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If you don’t have a good headline you may as well not worry about the rest of your article, sales letter, or ad being read or acted upon.

The sole purpose of a headline is to get the reader to read the next sentence or paragraph – you should never try to sell from the headline.

If your headline does not entice a person to investigate and read more, then they will never read the rest of your sales letter, ad, article, etc. If you’re selling something, and the reader never reads what you’ve written, they’ll never get to the “buy button”.

I’m going to take it a step farther and say that you want your headline to get the CORRECT readers to read the next part of what you’ve written. For example, if you’re selling hard to find replacement lawn mower blades but you’ve written a headline that only seems to attract people wanting to grow greener grass, then you’re not going to sell many blades. You may get lucky and sell a few because the two groups are related, but you would sell many more times the number of blades if your headline caught the attention of those looking for hard to find replacement lawn mower blades.

It sounds like common sense but how many times have you written a headline that marginally addresses the target consumer of your product, service, or article? It’s all about %LINK%1.

You have to speak directly to the person you’re trying to sell, or reach. It’s very tempting when writing headlines to try the “fisherman with a net” approach and write something that may appeal to and attract anyone and everyone. There’s no faster approach to failure. There’s no place for politically correct, washy-washy, limp-wristed headline writing when it comes to successful marketing. Instead of using a net and just haphazardly and blindly throwing that net out into the water hoping to catch something, you need to be exact. You need the correct type and size of fishing pole, the correct weight of line, proper type of reel, and most important of all, you need to have the best type of lure for the type of fish you’re after.

It’s very tempting when writing headlines to just throw them together and not give them the proper amount of attention. After all, you’ve written such commanding copy in your sales letter, article, or ad that it could stand on its own, even without a headline. Your mind playing tricks on you – don’t listen to it! These are the same kind of mind tricks that keep you from doing those last few reps in the gym when working out. Or that tells you it’s OK to eat that doughnut or second (or third!) bowl of ice cream because you’ve been working really hard and deserve it. Do you think that the people you see on TV that weigh 800 pounds and can’t get out of bed set out to be that obese? No, your mind can play tricks on you that will lead you to catastrophic failure. The same thing applies to writing headlines.

The cold hard fact is that if your headline is not strong, targeted at the exact individual you want reading your copy – you will fail. This is a war. You’re fighting for a tiny slice of someone’s attention and that’s all you can ever hope to get. If you fail to use every weapon in your arsenal and you will fail. It can’t insure success like general auto insurance but it does help.

Talk to the individual with your headline and you will catch the crowd. When Jesus spoke to the woman at the well (John 4:4-42) he didn’t use generalities. Jesus didn’t try to please everyone. He didn’t speak as a politician in Washington does. No, he called it as he saw it. He told her in no uncertain terms what he could do for her and what she had done in her past. He talked directly to this woman in a way that she could understand, and in turn caused many in that town to believe. This is repeated many times in the Bible – Jesus talks to an individual and converts a group. If it’s a good enough tactic for Jesus, then Bubba, it’s good enough for me and you!

My Headline Writing Tips:

Don’t try to do it all in one session or sitting.

Think of several people that fit the target audience and make your writing talk to them INDIVIDUALLY, not as a group. I actually try to think of people I know.

Target your headlines like the treble hooks on a fishing lure to ONE PERSON.

Don’t worry about the ones that get away (if your headline is correct, the ones that get away are not the ones you care about anyway)

Write many more headlines than you think is even remotely sane! And then pick out the best ones.

Use some type of testing to determine which headlines are winners.

Don’t become emotionally attached to certain headlines just because you like them. If they don’t produce results, then they become a casualty of war.

Focus on the outcome or resulting improvement, not the problem. Remember, Jesus didn’t tell the woman at the well that she was going to burn in Hell for eternity; he said “whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

A positive spin generally works better than a negative spin.

Did I mention you should test and track so you actually know what is working and what is not?

Curiosity is good, humor is generally not.

Be specific: don’t say “New Faster Version”, say “Now 3 Times Faster”.

The rhythm of the syllables of the words can be very important, some have said almost as important as the words themselves.

Headlines should be easy to read and understand. People are ultra-busy, you may only get a fraction of a second of their time and your headline has to speak TO THEM in that fraction of a second.

Fred’s Marketing 101 Law: You will always, and I repeat always, be surprised at what actually works.

Fred Black
www.pqInternet.com

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