Tag Archives: headline

Why Getting Attention Won’t Make You Rich

Posted on by

Be remarkable. Be the purple cow. Get yourself noticed. Just be your own beautiful and unique snowflake self, and your allotment of raving fans will come find you and buy everything you make. Ever heard that advice? It’s a social media truism that as long as you’re authentic , you can’t go wrong. Fame, fortune, and the latest Apple products will all be yours. Let’s face it — authenticity can be a great way to draw a crowd. Especially if you have an over-the-top personality. And because we live in the age of attention scarcity, many people think that getting attention is the hard part. If only I could get noticed. If only I could get someone to read my stuff. But attention isn’t actually the rarest commodity in the 21st century. Trust is. It’s true that the first letter in every sales formula is “A” All marketing has to start with attention. If you can’t attract attention in the first place, nothing else you do has a chance to work. This is why headlines matter more than anything else you do. And that’s been the case as long as selling has existed. If you’ve ever been to a Renaissance Faire, think about the way the food vendors let you know what they’ve got to offer. When the pretty girl in the tight bodice shouts Hot Turkey Legs! and Cold Beer Here! , those are headlines. They attract your attention and let you know the most important details of the offer. But you need to remember that the work of the headline is not only to attract attention. The true job of the headline is to get the first line of your copy (whether it’s a blog post, email message, sales letter, video, or podcast) read, watched, or listened to. In other words, if you gaze happily at the pretty girl but you never approach her for a beer, the headline (and the bodice) have failed. Copywriting formulas have more than one letter (If the whole idea of copywriting formulas is new to you, you can find 15 of them here .) Conversion is the copywriting term for all the stuff that happens between that initial “A” and the sale. You craft an offer that people will actually want to buy . You build trust. You answer questions and counter objections. You describe appealing benefits to spark interest and fan it into desire. You make it easy for the prospect to see herself as a customer. You increase desire with appealing bonuses. You deliver a clear, compelling call to action . You build in urgency elements to get the prospect to act today. You state your call to action again. Being a jerk is bad for business Lots of us will reward a jerk with attention. But not many will reward a jerk with business . Jerks can’t be depended on. They play head games. They don’t respect their audience. They amuse themselves at the expense of other people. Prospects are already fearful enough . If your prospects don’t trust you, they’re not likely to spend any money with you. You don’t have to be a wimp You’ll notice that some very successful businesspeople have strong, tough personas. They may well make themselves unlikeable to most of the population. That’s ok – they’re filtering out the customers who aren’t right for their business. The message they send to their right customers, though, is always that they can be trusted. That they’ll tell the truth, even when it’s not pretty. That they’re consistent, whether you like them or not. The dad from Sh*t My Dad Says would make a good marketer. Let’s face it, if you bought a car from that guy, you know that you’d have a completely accurate picture of what was good and bad about the car. He may be offensive at times, but he’s trustworthy. (At least, the real dad and not the one who will be played by William Shatner.) The dad from “Family Guy” would make a lousy marketer. He’s capricious, he goes for the cheap laugh every time, and he has no integrity. There are no customers gullible enough to buy a car from that guy. You may find him hilarious, but no sane person would find him trustworthy. It takes more than being remarkable Hey, I’m a big fan of remarkable. I built a blog and a lovely business around it. But “remarkable” doesn’t mean “remarkably annoying,” “remarkably mean,” or “ remarkably useless .” You have my permission to swear on your blog , to fearlessly embrace controversy , or just to make yourself a likeable jackass . But never, ever do it at the expense of the trust of your readers. There is no effective copywriting formula that leads directly from getting Attention to creating a Scandal to making a Sale. That’s just a formula for making an A-S-S of yourself. About the Author : Sonia Simone is CMO of Copyblogger Media and founder of Remarkable Communication . Follow her on twitter . Flickr Creative Commons image by Alaskan Dude

