Write Benefits in Your Headlines to Deliver the Dream!
When you create headlines, do you put benefits into your
headlines to deliver the dream? Do you create headlines that
draw your reader deeper into the rest of copy?
Let me ask you a simple question. "Why do people read any
printed material beyond the headline?"
The answer, because there was something in the headline that
attracted their attention, raised their interest and curiosity,
or contained a perceived benefit for the reader. At that moment
in time, the headline was an irresistible headline to your
reader.
How to Write a Headline to be an Irresistible Headline.
If you are writing material to sell a product, what is it that
your target audience is seeking? Of course, it's the benefits
that your product offers them (your product does have benefits
for your target audience, doesn't it?). They are looking for a
beneficial means of solving their problems. They want to know
"what's in it for them." They seek solutions to problems and new
options that save time, money, and effort. If your product can
do all three, you'll have a winner if you can convincingly
convey those benefits to your reader.
But, no matter how good the product is and how well it matches
their wants and desires, if you don't create headlines that
present the benefits to your readers, then you certainly will
not have a headline that makes you rich.
The purpose of this headline writing technique is to present
your solution as the solution to your target market's most base
wants and desires.
However, in order to render the ideal solution when you create
your headline, you must understand what your target market
wants... their likes and dislikes... their disappointments and
frustrations with other competing alternatives. What is it that
bothers your target market most concerning your niche?
Once you understand the wants, desires, or dreams of your target
market, you can "enter into the conversation inside your
customer's mind" as the famous copywriter Robert Collier once
taught. Copywriter Maria Veloso refers to this as Frame-of-Mind
marketing.
Supplied with this important knowledge, it's not too difficult
to determine what it would take to create a more beneficial
solution. But, you don't want to be content with being a little
better than the other options available. If possible, you want
to be the ultimate alternative to your target market's problem.
What would your target population really desire to have, to be,
or to achieve, that their current alternatives fail to provide?
What is the right alternative--the best answer to the problem?
So, now it's time to become the master copywriter. Put on your
thinking cap. Think of how to write a headline that conveys the
benefits of your product or service as the solution to the wants
and desires of your target market. When creating your headline,
try to put yourself in the shoes of your target audience
mentally and think of how to give your audience the "perfect
alternative"--the biggest benefit they genuinely desire.
Create the Irresistible Headline.
When writing your headline, your mission is to span the gap
between where your target market is and where they want to be.
Try to imagine what would be the perfect end state. Then, using
picture words, create a mental vision that meets the fundamental
dreams and desires that members of your target market harbor
inside their own minds. Finally, portray your message as the
perfect solution--the dream option. Create an irresistible
headline.
I'm sure that you have heard the old saying that in order to get
rich, you need to find a need and fill it. But that is really
not the answer. Many sales people will tell you that that course
of action is a sure way to the poor house. People don't buy what
the need, the buy what they want. If you need transportation, a
Yugo will do, but many people want and buy Mercedes, BMWs, and
other expensive cars because the want or desire them, not
because they need them.
Creating headlines that target needs will result in weak
headlines with little results. Create headlines that make you
rich by targeting your reader's wants, dreams, and desires.
Purchases are made on emotion and then afterwards justified with
logic. Sell the dream, not the need.
So, find out what your target audience wants, desires, or dreams
about and fulfill that want or desire with your miracle product.
Then put the strongest benefit(s) in your headline.
What might a headline look like that puts a strong benefit right
in the headline? How about this example from Jimmy D. Brown:
"How to Sell 300% More of Your Product in 72 Hours Than You Did
All Month." If you sell products, would you like to do that?
Could you resist reading at least a little further on to find
out how that might be done? For a product seller, that headline
is most likely an irresistible headline.
Or how about some of these famous headlines:
Headline: "How A New Discovery Made A Plain Girl Beautiful" (If
you thought you were a plain girl, would this headline interest
you? Would you continue to read on past the headline?)
Headline: "Hands That Look Lovelier In 24 Hours - Or Your Money
Back" (If you were a woman that thought your dishpan hands were
ugly, might you be interested in reading past this headline?)
Headline: "Free Book - Tells You 12 Secrets Of Better Lawn Care"
(If you wanted a better lawn to win the garden club's yard of
the month award, would you order this Free book?)
Want your sales to skyrocket? Create headlines that deliver the
dream!