Advertising and Marketing Ideas to Create Phenomenal Profits In YOUR Small Business

“Great Advertising Headlines!” PDF Print E-mail
“Great Advertising Headlines!”

The first thing a reader sees in any ad is the headline. The first thing they hear on a radio ad is the headline. The first thing seen in a TV commercial is the headline.

The headline let’s the consumer know if the ad (article, story) applies to them...if it will interest them.

I’ve said over & over again that the choice of headline in any ad is 80% responsible for the success or failure of the ad.

That’s assuming that the media used is reaching potential buyers, and the offer is a good one.

For example;

One of the things I study is older direct mail ads. Why? Because they were dependent on selling something to pay for themselves.
The results were amazingly easy to track. If the ad worked...orders came in. If the ad didn’t work...orders didn’t come in.

Here’s an old headline selling a book (I think) on how to speak correct English.

““The Man Who Simplified English”  was one headline. tested.

““Do You Make These Mistakes In English?” was another headline tested. Same ad...different headline.
Before you turn the page...which one do you think did better? And why?

“Do You Make These Mistakes In English?”  outsold the other headline by twice as much.

Do you have any idea why?

The first headline didn’t talk about the buyer. It aroused no interest in reading the rest of the ad.

The second headline talks about the reader’’s problems. Also, the word “These” draws you into the ad. You have to read the ad to find out if you are making mistakes in your speaking.

Headlines like these can be used as a template to structure headlines selling just about anything. Here are a few examples to get you started.

“Do you make these mistakes when shopping for a television?”

““Do you make these mistakes when buying insurance?”

“Do you make these mistakes when buying a sewing machine?”

See how you can apply a good headline to your offer? You can also use several tested headlines as templates...and use several throughout your ad. I’ve seen as many as five separate headlines sprinkled throughout an ad. Smart.

Another example;

““How To Ruin Your Marriage The Quickest Way Possible”

“How To Win Friends And Influence People”
These two headlines were at the top of the very same ad for the very same book.

Why did the first headline flop?
It required people to think...to figure out that the headline was advertising a book that (if read) could save a marriage.  The headline attempts to be clever….a major problem with newbie advertisers.
And for the majority of readers...they simply won’t take the time to figure out what the book is really about.

And for the millions of people that aren’t married? There is almost no appeal at all.

“How To Win Friends And Influence People”
Wow! Now you’re talking about the reader’s self-interest.. The headline offers two compelling benefits from reading the book. The headline is completely easy to understand.

He second headline outsold the first by a factor of five!   Headlines matter.

The most used & copied headline ever must be ““They Laughed When I Sat Down At The Piano...But When I Started To Play!...””

Why? Because the headline grabs the reader in a way most others can’t.  

Have you ever been laughed at? Humiliated?

Almost all of us have. It gives us nightmares.

So the reader instantly identifies with the person in the story.

Here’’s how to use that headline as a template;

“They laughed when I sent for the bodybuilding course...but three months later, when I took off my shirt….”  “They laughed when I said I drove 50 miles to buy a vacuum cleaner….but when they saw the job it did…”

“They laughed when I said I spent $3,000 on a seminar...but when they saw the resulting sales…”

“They laughed when I said  my new sewing machine could ___,... but when I showed them what I just did in less than a minute…”

You get the idea.