Tweet

Guerrilla Headlines

Written by: Jay Conrad Levinson

Article Overview: Headlines are used in ads, commercials, telemarketing calls, direct mail letters, websites, sales presentations and more. Can you write great ones?

Guerrilla Headlines

Headlines are used in ads, commercials, telemarketing calls, direct mail letters, websites, sales presentations and more. Can you write great ones?
Every guerrilla destined for marketing victories knows very well that if you have ten hours to spend creating a marketing weapon, you should spend nine of them creating the headline. It's the first impression you make, often the only impression, and the rest of your marketing weapon will live or die by the quality of that headline.

Don't think that just because you don't run print ads your headline is not important. Another way of thinking about a headline to think of it as the first thing you say to prospects. Wise marketing people have said that you should picture yourself knocking on someone's door which is then opened by a very busy person. You can say one thing before that person slams the door in your face or opens it widely and invites you in.

You have the opportunity tell your whole story in one line or to say something so intriguing that the prospect will want to hear more. You'll have this opportunity in print ads to be sure, but also with first lines of TV spots and radio commercials, with opening lines of letters and postcards, with first statements made by sales reps or telemarketers, in brochures and on websites, in yellow pages ads and sales videos, in classified ads and infomercials, at trade shows and catalogs. People will decide to read or hear your message or to ignore you completely. It all depends on your headline. If your headline is a loser, you have three strikes against you when you step up to the plate. Lotsa luck!

All guerrillas on earth are delighted that technology now makes marketing easier than ever, that websites enable them to market with even more fervor, that new software lets them create dynamite marketing materials right in their own offices -- but they never lose sight of the fundamentals and headlines are the cornerstone. It's the headline that dictates your positioning in your prospects' minds and it's the headline that will attract either attention or apathy. Nothing you say to a prospect is more important.

In print, you have one line to get that attention. On radio or TV, you have three seconds, and you have those same three seconds with any sales presentations or telemarketing calls. Win attention and interest during that brief period or you won't win it later. There will be no later.

Now that I've alerted you as to the importance of headlines, here are 20 hints to help you create winning ones:

1. Know that your headline must either convey an idea or intrigue the reader or listener into wanting to learn more.

2. Speak directly to the reader or listener, one at a time, even if 20 million people will be exposed to your message.

3. Write your headline in newsy style.

4. Use words that have the feeling of an important announcement.

5. Test headlines that start with the word "announcing."

6. Test headlines that use the word "new."

7. Put a date in your headline.

8. Feature your price, if you're proud of it, in your headline.

9. Feature your very easy payment plan.

10. Announce a free offer and use the word "free."

11. Offer information of value right in your headline.

12. Start to tell a fascinating story; guerrillas know that marketing really is the truth made fascinating.

13. Begin your headline with the words, "How to."

14. Begin your headline with "why," "which," "you," "this" or "advice."

15. Use a testimonial style headline.

16. Offer the reader a test.

17. Use a huge one-word headline.

18. Warn the reader not to delay buying.

19. Address your headline to a specific person; every day there are specific individuals who want exactly what you are offering.

20. Set your headline in the largest type on the page and start your verbal presentations right with the headline.

If the reader or listener isn't stopped by your headline, they'll move onto something else that does stop them. After all, they're looking to be stopped by something and if it's not your message it will be someone else's. Headlines and opening lines are your initial bonds to your prospects. And never forget for one second that what you say is the manner in which you say it. Bend over backwards to be believed.

Boring and indirect headlines sabotage thoughtful copy and brilliant graphics every day of the year, including Christmas. Stupendous offers are not accepted by a ready public because the headline or opening line fell down on the job. There are far more terrible headlines than great ones in every edition of every newspaper and magazines.

In such an atmosphere, guerrillas thrive. They love when others run headlines that are cutsie pie and off the point. They are enthralled when competitors run ads that draw attention away from the prime offering because a copywriter wanted to make a pun or get a laugh. But you can be sure their own headlines always get noticed, generate readership, attract responses, and result in profits.

Although a company cannot achieve greatness solely based upon their headlines and opening lines, without solid first impressions, its growth will be seriously impeded. Your job may be to create headlines or to judge them. It is one of your most important tasks.

Related Articles
  The Way of the Guerrilla
  Downturns and Guerrillas
  What is Marketing in the First Place?
  Are you a Guerrilla
  What Is Guerrilla Marketing?

