How to write headlines that sell
How to write headlines that sell
Are headlines very important? You can bet they are! Ninety
percent of the success or failure of your easy home business
will be thanks to them. It doesn't matter if you're writting an
ad or a sales letter...
SAVE MONEY AND TIME THE SUCCESS IS IN THE HEADLINE!
Some books that sell few copies become best sellers with
exactly the same content and a new title!
So you need to ignite your sales by creating headlines with
amazing power, and I will show you how to do it
What advertising gurus say . . .
"Advice to copywriters: When you are assigned to write an ad,
write a lot of headlines first. Spend hours writing headlines or
days if necessary. If you happen to think of a headline while
walking down the street or while riding the bus, take out pencil
and paper and write it down."
John Caples
"On the average, five times as many people read the headlines as
read the body copy. It follows that, unless your headline sells
your product, you have wasted 90 percent of your money."
David Oglivy
It doesn't matter if you are a professional copywriter or a
newbie, anyone can be stronger in headlines writting..
You can read about good headlines in many places, but most of
them talk about mythology that doesn't work, so lets see some
FACTS..
WHAT DOES A HEADLINE DO?
It grabs attention Communicates benefits Appeals to the reader's
self-interest It answers the question, "What's in it for me?",
"Who cares", "So what" Sets the offer's tone And acts like a
movie or theatre marquee: Selects the right audience.
Of course you need a good body copy, but with any body copy, or
with the same body copy, a good headline can be as much as 17
times more effective than a so-so headline!
HOW TO WRITE HEADLINES
Write a believable promise Don't use more than 17 words. Use
quotation marks and index text, because it is more memorable.
Use reverse type sparingly, because it is hard to read. Don't
use all caps. Use upper and lower case letters for reading ease.
If you use a photograph, place the headline below it. Use the
same type size in all the headline.
HOW TO CHOOSE THE HEADLINE'S CONTENT
Step back from the product and review it, element by element.
Look at the product with a marketers eye (don't use the
producer's cap, if you are the one who have written or created
it). Use strong action verbs (like slash, chop, stagger, etc).
For example "Multiply your income by three!" The word multiply
is a strong action one. Identify all the benefits and feature of
the product from the buyer's point of view.
Benefits are the real hot buttons Benefits are those elements of
the product that answers the question "What's in it for me?"
A feature is a fact about the product that builds credibility:
"It's ll x l7 inches, 244 pages and has 13 illustrations."
You need both, features and benefits in your copy. But benefits
are where to place the emphasis. A powerful headline must scream
the product's benefits!
Benefits will help you close the sale. Why? Because people act
90 percent on their emotions, and benefits help bring out
emotions. Once a person is motivated, then that person will
justify his decisions by using logic.
For each headline write 10 before choosing the best one!
HOW TO EXTRACT THE PRODUCT'S BENEFITS
Buy some 3 x 5 cards, Review the whole product Write one benefit
or feature on each card. Once you finish, review your 3 x 5
cards.
You might end with tens or hundreds cards, and sometimes the
strongest benefit you can find on a card is also the best
headline. Or it can just pop out at you sometimes!
Some people call this strongest benefit your "unique selling
proposition" what you can offer that no one else can.
Once you
isolate the obvious benefits, you will start building wealth.
And you know what? Many marketers miss ilolating the obvious
benefit of their product. And this es what will make you
immediately start earning a great deal of money as a marketer.
Generally you will have many headline choices, adn those
benefits that you have isolated, will be used to write the rest
of the body copy.
YOUR ENTIRE MESSAGE NEEDS TO BE FILLED WITH BENEFITS!
THE HIDDEN BENEFITS
This is a very creative and interesting concept: Many
headlines do not arise from studying the product itself.
And how will you find them? Just answer the following
question:...
If you had unlimited, god-like powers and could grant your
prospective customer the biggest benefit you can possibly
imagine he or she would ideally want from your product, what
would that be?" Write down your answer.
Here is a specific example. While Ted Nicholas (one of
Internet's marketing gurus) was writing "The Complete Book of
Corporate Forms", to sell it he naturally wanted to dramatize
the book and excite his prospects about its benefits. How could
he possibly do that?
Numerous publishers sold legal form books. Not as good as his,
but still form books. (His was, and still is, the easiest to
use.) What could he do to differentiate his product? How could
he make a book of forms exciting!?
