Tweet

Headlines -- 3 Tips to Writing Headlines That Make the Sale

Written by: Michele Pariza Wacek

Article Overview: Want to know the secret for creating promotional materials that make sales? It starts with the headline. So how can you craft a headline that persuades your prospects to keep reading? Here are 3 tips to get you started.

Headlines -- 3 Tips to Writing Headlines That Make the Sale

Want to know the secret for creating promotional materials that make sales?




It starts with the headline.




You see, people are busy. They're only going to take a few seconds to determine if they want to spend any time with your promotional materials or not (whether that's an email, a web site, a sales letter or something else).




How will they make that decision? A big part of it will come from reading your headline. So if your headline doesn't pull its own weight, your prospects will most likely simply move on.




So how can you craft a headline that persuades your prospects to keep reading? Here are 3 tips to get you started:




1. Put yourself in the mind of your prospect. Chances are, your prospect landed on your site because they have a problem. And they're looking for a solution to that problem. And they're impatient because they're squeezing in searching for this solution in between taking the kids to dance class, sending a few last emails and figuring out what to throw together for dinner. (Okay, that was a very female-biased day, but men are equally as stretched.) So if they're not feeling confident they're going to find a solution, they WILL move on. And fast.




But, if you create a headline that embodies the solution, then they'll probably stick around and keep reading. For instance, a headline like this:




Give me 3 days and I'll show you how to make more money while working far less




If you're considering writing a headline like this, then your prospects are probably completely overwhelmed, exhausted, struggling to get everything done and not making much money. See how the headline entices them to read on because it promises a solution?




Here's another one:




Give me 3 days and I'll show you how to lose weight without crazy fad diets, pills, hours of sweaty exhausting exercise or feeling hungry.




(Ah, don't we all wish?)




Okay, so your prospect wants to lose weight and has tried a lot of things without success.




See how this works?




2. Give them a time limit. If you were wondering in the above examples why I had a time limit in there, it's because that resonates with people. Again, people are impatient. They don't want to wait years or decades for the solution to take effect (even if that's what it takes). They want to know the solution is within reach and it's a manageable time frame. So if you can frame your solution around something that sounds doable (a couple of weeks, days or minutes are best yet if you can distill it that far).




3. Use language your prospects will relate to. Whether it's language that resonates with your prospects (hours of sweaty exhausting exercise would probably resonate with prospects who don't like to exercise whereas it wouldn't with people whose hobby was running marathons) or using words like "Free" or "Guaranteed," making sure you pick the right words can mean the difference from a kick-butt sales piece to a so-so one.




And don't be afraid to simply tweak a couple of words. Sometimes that's all it takes to tweak a word or 2 to transform a blah headline into a sexy, profit-pulling one.

Related Articles
  Are You Making These 5 Mistakes with Your Headlines?
  How to write headlines that electrify and tantalize customers
  Fishing for Prospects: Why Headlines are Important
  Make Headlines
  How Do You Write Compelling And Successful Headlines?

Article Tags: email, exercise, fad diets, how to make more money, much money, pills, promotional materials, prospects



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.
Business Tips - How about: Tips for managers to handle employees more effectively? Tips on how to deal with difficult customers? Tips on how to deal more effectively with suppliers? The only three I have in mind right now, but will try to come up with something else. Chris
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!
Re: Quote of the Day - "The only people witho - Thanks for sharing this Evan, there are some very powerful quotes in there, I particularly like this one:- You are now at a crossroads. This is your opportunity to make the most important decision you will ever make. Forget your past. Who are you now? Who have you decided you really are now? Don't think about who you have been. Who are you now? Who have you decided to become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully. regards, Mal.


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

The Right Job - Part Five 'Compensation'

Why Marketing Outsourcing is Growing So Quickly

Work Life Balance: Adding White Space

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.