Successful Marketing from the Top: Headlines That Turn Heads
Writing attention grabbing headlines time after time, is the ultimate dream of every direct marketer; enjoying huge returns on investment the ultimate goal. Your skill in headline writing will determine whether you make a lot of money or very little. Striving to write the best headlines possible must be your absolute goal, which will lead to untold success, both personal and professional.
Below are some ideas that will help you craft the perfect headline for every direct marketing situation.
The questions you must ask yourself are:
Does your headline drive the prospect to want to buy now – or later?
Starting off with a yawn could make it seem as though even an extremely enticing product has no sense of urgency attached.
Read lots of direct-mail campaigns that come through your door, and especially those that drove you to buy straight away – study their headline copy. You’ll learn a huge amount.
Is the product or service valuable to them?
You know that what you’ve got to offer is irreplaceable, but does your soon-to-be client know that? They should realize this as soon as they read that top line.
This means that you have to point out the useful aspects of your product immediately. Flash can get attention, but substance will keep it.
Does this product stand out from the rest?
If a headline looks the same as everyone else’s, then the product will seem so, too.
It’s always important to discover as many unique selling points this product or service has, during research time (if it’s not your product). Then if you’ve done a good job of explaining it’s uniqueness in your headline, the reader will have no choice but to continue reading to find out more about it.
Headlines need to cut to the quick
Being ambiguous is not an option.
While your writing should never wander away from your points for a moment, your headline needs to be unambiguous enough that there’s no possible misunderstanding. Straying from your strongest appeals simply isn’t an option in such a short, yet important “pitch.”
The masters of headline copy are magazine writers. You only have to visit any newspaper stand or shop to see the row upon row of magazines and newspapers on offer.
Copywriters know their audience very well, and write very compelling copy, in as few a words as possible to ensure their headline are punchy, and compelling.
Just looking at the magazines you browse everyday critically should give you an idea of how you can best tailor your writing to a specific gender, age range, or special interest group.
Is my headline doing it’s job?
When you put these four key techniques into place, your headline will be pulling double duty. It will first grab the prospect’s attention then secondly select her. Because it would’ve said something meaningful to her but on the flip side, had the opposite effect on someone else.
For every five headlines an executive reads, they’re only going to read one full proposal. This means that your headline is worth five times as much money to you as the rest of the copy involved.
The world famous copywriter David Ogilvy has even admitted that spending even a little more time on the headline is well worth it.
So based on that logic and compelling evidence, it would stand to reason that you spend 80% of your time crafting that perfect header. It would be time well spent.
That’s just how important the headline is.
Filed under: Marketing