Do you know that your headline, irrespective of sales letter, article or online content, will have to make the biggest impact or potential customers will not read any further? Your headline must contain your Unique Selling Proposition or USP which clearly indicates the most compelling benefit of your product or service.
In order to keep your readers excited and interested, it is even advisable to also use several subheadings that support your headlines, throughout the content of your sales copy. These subheadings must convey more of the benefits and structured in such a way, that will compel your readers to stay on the page and convincingly migrate towards the purchasing or “Buy Here” icon.
From a web surfing perspective, most of the potential browsing customers will not read every single word, but they will most definitely look at your headlines. It is imperative therefore that you make absolutely sure that a visitor who only scans your headlines, understands in full what they will be getting when purchasing your product and services.
Readers do not want to be bogged down with too much detail, so you should simplify matters for them. Try and divide your text into smaller blocks, whilst ensuring that each of the blocks start with a headline. A headline ultimately serves the purpose of an advertisement for the text that follows. It must be convincing enough to entice or even compel your visitors to continue reading.
In order to make your headlines even more effective, take note of the following 7 sizzling tips;
1. Direct your headlines at your target customers – by being specific and not general. By example, refer to “pregnant mothers expecting twins” as opposed to just “pregnant mothers”.
2. Put yourself in the shoes of the customer – What type of headlines would stir your emotions and get you excited?
3. What exactly is the Unique Selling Proposition or USP of your product or service? – What differentiates it from the rest and why is it so unique? You need to have a very compelling and important benefit within the headline that puts you way above the competitors.
4. Focus on solutions – What kinds of problems does it solve and direct it at the three attributes that most people want to improve i.e. health, wealth and happiness.
5. Learn from the experts – Look at other headlines and study the work of well-known or sought after copy writers.
6. Maintain credibility – Do not hype or make outrageous claims and promises. A false and misleading headline will cause untold or even permanent damage to your own reputation as well of that of your product or service.
7. Edit and review – Make sure that your headlines are free of spelling and grammatical errors. There can be nothing more off-putting than incorrect usage of the language or other related and blatant literature errors.
Writing successful headlines is not always about talent, but also about skill, dedication and commitment. Take the necessary time and effort to improve on your style, and very soon you will be ranked amongst the top successful headline writers.
