6.6.1 Writing Headlines That Grab Your Customers and Sell Your Goods!
Headlines are absolutely vital for all your marketing efforts. Whether you plan to use them on your website, your emails, your newsletters or anywhere else, they’re the hook that grabs your readers, reels them in and turns them into customers. There are dozens of different kinds of headlines that you can use and some of them are better than others. These are the ones that I use, and that I’ve found the most effective.
The No Nonsense Headline
The first type of headline you can use is the simplest. No frills, no tricks, no hooks, just a straightforward description of the contents of your message. You could produce something like:
Tips To Save Money On Your Weekly Shopping
The Best Way To Choose Your Next Car
Real Estate Agents That Shift Property Fast!
Notice that you can still use explanations and hard-hitting adjectives to get your point across, but these headlines do little more than tell the reader what to expect.
The advantages of these headlines is that they’re easy to write and easy to read. You don’t have to try to come up with some hard-hitting sales message and customers aren’t put off by a document that looks a piece of promotional material. On the other hand, they’re a bit weak and that makes them hard to turn into cash.
When to use it
You can use No Nonsense Headlines when you don’t need to work hard to make the sale. If you’re sending information that you know your customer will read, either because it’s free or because it makes no obligation on them, these are the kind of headlines to use.
The Question Headline
Question headlines work by asking customers a question that plays on their worries and promises a solution further on. These are great devices when you really want to grab a customer and ram your message home.
Want To Save Thousands On Your Home Insurance Bills? Learn How To Cut Your Costs In Half!
Where Do You Look For Love? Discover The Best Places To Meet Your Match!
Suffering From Termites? Drive Them Out With The Extermite-Ator!
To write these headlines, think first of what problem your product is actually going to solve. (If it’s not going to solve a problem, then you’re going to have a problem selling it!) In the first half of the headline, you ask your customers if they’re suffering from the problem. Just by asking, you’re suggesting that they do. In the second half of the headline, you tell them that you have the solution. Dead easy and dead effective.
This is a really simple formula to follow: all you have to do is state the question and promise the answer. And it sells too; you’ve put the problem in the reader’s mind, now you’re offering the solution.
Of course, these kinds of headlines depend on the reader empathizing with the problem. If they don’t, or if they decide that the headlines looks too long to read, they’re not likely to buy.
When to use it
Question Headlines are most effective when your product is going to clearly solve someone’s problem-and when you know your customers are going to empathize with that problem. If they don’t say yes to the question, they’re going to say no to the sale.
