interest of your prospects and
arouse their curiosity. Do these three things and you’re sure
to
have a winning headline.
First and foremost, you’ve got to attract the attention of readers.
Think of your headline as a visual siren. Call out to your best
prospects with something that’s vitally important to these folks
only.
Secondly, communicate in terms of benefits or helpful advantages
and make your benefits more enticing and appealing than what the
competition offers. Benefits address the self-interest of
prospects. Benefits are all about prospects and what they’ll
get as
a result of buying your product.
Thirdly, add a little mystique to the picture and you’ll arouse
your prospect’s curiosity. Reveal just enough in your headline
to
literally drive potential new customers to find out more.
7) Think of your headline as the message on a billboard. With most
headlines you probably only have a few fleeting seconds to get your
main selling point across.
Rewrite and refine your message to down to its most powerful,
concise statement. Make it deliver your most payable punch,
promptly. Give the skimming reader the opportunity to receive your
essential message in one quick take. Hit hard and hit fast. If you
don’t, you’ll never win at this increasingly competitive
game.
Robert Boduch is the author of Great
Headlines Instantly! … How To
Write Powerful, Attention-Grabbing Headlines That Pull In More
Prospects, More Customers And More Profits, NOW! which features
hundreds of helpful tips, techniques, strategies, and hands-on
formulas for writing successful headlines for any purpose, on
demand.
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