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Do Your Own PR has gathered together a team of experienced business authorities to bring you their expert tips on getting publicity for and growing your business.
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Tips For Crafting Killer Headlines
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by Joe Gregory of Lean Marketing Press
According to Branding and Advertising legend, David Ogilvy: 5 times as many people read the headline than they do the body copy in a sales message.
This means that unless your headline actually sells what you've got to offer, you'll have wasted 90% of your time, money
and energy. Now, you don't need me to tell you 90% waste isn't lean!
So here are some tips for making your headlines work!
1. Headlines are Everywhere!
Even if you don't see yourself as a copywriter, it's essential to get good at writing headlines. In fact, you need a good headline for all of your written communication:
Every Page of Your Website
Email Subject Lines
Posts On Newsgroups & Forums
Articles & Press Releases
The Title of Your Latest Freebie!
Ads & Promotions In Other People's Ezines
2. Get Read Or Get Lost
Every message we send is vying for limited customer air- time (or eye-time). As consumers we're bombarded with tons of irrelevant junk every day. In fact it's believed the average person gets hit with over 3,000 messages a day and the number's growing! We filter lots (and I mean lots) out in order to even operate normally. So, unless your communication really does something amazing to connect with the people you'd like to buy from you - you won't even get a look in. Don't believe me? Then here's a challenge: recall more than 10 sales messages from yesterday.
3. Persuasive Copywriters Do It Backwards!
I hate to break this to you but Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music got it wrong! The Very Beginning Is Not A Very Good Place To Start. Just as your marketing needs a Most Wanted Response (MWR) so does your headline. Here are the 3 Killer endings you need to keep in mind for your headlines...
Get Them To Read It
Get Them To Read The Rest of My Message
Get Them To Want My Solution
Remember: Start With The End In Mind...
4. Simple Rules of Thumb
If you can keep the following in mind when constructing your headlines it will help a lot:
Three: 3 Chunks of information or 3 concepts is plenty for anyone to remember and hold on to in a short space of time. Resist the temptation to overdo your headline by telling them everything or making a shopping list of words you think are important.
Seventeen: Trust me - 17 words are plenty! If you want your headline to be punchy, memorable and enticing aim to keep it under 17 words long. Some of my best pulling headlines are 7 or less words long! So if I can do it, you can too!
"Quotes": Simply surrounding your headline with inverted commas has been proven to increase readership by 27%. Why? Because when people see something in quotes they think there's something important being said.
Title: Title Case (upper-and-lower) is better for headlines than all capitals. People think that capital letters will get more attention, but they're really just harder to read. Sentence case is also a no no because it lacks perceived importance.
5. Questions Provide The Answer!
If you usually go for a statement-type headline like: "90 Percent of People Today Absolutely Hate Their Job" Then consider turning it into a question: "Are You One of The Ninety Percent Who Hates Your Job?" Questions usually require a response. Making them far more engaging than commands or statements. In fact, your unconscious mind will continue to look for answers to a question for up to 48 hours -even as you sleep! Don't get me wrong. Statements can work. But in my experience, questions will almost always work better.
6. Use Problems
To Connect Most people walk around all day with problems weighing on their mind. As a consequence of our caveman days when life was very much scarier than it is today, our sub-conscious is geared up to spot and avoid pain. So if your headline features a problem you know your ideal target has you're on to a winner... Their basic survival instinct will kick in and they'll think: "That's for me! I think I'll find out more..." Here's an example of a question/problem headline... "Do Your Sales Messages Seem To Fall Upon Deaf Ears?"
7. Curiosity...
If you don't get people curious, they won't read on. If they don't read on it's going to be hard to persuade them to buy what you've got! Spice up your headlines with a little curiosity and entice them to read on. Once they're thinking, "I wonder what that's about? I'll just take a closer look", you've got 'em. And as long as you don't say something stupid from this point on it should be plain sailing right to the end of our message.
Along with the good old question headline (which almost always creates curiosity) here are some blueprints for creating bolt on curiosity headlines (or sub heads)... "How X Did Y & How You Can Too" "How Doing X Made Y Into An Overnight Success" "How To Sell X To Anyone & Why It Works" "Discover The Vital/Missing Xs & Turn Your Y Around" "Seven Secrets of X" "Why X Experts Can't Be Wrong" "Why Doing X Will Lead To Y"
Here's an example: "Do You Hate Your Job? Discover Seven Secrets For Escaping Corporate Slavery & Surviving!"
8. Headline "Power Words" & "Phrases"
Use these words as building blocks and inspiration... The Truth About... Discover... Do You... How To... How Much... How Would... Secrets Of... Hate Yes At Last! Imagine... Protect New Facts You... Use these small yet mighty words for added Oomph! You. Free!
9. A Logo Isn't A Headline
I trained as a graphic designer, so trust me here... Your logo, snazzy graphics, special effects or even photographs should never take precedence over your headline. Even though you're proud of your logo, people who are interested in themselves are not. If you're short on space ditch design first. Copy second and Your Headline last.
10. Test, Test, Test!
The amount of times I've seen people who've written a great, persuasive, message that falls completely flat on its face because of a weak headline is alarming. If a mailing fails to get a response, or people just aren't responding to the messages on your website it is almost 9 times out of 10 down to a poor headline that they thought would work, but didn't check. For a new product/offering, I'll write several headlines and spend 80 percent of my total writing time perfecting them. Then typically, I'll do an equally split test mailing to see which one pulls best. Then once I've got a clear winner, I'll be very unlikely to change it!
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Joe Gregory is a copywriter, author and marketer who helps the owners of small expert businesses get more success by doing and spending less. Join his F^REE Lean Marketing eZine here... http://www.leanmarketing.co.uk/free-news.php ========================================================
(c) Copyright 2004 Lean Marketing Press. All Rights Reserved.
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| Posted: 09/11/2004 12:59:31
Last Updated: 22/01/2005 11:49:01
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