The Power of A Headline

RentItNow · 08-23-2009, 05:11 PM

I know this is obvious to most but never has the importance of the headline spoke more to me than recently.

I made a small change on my sales page to the headline just to test it. The average visitor time on page went from 5 to 10 minutes down to around 3 seconds (just enough time to read the headline).

Put it back and sure enough it goes back up to 10 minutes.

Lesson learned? Watch the time on page stat when making headline changes. If low (very low) change the headline!

I just love the learning! Hard lessons but important to see it yourself.

tbarnby · 08-23-2009, 05:17 PM

WOW! That is a powerful statement! Thanks for sharing.

Tim

Quote:

Originally Posted by RentItNow

I know this is obvious to most but never has the importance of the headline spoke more to me than recently.

I made a small change on my sales page to the headline just to test it. The average visitor time on page went from 5 to 10 minutes down to around 3 seconds (just enough time to read the headline).

Put it back and sure enough it goes back up to 10 minutes.

Lesson learned? Watch the time on page stat when making headline changes. If low (very low) change the headline!

I just love the learning! Hard lessons but important to see it yourself.

Ross Bowring · 08-23-2009, 05:21 PM

Powerful stuff. A great lesson in why you should spend a disproportionate amount of time on your above-the-fold copy.

markpocock · 08-24-2009, 03:27 AM

I've used Statcounter.com to check different
appeals ie. different headlines and visitor length
on my own sites and clients' sites.

It's a very interesting process....

cheers

Mark

raphaelgaga · 08-24-2009, 06:48 PM

Thanks for reminding me about the need to be testing headlines, even on older web sales letters.

Cheers.

int-mark · 08-25-2009, 04:35 AM

Whats that statistic something like one headline can pull literally 25 times more visitors but people don't pay much time and attention to their headlines. Cheers for this!

Paul Hancox · 08-25-2009, 08:19 AM

Hey John

Any chance you'd be willing to share the two headlines?

RentItNow · 09-16-2009, 10:18 AM

Sorry about delay. Have not been on forum for some time.

Original (and headline that keeps people reading is:

Headline is: Rent Your House The Easy Way With These Expert 'House For Rent' Secrets...

Subheadline is: Secrets That Rented 150+ Properties Making Their Owners $70,000 Per Month.

Headline that sucked was: Your Decision To Rent Your House Out is Easy When Your Know The Secrets...

Subhead was same: Secrets That Rented 150+ Properties Making Their Owners $70,000 Per Month.

The reason I wanted to try this line was that most of my readers have never rented a place but have been forced (due to one reason or another) to rent their properties. Which makes my job double hard as I have to sell them on two things: renting their house and using my book to help them.

One other interesting observation I have made using analytics is if a visitor comes to my page from organic search google, the average time on page is nearly zero seconds. If they come from my blog, articles or capture page (where they have read my free ebook) they stay an average of 5 minutes. So all my efforts are in building the content of the blog and articles to direct better qualified traffic instead of wasting time on SEO (which I was focusing 90% of my time).

raj564 · 09-16-2009, 11:27 AM

good tip, john. What did you use to measure this? Google anlaytics bounce rate?

RentItNow · 09-16-2009, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by raj564

good tip, john. What did you use to measure this? Google anlaytics bounce rate?

Yes i use Google Analytics.

No, I don't really measure the bounce rate. I view the report for "Keywords" and sort it by "Avg. Time on Site."

The other custom report I find valuable is "Keywords that completed Goal" Goal being my form of optin.

Very very good tool. I am trying to use their Optimizer now but not sure if it is working right.

I have a 30 to 90% conversion on my non-optin free book but I need to start building a list soon so may change it back to optin.

Alex Cohen · 09-16-2009, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Headline is: Rent Your House The Easy Way With These Expert 'House For Rent' Secrets...

Headline that sucked was: Your Decision To Rent Your House Out is Easy When Your Know The Secrets...

Understandable. Using the phrase "Your Decision" was a sure-fire reading killer.

Also, "The Secrets" is general; "House For Rent Secrets" is specific.

Thanks for sharing John.

Alex

DavidO · 09-17-2009, 04:54 AM

Good tip! For the benefit of others I would recommend using Google Analytics for this as Rentitnow explains.

I've used Stat-Counter extensively and I find that some of their stats and reporting are very confusing and conflict with Google's. I'm sure Stat-Counter is accurate but they seem to operate differently and you can really be misled if you're not careful.

I'm switching to Google Analytics.