He stood back and asked himself that question. And he quickly
realized that entrepreneurs don't care a whit about forms. Most
abhor paperwork. What they want is the benefit from using the
forms.
And he also knew entrepreneurs, more than anyone else, hate to
pay taxes. And what every entrepreneur desperately wants is to
preserve the corporation's tax shelter status. No one wants to
lose that precious benefit.
So it came to him. And he wrote the headline, "What Will You Do
When the IRS Suddenly Wipes Out Your Corporation's Tax Shelter
Benefits?" Of course, the book has narrative information about
the importance of keeping good records to maintain the corporate
protection.
But, while it happens all the time, there is nothing whatsoever
in the book about the IRS taking away benefits. That is why it
is a hidden benefit.
The rest of the copy for the ad is easy to do once you have the
lead. You will find that your copywriting task will be simpler.
Did that title work! You say: Since 1979, 350,000 copies of the
book have been sold at $70 per copy. That's 24.5 million dollars
worth of product sales. And it is still selling just as well
today! Selling a million copies of this book in the next few
years is easily within reach!
HIDDEN BENEFIT CAVEAT:
Make sure your product actually delivers on the headline's
promise.
Other examples of headlines that have nothing whatsoever to do
directly with the product, but nonetheless have set sales
records:
"The Eighth Wonder of the World" "Wage Your Own Personal Tax
Revolt" "Only Way Left For Little Guy to Get Rich" "The Ultimate
Tax Shelter". "What Will You Do When Your Personal Assets Are
Seized to Satisfy a Judgment Against Your Corporation?"
TEST, TEST, TEST
Even after you discover your ideal headline, it is imperative to
keep running new headline tests for two reasons:
To see if you can make a better one, and most of all. . . Every
headline has a life time and you need to change it.
When do you need to change a good headline?
Not too soon! If it is working never change (you'll be tired of
it before your customers) Change it if you beat the results with
a new headline.
POWERFUL HEADLINE WORDS
Ok, by now you know how to write the headline, and which should
be its content. Now lets see how to state it.
The safest headline begins with "How To", because iIt
immediately appeals to the reader's self-interest. It piques
curiosity. If the benefit is powerful, the reader will move on
to the body copy.
The "how to" phrase cannot be overdone (there are over 7,000
books with titles that start with "How To"), and here are some
other powerful words and phrases you can use:
Announcing Advice to Yes Secrets of The truth of Love New
Protect How much Now Life How would Amazing Here This Facts you
Discover Only Breakthrough Do you Sale At last Bargains Hate
And finally, the two most powerful headline words:
Free You
Power words are already implanted in the minds of all your
readers, because of what the words mean. You'll get the
attention of the maximum number of readers with the first two
words of your headline.
OTHER IMPORTANT HEADLINE POINTS
The headline must motivate. It doesn't really matter if the
headline get the reader excited of fearful or protective, but is
must stir an emotion.
Headlines must be in present tense, not the future tense,
because a headline in present tense makes the promise more
credible and believable. The present tense headlines are also
far more emphatic.
Headlines must be created using the first or second person.
Headlines must use colorful, vital and strong verbs.
Headlines must use short words that create images or pictures in
the mind of the reader.
You must eliminate most adverbs and adjectives in your
headlines, use them in the body copy.
Do not write headlines tryinbg to to be "catchy" or "cute". You
must dramatize the product's benefits not call attention to the
copy itself.
Avoid headlines that merely create curiosity. Your headline must
be strongly related with your product and its benefits, or the
reader will feel deceived and will stop reading.
A good headline must prompt an action on the part of a reader.
Headlines on ads are like headlines on news items. Nobody reads
a whole newspaper, you just pick out the headlines that catch
your atention.
People do not read ads for amusement. They just don't read what
doesn't seem interesting through its headline..
Finally, use a wide variety of headlines. Each form of approach
will attract different people. You are presenting your product
to millions and among them there is a percentage that's
interested in some benefits and a percentage that is interested
in other benefits. Do not expect to attract every kind of people
with just one single headline.
Go after your different customers with different headlines, but
don't think those millions will read your ads to see if your
product interests them, they will decide at a glance,
THEY WILL DECIDE BY YOUR HEADLINE!
Would you like to receive some more guides about writing
headlines? Well, you can find free headlines guide in MYSS!
"Make Your Site Sell!" the Bible of Internet Marketers!.
http://newsletter.easy-home-business.com/tryMYSS!2002.exe
Written by Dr. Roberto A. Bonomi