Copy Tip 14: Headlines I
Just 2 sleeps until Christmas and here we are on headlines!
Work has wound down, it’s time to focus on catching up with family — but first, another juicy copy tip to help your response soar!
The headline.
We already know a couple of things …
- The headline’s primary job is to get you to keep reading … to see you on reading the next sentence.
- In Copy Tip 10, I also mentioned one little tip on headlines: being specific increases believability.
We’re assuming you have already prepared knowing your MOOVE research, objective, offers and vehicle/s… so first things first, your headline must …
GET ATTENTION!
And specifically, it must get the attention of potential prospects.
At this point, you and your product or service really mean nothing to your prospect.
It’s all about THEM.
Your headline will be competing with thousands of other messages that your prospect is exposed to each day.
In fact, you’re an interruption to their day.
Whether it’s work, time with family, friends are visiting, whatever is going on … your prospect is not sitting silently, waiting, hoping that today is the day they’ll see your headline.
They’re doing other things much more important to them!
(That’s why the strategy of choosing your vehicle is so important — so much of your planning is intertwined and you cannot afford to skip any preparation).
Depending on the vehicle you use to get your offer out to your market, you may only have a few seconds – at most — to stop them in their tracks and give them reason to pay attention to your message.
So before you write anything else — you can see here that your headline is critical to your success.
It’s the quarterback on your football team. It’s the putter in your golf bag. It’s the engine in your car.
Now you know more about why copywriters love resources like books and publications full of winning headlines.
But before you start thinking this task is impossible, I have some good news: many different good headlines can work well at getting attention: you will still get results from a number of headline choices: it’s not just that you need a single headline that works.
Like the putter in your golf bag, many of them can successfully get the ball into the cup for you … some particular putters just feel much better and work much better for you in your particular situation.
So before we look at specific headline options, I want to make sure you realise how important your headline is in getting attention for your copy.
Remember too that your offer will affect your response (along with lots of other factors). So even if you grab attention successfully, and you have a terrible offer, your sales will be much lower than they could be.
The same goes with knowing your market: if you write an awesome headline, and have an awesome offer, but don’t get it in front of qualified prospects, you still won’t get a response.
That’s why we covered MOOVE first: each of the elements really do work in together and it’s not just a matter of whipping out some cheap software and knocking up a sales letter.
So you now know your headline is aimed at getting attention and getting your prospect to keep on reading.
We’ll dive further into headlines tomorrow and I’ll be drawing on my expert resources to share more insider headline tips with you.
Until then … keep smiling!
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[...] already covered that headlines should get attention and keep your prospects reading. You know too headlines are designed to sell you on the rest of your copy, not necessarily selling [...]