Great Headlines Equals Great Sales

Many professional copywriters estimate that the headline contributes to 80% or more of the success of any ad, article, or sales letter. One direct marketing expert goes so far as to credit the headline with 100% of the success or failure of any ad or sales letter, because if the headline fails to pull the reader into the main body of the ad or sales copy, then there is no chance of success.

Identify a benefit to the reader as to why they should read on further into your ad, article, or sales letter. In virtually every case there is also expert commentary about what it was that made the ad or sales letter so effective. Use the power of headlines in your marketing strategy, your PowerPoint presentations, sales calls, emails, newsletters, and even articles like these.

Your benefit-driven headlines are your 24/7 sales team working for your while you relax at home.

Headlines bring far more sales than the copy following them. The average American is bombarded with approximately 10,000 ads, sales letters and other marketing messages every day. In other words, before stepping in the ring with that business website, sales letter, blog post, or article, it's important to remember, Kill the headline, and the body will fall. Many people slap any old headline on their sales page, not.

The headline almost everybody knows about is the one at the top of a sales page.

Consider Your Headline Reader As A Prospect

I believe every action you take in your marketing approach should motivate the reader to take another action, which takes them deeper into your sales process. This path leads to your ultimate goal, which involves the reader contacting you directly or offering up their contact information. So if you want your website to engage the reader, and ideally evoke a response, you must first get the reader to stop.

Jump right in and start talking to your reader like you're old pals; do it in the headline because that's where you'll meet. Bold descriptives add energy and a dynamic quality to your writing and that's what keeps the reader moving along, absorbing and enjoying what you have to say. It will either entice your reader to continue reading, or turn them of before they've read a single word about your product.

If it loses your reader's attention, you automatically lose a potential lead. Get the reader curious and excited about your offer. Within the body of the piece use headlines to inspire and motive the reader to keep reading to get their questions answered.

Which means your headline has just one job: To stop your reader in their tracks, and force them to read the second sentence of your ad. If 200 products are being presented using the same benefits (super-generous guarantee,outselling everybody else, offering employee discount,or other performances or offersetc), after a certain time the benefits will be common ground and they will have less impact on the reader.

Too many ideas will confuse your reader and youll lose your prospect. Its every freelance copywriters nightmare that a reader is scanning through a magazine, comes upon the page containing your advertisement, and keeps right on going without noticing your carefully-crafted words. Nothing turns a reader off more quickly than a headline that's too long.

Is it something that the reader desperately wants for his own business. The reader should instantly see something in it for HIM. Great headlines are those that not only get noticed, but also draw the reader inside with a magic-like spell.

Remember, The purpose of a headline is to Grab the reader by the face and make him want to read the rest of the ad. The subject line of your email should attract the attention of your reader otherwise the email may not even get opened.

Headline Words Make Sales

Use words your audience will understand Keep it short, simple and direct Make it active Make it relevant to your product, service or business Communicate benefits Make an offer or a declaration Use a startling statistic or a testimonial Speak to your audience Get help or feedback from others Try different headlines. Remember with headlines that less is more so keep it to five words or less. Somehow people seem surprised at the need to use important descriptive words and phrases in headlines.

Maybe the words are not in exact order you searched for them, and maybe not every word you used is in those top results, but the more words the site has in that title and the closer they are to the way you searched for them, the more likely that page will turn up among the top results. And use the customers' words as much as you can to make it sound authentic.

If you are writing a long online sales letter headline, be sure to put the most relevant words up front as this is where the search engines place highest priority. Use words that pack a wallop.

A good headline writer starts playing around with the order and combination of words until he winds up with a headline he's satisfied with. Get people to take action by using words like limited time offer, bonus if they act now. Words that will make people look are words like FREE, WIN, MAKE BIG MONEY.

Most headlines score in the 200 range. The headline for this article scored 308 and you don't even think it's very good! But hey, you read this far didn't you?

Glen Stevens
http://infoburner.com/headlines/headlines.html