To create a winning headline, you need to truly understand the greatest benefit of the product or service you are selling, and use that within your copy. You also need to make sure you know the difference between a benefit and a feature so you don’t make the common mistake of leading with the wrong message.
Give your visitor’s a reason to continue reading your sales page right away by showcasing the greatest advantage and the biggest benefit to the offer you are promoting.
That way, if your reader doesn’t connect with anything else, and even if they fail to continue reading the rest of the page, they are aware of the greatest reason they should respond to the offer.
Makes sense, right?
Some people refer to this as “value-centric headlines” because the focal point of the headline is to highlight the tremendous value your reader receive get by taking action.
Examples:
“Lose Weight Without Counting Calories Ever Again!”
Benefit: They will never have to worry about counting every calorie or staying within a calorie range. Huge benefit!
“Eliminate Debt With This Stress-Free Solution!”
Benefit: They will be able to transform their lifestyle immediately and get rid of all debt without the solution adding additional burden or stress to their life.
On the other hand, avoid using action-centric headlines that hard sell. They may come off as aggressive and pushy. You haven’t won them over yet so be careful with encouraging an action too soon. Remember, your headline captures their attention and your sales copy closes the deal.
Remember, customers don’t buy features – they buy benefits. You need to explain exactly how the product or service will offer fulfillment, improve their situation, make their lives better, or solve their problem. Customers are looking to justify their decision to purchase. Give them one.
Speak Their Language
Proper grammar? Formal sentence structure? There is no such thing when creating compelling headlines that speak to your audience!
When it comes to successful headlines, it’s all about speaking the language of your target customer.
To do this, you need to know everything you can about your audience. This involves a bit of investigative work, but it’ll pay off in the end.
Find out:
- What concerns them most?
- What are they most passionate about?
- What keeps them up at night?
- What are their burning questions?
And then dig further into your market by reading forums, message boards and social media websites where consumers are discussing your topic openly. You won’t believe how much information and insight you will garner from this strategy!
Find out:
- What kind of terminology do they use?
- How would they describe the product/services they purchase?
- How do they describe the problem?
- What are their demographics?
The more you know about your target audience, the easier it will be for you to create headlines that speak directly to them. Throw the “Grammar 101” handbook out the window; you won’t need it. When it comes to headlines, all you care about is learning as much about your market as you can so that you can speak their language and prove to them that you know how they are feeling, and that you have an answer to their problems.
Food for thought: One of my favorite taglines comes from Copy Hackers which reads “Convert Like a Mofo”. While this is a slogan rather than a headline it still conveys the message that the company isn’t your ordinary, stiff corporation. It’s trendy, cool and edgy. Reading it makes me want to know more about the company because it’s refreshing and different. And it works.
The Headline’s BFF
A headline should never stand alone. Regardless how compelling, exciting or targeted your headline is, you should always follow it up with a clear and direct sub-headline.
Sub headlines add more detail to your headline, provide clarity and reinforce value. And you don’t have to stop there. Consider using sub-headlines throughout your sales copy to further highlight important benefits and to break up your copy into digestible segments, especially when you are writing lengthier sales copy that can otherwise easily get bogged down.
Sub-headlines serve as beacons in long form copy, keeping your reader engaged while encouraging them to read lengthy paragraphs to make it to the next “beacon”.
You’ve probably experienced this yourself as a consumer. You land on a sales page and the headline has done its job at capturing your attention. Still, you don’t have a lot of time to spend so you find yourself scanning the page.