What is a Headline Really Supposed to Do?
Posted 12-24-2008 at 10:31 AM by Robert Plank
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlkgUK9ORXQ
Every once in a while when I read a cheesy headline on a sales letter, I see sales letters with useless headlines, or those that are too long or short, I think to myself, what the heck are headlines supposed to do in sales copy anyway? Any copywriter will tell you that the only job of a headline is to get you to read the next line. That is great advice, but how does it help you to write good headlines? My philosophy is that a meaty copywriting headline should contain three elements: proof, benefits, and curiosity.
If you can introduce proof into a headline, you are almost halfway there. Can you tie authority into your claim, discuss the before and after results, or demonstrate your claim somehow? Give some quick details and documentation in just a few words about how your solution just has to work. Measure the size and speed of your claim, mention the before and after results. Another great technique to supplying proof is building on what already works. If your niche and solution are well-known, and other people can deliver what you promise, you only need to prove you can deliver as good or better than they can.
What about the benefits? This is the most important element. You can choose to remove proof and even curiosity from a headline if you want, but if you are missing a benefit, you are dead in the water. Reinforce your prospects' desires by telling them what they will get out of it. Focus on the end result, not on the work they have to do to achieve it. Sharpen their image of what you satisfy and extend their image of how well it satisfies their need.
Then you have curiosity. Copywriters love to make their headlines into half-statements that arouse curiosity and prospects like to become curious, whether they admit it or not. A cookie cutter way to arouse curiosity is to take almost any headline, and add a question mark to the end of it. Ask a question in your headline, or change the mechanism that solves their problem. Contradict common sense solutions to startle your prospects or mention former limitations that have now been overcome.
Is it not difficult to write headlines, even if you experience writer's block. if you remember those three elements in headline creation: proof, benefits, and curiosity.
Get the exact step by step formula to write a sales letter in five minutes or less, complete with easy to use worksheets and plug-n-play headlines, offers, stories, and guarantees... http://www.fiveminutecopywriting.com
Every once in a while when I read a cheesy headline on a sales letter, I see sales letters with useless headlines, or those that are too long or short, I think to myself, what the heck are headlines supposed to do in sales copy anyway? Any copywriter will tell you that the only job of a headline is to get you to read the next line. That is great advice, but how does it help you to write good headlines? My philosophy is that a meaty copywriting headline should contain three elements: proof, benefits, and curiosity.
If you can introduce proof into a headline, you are almost halfway there. Can you tie authority into your claim, discuss the before and after results, or demonstrate your claim somehow? Give some quick details and documentation in just a few words about how your solution just has to work. Measure the size and speed of your claim, mention the before and after results. Another great technique to supplying proof is building on what already works. If your niche and solution are well-known, and other people can deliver what you promise, you only need to prove you can deliver as good or better than they can.
What about the benefits? This is the most important element. You can choose to remove proof and even curiosity from a headline if you want, but if you are missing a benefit, you are dead in the water. Reinforce your prospects' desires by telling them what they will get out of it. Focus on the end result, not on the work they have to do to achieve it. Sharpen their image of what you satisfy and extend their image of how well it satisfies their need.
Then you have curiosity. Copywriters love to make their headlines into half-statements that arouse curiosity and prospects like to become curious, whether they admit it or not. A cookie cutter way to arouse curiosity is to take almost any headline, and add a question mark to the end of it. Ask a question in your headline, or change the mechanism that solves their problem. Contradict common sense solutions to startle your prospects or mention former limitations that have now been overcome.
Is it not difficult to write headlines, even if you experience writer's block. if you remember those three elements in headline creation: proof, benefits, and curiosity.
Get the exact step by step formula to write a sales letter in five minutes or less, complete with easy to use worksheets and plug-n-play headlines, offers, stories, and guarantees... http://www.fiveminutecopywriting.com
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