Article Tags: direct mail, dynamite marketing, fervor, first impression, guerrilla, guerrillas, infomercials, loser, mail letters, marketing materials, new software, opening lines, print ads, radio commercials, sales presentations, sales reps, telemarketers, three strikes, tv spots, websites sales



Related Forum Posts
Re: When is your interest peaked by unsolicited mail? - I rarely ever read the headlines of unsolicited email. I know when it's something I haven't signed up for and delete it right away. I get so much crap it's sickening. I may browse over the headlines as I delete them, but that's it. I haven't really noticed any that have caught my interest. As many have already suggested, I'm so calloused when it comes to headlines because I see them all the time and know what to expect. As a marketer, it makes it easy to sniff out the sales pitches. Headlines such as "can you help me?" usually get my attention, but in the end I know they want me to buy something. At least that's the case for most of the newsletters I get. Case in point, even if it isn't unsolicited, it better have a headline that's going to get me to click on it. Otherwise it'll never get read.
Re: When is your interest peaked by unsolicited mail? - In "The Copywriter's Handbook", author Robert W. Bly emphasizes that effective attention-getting words are ones that offer news. For instance, Bly says "Headlines that give news often use words such as new, discover, introducing, announcing, now, it's here, at last, and just arrived...Free is the most powerful word in the copywriter's vocabulary...Other powerful attention-getting words include how to, why, sale, quick, easy, bargain, last chance, guarantee, results, proven and save" (pg 17 & 18). However, I feel as if all of Bly's keywords are over-used and audiences have learned to ignore them in unsolicited email headlines.
Where's the Entrance? - that's true I've been seeing a lot of construction going on to the City of Toronto's sidewalks and even Movie shoots sometimes block of access to stores for a week sometimes.. Guerrilla techniques should be at play here. 1. Get a Can of Paint and some Footstep Stencils and paint footsteps all the way from the accessible street right to your temporary entrance. (may be illegal but the store owner could plead innocent and say he has no idea who did that - maybe a "fan" of the restaurant) 2. I remember when there was the SARS outbreak in Toronto a lot of the Chinese restaurants were not doing so well except for Lee's Garden. I noticed they created a special Menu with prepackaged Menu Items for $20. 3. Create some buzz like with a Unique expereince - "Someone stole all my Plates! Now serving food on Banana Leaves - Guess What! The Food tastes better than ever! Blah Blah...
Top 19 Copywriting books - 1. Ogilvy on Advertising. David Ogilvy. Wiley. 2. Positioning: The Battle for your Mind. Al Ries and Jack Trout. Warner. 3. The New Positioning. Jack Trout. McGraw-Hill. 4. Tested Advertising Methods. John Caples. Prentice-Hall. 5. How to Make your Advertising Make Money. John Caples. Prentice-Hall. 6. Guerrilla Advertising. Jay Conrad Levinson. Houghton Mifflin. 7. Direct Mail Copy that Sells. Herschell Gordon Lewis. Prentice-Hall. 8. Sales Letters that Sizzle. Herschell Gordon Lewis. NTC Business Books. 9. Herschell Gordon Lewis on the Art of Writing Copy. Herschell Gordon Lewis. Prentice-Hall. 10. Romancing the Brand. David Martin. American Management Association. 11. The Art of Writing Advertising: Conversations with William Bernbach, Leo Burnett, George Gribbin, David Ogilvy, Rosser Reeves. NTC Business Books. 12. Confessions of an Advertising Man. David Ogilvy. NTC Business Books. 13. My Life in Advertising. Claude Hopkins. NTC Business Books. 14. Scientific Advertising. Claude Hopkins. NTC Business Books. 15. How to Become an Advertising Man. James Webb Young. NTC Business Books. 16. The Lasker Story as He Told It. NTC Business Books. 17. Advertising Concept and Copy. George Felton. Prentice Hall. 18. The Copy WorkShop Workbook. Bruce Bendinger. The Copy Workshop. 19. Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: A Guide to Creating Great Ads. Luke Sullivan. Wiley. This should keep you busy for at least a year. Enjoy!
SES Toronto Day 2 - Well I’m off to Day 2 of Search Engine Strategies 2008. Here is what I have planned to attend today: 10:30am-11:45am - Search User Behavior How do searchers interact with search engines? New research is constantly revealing how searchers act. This session explores the latest studies and findings to provide tips and tactics for search marketers to consider. 12:45pm-2:00pm - SEM Toolkit: Marketers Share Competitive intelligence, keyword research, customer profiling, exotic analytics, and visual mouse tracking are just some of the tricks of the trade of search marketers. Guerrilla marketers on the panel show you the favorite tools in their kits. Many are low cost or free. 2:30pm-3:45pm - Web 2.0 & Search Engines An overused and amorphous term, “Web 2.0? nonetheless encompasses an evolutionary shift from the typical web user experience of a decade ago. Some aspects of the “new” web environment are great for improving your search traffic. Other developments may lead you to make serious SEO errors. Among other things, Web 2.0 is about new user interface designs that speed up user actions with techniques such as AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML), which allow users to perform operations nimbly without loading a new HTML page. This session will cover AJAX, CSS, user-generated content, and other new trends in web design and user experiences that may require a re-think of your SEO strategy. 4:00pm-5:15pm - Site Clinic This interactive session takes volunteers from the audience and examines their websites live to provide general feedback about improving them to gain more traffic from search engines. As usual I’ll report my findings after the day is through!


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

A Guide to Franchise Financing

Working Across Borders

Designing Employee-Enhancing Training Programs

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.