2742cc6c84wench.jpg 63x150 Why Getting Attention Won’t Make You Rich

Link:
Why Getting Attention Won’t Make You Rich

Is Your Headline Good or Bad? Give it the Breath Test

Posted on by

Bloggers have been asking the question “ Do long or short headlines work better ?” for a long time. But the answer to the riddle of how to create a headline that pulls in readers doesn’t necessarily lie in subtracting or adding one more word. There’s not a mysterious formula or arcane copywriter’s trick. The answer is much simpler than that. The best way to get a headline that works is by using the breath test. Try saying this headline aloud: How To Recognize Six Difficult Telltale Signs Of Disinterest And Lack Of Motivation In Your Student And Customer Ran out of breath, didn’t you? And even if you didn’t quite run out of breath, you had a hard time getting through the whole thing. You’ll also find that you struggle to recall the contents of that headline. Because if you can’t say it in one breath, you can’t hear it in one breath, either. When your headline can’t be easily said aloud in a single breath, your message gets garbled. Look at some of the most enduring headlines ever: How to Win Friends and Influence People Do You Make these Mistakes in English? They Laughed when I Sat Down at the Piano. But when I Started to Play … That last one was a mouthful, wasn’t it? No matter how you try, it’s hard to say: “They laughed when I sat down at the piano. But when I started to play … ” in one breath. So what’s going on here? How come this headline works when it clearly fails the breath test? It’s called punctuation. If you have a long headline, all you have to do is punctuate to indicate that there’s a pause there. You’re ending one thought and beginning another. How you punctuate it is totally up to you. You could use parentheses. Or an em dash. Or a comma. The original headline used a period, making it two separate sentences. But that headline could also be punctuated like this: They Laughed when I Sat Down at the Piano (But when I Started to Play…) They Laughed when I Sat Down at the Piano — But when I Started to Play … They Laughed when I Sat Down at the Piano, but when I Started to Play … Punctuation exists to give a mental pause between thoughts. When you have that pause built into your headline, a reader can read it as if it were two sentences. So even though it looks like one big sentence, it’s really two. Next time you’ve written a great headline and you’re wondering if it’s too long, just do the breath test. If it fails, add some punctuation. If it still fails, dump the headline and start again. You should never compromise when writing headlines . If your reader can’t process your headline in a single breath, they can’t process it in their heads, either — which will render a perfectly good headline perfectly useless. About the Author: Sean D’Souza offers a great free article on ‘Why Headlines Fail’ when you subscribe to his Psychotactics Newsletter . Be sure to check out his blog , too.

3c3b757d57button.gif Is Your Headline Good or Bad? Give it the Breath Test

Read more here:
Is Your Headline Good or Bad? Give it the Breath Test

How To Write Eye-Catching Headlines that Transform Browsers into Buyers

Posted on by

For your headlines to stop readers in their tracks, capture their attention through every word of your copy, and persuade them to click that “Add to Cart” button without a second thought, you need to master the “headline reading psychology” of your soon-to-be customers. Once you understand why magnetic headlines pull readers in, you’ll know how to do it for your own sales pages, every time. Follow along with me for the next ninety seconds and I’ll show you exactly how you can turn a casual browser of your sales page into an avid reader, curious to drink in your copy until ultimately hitting the “Buy” button. First, get relevant: Tell your readers’ they’re in the right place So many people create clever turns of phrase hoping to pull people into their sales copy and wonder why their catchy headlines just don’t work. The answer is simple: Readers are busy people, and they don’t have time to study your sales letter to see if it’s relevant to them. Instead, they rely on you to do that work for them. But how do you do that? The answer to that is simple as well: You ensure your headline is clear, not clever, telling the reader exactly what your sales copy is poised to deliver. Use specific keywords that show without a doubt that your page is relevant to people with a specific need or a specific problem – and don’t over-think it. If you’re a blogger, you probably already do this with your post titles, so apply that same thinking to your headlines. For example, look at the title for this post – it’s about “how to write headlines.” (Ever wonder why you always hear such high praise for “How to” headlines ? It’s because they’re extremely relevant by nature. Keep in mind, however, that a “how to” headline might not be the most powerful choice for your particular sales page. When it’s time to write your headline, think of the primary, top-of-mind problem or result your readers are after and make that the foundation of your headline. Do this right, and your readers will automatically know that they’re in the right place – and save your cleverness for later. Next, add the carrot: Attach a powerful result to your headline After you establish relevance to your readers’ immediate needs, you need to help your readers connect to a mouth-watering result that comes from addressing that need. The often quoted “How to ____ so you can ____” is a great example of bridging relevance to result. Never forget that your readers aren’t looking for products or services – they’re looking for beneficial outcomes, and the relevant keywords you write into your headline are often the means to that outcome. So ask yourself why your readers want to take that relevant action, and you’ll be guided to a promise or two that you can make in your headline. I’ll use this post as an example again – you’re reading this far because you want to know how to write headlines, but what you’re really after is getting people to buy from your sales page. Look at your browser title bar and you’ll see I worked that into this post’s headline as well. Finally, dress it up: Add emotionally stirring and action words to your headline Once you’ve married relevance to outcome, it’s time to add a little flavor to your headline by hand-picking compelling words to make those two features “pop.” In this post I modified “headlines” with the adjective “eye-catching” to add some life to the text. I’ve also used the powerful transitive verb “transform” to suggest actionable change, which intensifies the promise of desired results. Pick words that make the relevant keywords or the desired results seem more powerful and attainable – or simply add a third component to the headline like a timeframe or a variation of “easy” or “simple” (if it applies). I could go into additional examples here, but you’ll find all that you need in the Magnetic Headlines series. Take a few moments to read through the posts there with a more educated eye, looking for how each example uses relevance, results, and powerful modifiers to make you want to read each post to the very end. Which, now that you think about it, you’ve just done with this post. Sharpen your skills – how can you improve your own headlines? If you want to get better at writing sales page headlines today, take another ninety seconds right now and use these three tips on a recent headline you’ve created. In the comments below, show us your original – and improved version – and get those headline writing muscles working! About the Author : Dave Navarro is a product launch manager who can’t wait for you to join the 7,000+ people using his free workbooks in the Launch Coach Library (a crowd favorite in the Third Tribe forums).

