The Right Headline Stops Your Prospect in his Tracks Part 2

I read in a Marketing Sherpa Search Benchmark Study that when your prospects are in search mode, they don’t bother to read the entire listing – even though it contains so few words.

Their advice regarding search listing headlines: “The first two to three words pack a bigger wallop than words further on." I rewrote last week’s headline to demonstrate this principle.

If you’re writing for the web, there are two points to consider.

1. To optimize your headline for the search engines, limit your head to 65 characters

2. Change your Landing Page headline into a question

At that DM Days seminar I mentioned previously on optimizing landing pages, the speaker indicated that phrasing the headline as a question pulled more responses than a headline that began with the word Free.

Stop Your Prospect in his Tracks with the Right Headline

"It's a non-stop blitz of advertising messages," president of the marketing firm Yankelovich, Jay Walker-Smith told CBS News recently. "Everywhere we turn we're saturated with advertising messages trying to get our attention." According to Walker-Smith, back in the 1970's we each saw about 500 ads a day whereas today, that number has jumped to 5,000 a day.

Which means your headlines have to work overtime to stand out in the sea of marketing gobbledygook.

Four tips for effective headlines:

1. First and foremost, your headline must capture the attention of your prospect.

2. Clarity is key – the meaning of the headline should be crystal clear, and the benefits to the prospect immediately apparent.

3. The message must telegraph to your prospect that there’s something in it for him. The headline should resonate with your prospect so that he thinks, “This speaks to me!” You can accomplish this by stepping into the prospect’s shoes and addressing his biggest concerns.

4. Lastly, your headline should pull the prospect into the copy, reeling her in with each word.

Offer a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee…and Keep Promoting It

Few things boost confidence like a 100% satisfaction guarantee. But it’s not enough to offer one. You must constantly promote it as well. For example, I mention my 100% satisfaction guarantee on my home page and in every proposal I send. When I write an acquisition direct mail package for a client, I work it into at least two elements, usually the letter and order form. In my renewal and billing series for publishers, I weave it into the copy as often as possible.

At a recent seminar I attended at DM Days NY on Optimizing Landing Pages, the speaker indicated the satisfaction guarantee was very important. Without it, response went down 11%.

Which means you should never take your satisfaction guarantee for granted. Promote it often, and in every channel you’re in.

Slash those meaningless words

If you want to ratchet up the pulling power of your copy, take a closer look at every single word you've chosen. That means slashing all the empty, meaningless words. Start by eliminating the word quality. It's over-used and doesn't sell anything, because everyone claims it.

Another culprit is the word best. Like quality, best is an un-provable term. You'll see it in just about every piece of sell copy. Which further dilutes its value.

Lastly, expunge the noun needs - as in for all your (you fill in the blank) needs. This is the mother lode of throw-away lines!