08-23-2009, 05:11 PM	#1
RentItNow Aka: John J. Adams War Room Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Windsor, ON Posts: 917 Thanks: 171 Thanked 184 Times in 158 Posts Social Networking	The Power of A Headline I know this is obvious to most but never has the importance of the headline spoke more to me than recently. I made a small change on my sales page to the headline just to test it. The average visitor time on page went from 5 to 10 minutes down to around 3 seconds (just enough time to read the headline). Put it back and sure enough it goes back up to 10 minutes. Lesson learned? Watch the time on page stat when making headline changes. If low (very low) change the headline! I just love the learning! Hard lessons but important to see it yourself.
	Marketitnow.info

08-23-2009, 05:21 PM	#3
Ross Bowring Cash Creating Copywriter War Room Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Philadelphia, USA Posts: 694 Thanks: 538 Thanked 589 Times in 205 Posts Social Networking	Re: The Power of A Headline Powerful stuff. A great lesson in why you should spend a disproportionate amount of time on your above-the-fold copy.
	PLUS... X-Rated Copywriting Secrets EXPOSED.

08-24-2009, 03:27 AM	#4
markpocock Active Warrior Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Bude, Cornwall , United Kingdom. Posts: 93 Thanks: 4 Thanked 38 Times in 25 Posts Social Networking	Re: The Power of A Headline I've used Statcounter.com to check different appeals ie. different headlines and visitor length on my own sites and clients' sites. It's a very interesting process.... cheers Mark
	"You're One Good Sales Letter Away From Massive Success" Mentored by 2 A-List Copywriters - David Garfinkel & Parris Lampropoulos www.markpocock.com

08-24-2009, 06:48 PM	#5
raphaelgaga Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 42 Thanks: 0 Thanked 5 Times in 2 Posts	Re: The Power of A Headline Thanks for reminding me about the need to be testing headlines, even on older web sales letters. Cheers.

08-25-2009, 04:35 AM	#6
int-mark Active Warrior Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 87 Thanks: 22 Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts	Re: The Power of A Headline Whats that statistic something like one headline can pull literally 25 times more visitors but people don't pay much time and attention to their headlines. Cheers for this!
	Best personal development blog on the internet!

08-25-2009, 08:19 AM	#7
Paul Hancox Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 2,028 Blog Entries: 2 Thanks: 433 Thanked 554 Times in 229 Posts Social Networking	Re: The Power of A Headline Hey John Any chance you'd be willing to share the two headlines?
	PRESELL MASTERY: What you thought you knew about "preselling" is about to radically change. Forever. Click Here. BECOME A COPYWRITER, WITH CLIENTS, IN AS LITTLE AS 6 MONTHS...CLICK HERE.

09-16-2009, 10:18 AM	#8
RentItNow Aka: John J. Adams War Room Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Windsor, ON Posts: 917 Thanks: 171 Thanked 184 Times in 158 Posts Social Networking	Re: The Power of A Headline Sorry about delay. Have not been on forum for some time. Original (and headline that keeps people reading is: Headline is: Rent Your House The Easy Way With These Expert 'House For Rent' Secrets... Subheadline is: Secrets That Rented 150+ Properties Making Their Owners $70,000 Per Month. Headline that sucked was: Your Decision To Rent Your House Out is Easy When Your Know The Secrets... Subhead was same: Secrets That Rented 150+ Properties Making Their Owners $70,000 Per Month. The reason I wanted to try this line was that most of my readers have never rented a place but have been forced (due to one reason or another) to rent their properties. Which makes my job double hard as I have to sell them on two things: renting their house and using my book to help them. One other interesting observation I have made using analytics is if a visitor comes to my page from organic search google, the average time on page is nearly zero seconds. If they come from my blog, articles or capture page (where they have read my free ebook) they stay an average of 5 minutes. So all my efforts are in building the content of the blog and articles to direct better qualified traffic instead of wasting time on SEO (which I was focusing 90% of my time).
	Marketitnow.info

09-16-2009, 11:27 AM	#9
raj564 Active Warrior Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: , , . Posts: 50 Thanks: 0 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts	Re: The Power of A Headline good tip, john. What did you use to measure this? Google anlaytics bounce rate?

09-17-2009, 04:54 AM	#12
DavidO Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: United Kingdom, Spain Posts: 2,031 Thanks: 10 Thanked 101 Times in 58 Posts	Re: The Power of A Headline Good tip! For the benefit of others I would recommend using Google Analytics for this as Rentitnow explains. I've used Stat-Counter extensively and I find that some of their stats and reporting are very confusing and conflict with Google's. I'm sure Stat-Counter is accurate but they seem to operate differently and you can really be misled if you're not careful. I'm switching to Google Analytics.