Profit-packed Headlines

Headlines for any ad, including the “special promotion” ad must be specific as well as interesting. If the headline is too general, readers will not know what it is referring to and most of the time will not give the ad any more of their time. You only have a few seconds to catch someone’s eye and interest them enough to read your ad. There has to be a target of the advertisement, otherwise the general public will brush over it. It is better to be a targeted niche instead of a wandering generality. For instance, what does the headline, “Protect Your Family” mean? Who is the company targeting? This could be an ad for the NRA, a stun gun, traditional firearm, life insurance or disability insurance policy or any number of things. It is in fact a headline for a home security system! Would you have known that? The headline could be improved by saying something like, “Announcing a Portable Home Security System, 23% Under The Industry Price Average with a 99.3% Approval Rating”. This is much more descriptive, targets your reader and tells important benefits of the product. Then you could improve its effectiveness by the use of subheads either in front of the headline, following it or both. Subheads are very powerful. You could say, 

Warning: Crime in Our City Has Risen 12.6% in the last Ten Years.

“Announcing a Portable Home Security System, 23% Under The Industry Price Average with a 99.3% Approval Rating!”

Use very specific numbers when you quote statistics. It gives the ad more credibility and perceived value instead of just saying “over 20% under the industry price average”. This sounds like you are guessing and has no impact. General statements are a dime a dozen so GET SPECIFIC. It is much more powerful to say 99.3% instead of just over 99% because it sounds like a speculation and is harder to accept without the exact number.

Also notice the use of quote marks around the headline. Direct mail expert Ted Nicholas says that headlines containing quotes draw 28% more attention. This occurs because of the perception of importance if someone was directly quoted. Nicholas says that an effective headline must:

1) Attract attention

2) Communicate a strong benefit

3) Appeal to the self-interest of the reader. It answers the question of “What’s in it for
me?”

4) Set the tone for the offer

(A headline acts like a marquee does for a movie theater.)

5) Select the right audience

Statistics say that a winning headline can boost your advertising response by 100% to 500%! If you decide to use a question in your headline, then you had better be sure that you know the exact, specific wants and needs of your target audience so they will continue on and read your ad. Questions can be easy to dismiss if they are not immediately pertinent to a prospect’s life. An example of a solid, intriguing headline to speakers and trainers would be, “Professional Speakers, If You Are As Good As You Think You Are, Why Isn’t Your Calendar Full All The Time?” This challenges a specific group of people in a target market, and although it does not actually say what is being sold right off the bat, people in that niche will read on because their interest has been peaked.

If you are marketing to a more general audience and are still interested in using a question headline, it is important to say things that are meaningful to everyone. For example, a speaker used a headline in an ad for his motivational books and tapes that said, “Do You Want To Be Happier? More Successful?” Again this does not immediately say what he was selling but it was interesting and general enough that people were enticed to read the ad. For the most part, statement headlines are more powerful than question headlines unless you can target a specific group or a universal want and/or need. 

Do your homework, get the industry facts and then use the numbers to your advantage. Always be honest.