3c3b757d57button.gif How To Write Eye Catching Headlines that Transform Browsers into Buyers

See original here:
How To Write Eye-Catching Headlines that Transform Browsers into Buyers

Why You Should Always Write Your Headline Last

Posted on by

When you write a post for your blog, your headline is the last thing you should be thinking about. OK, I realize this is Copyblogger heresy. There’s a lot of emphasis on writing a good headline. Hell, I’ve written posts about how to write an eye-grabbing title myself. Brian wrote an entire series on headlines (including a post on why you should always write your headline first ), and he’s been known to come up with some pretty catchy ones. But while crafting a good headline is critical to getting people to read a blog post , open the email, or get past the headline to the copy, it’s actually the last thing you should be thinking about when you first sit down to write. Who’s your audience? Get this wrong and you can mess up a lot of potentially awesome headlines. Your headline could fit the perfection checklist to a T. It could be a list with a number . It could have action words. It could be creative, intriguing, ask a question, be a little crazy, hint at a secret. But if it isn’t written for the right audience, you’re screwed . 5 Powerful Headlines that Get You All the Chicks — and How to Write Them That’s a pretty decent headline right there. But if the majority of your audience is work-from-home mothers, that headline isn’t going to get you as far as it would if you were writing for an audience of straight single men. Know who your audience is, and know what kind of language appeals to them. Lexi Rodrigo wrote a post not too long ago about feminine words that sell . There were plenty of responses to that post in the comment section, some of them from women saying which words wouldn’t necessarily appeal to them, and why. You have to get in the brain of your audience, and you have to know the words that work for them. There are no short cuts. It’s not just about appealing to women or men — the question is, which women or men. You have to figure out your precise audience, and you have to write directly to the way those specific people are feeling when they read your post. What do you want them to do? If your blog attracts new customers and enthusiasts, then every single post you write should let your audience know what you want from them. Now hang on there — before you run away because you run a strictly informational, no-sales blog, we’re talking to you too. Even if you have no intention of getting sales from your blog, you still want your readers to do something. You want them to think about what you’ve written. You want them to feel something. You want them to take some sort of action. You want them to comment. You want them to get into conversations with other people. You want them to follow you on Twitter or friend you on Facebook. You want all kinds of stuff. And yeah, sometimes you even want sales. But before you scribble down that headline and start writing, you need to know what you want. Then you need to leverage your headline to make sure you get it. What are you going to give them? Brian recommends writing your blog title before you write the post, and I agree with that as a general rule. Writing down your headline reminds you of what the focus of your post is supposed to be. But even if you haven’t written the post yet, you still need to know what you’re going to be writing about. This makes logical sense — and oddly, a lot of people don’t seem to think about it. They say they’re going to offer you “10 Secrets of Copywriting” and they write that headline down, but what they end up writing about is common knowledge on every marketing blog out there. If your title is going to be about secrets, you need to be prepared to write about secrets. If you’re only prepared to write about what someone already knows, then you’re not going to be able to deliver on the promise of your title . Before you write your headline, you need to know you’ll back up the promise it’s making. All right, then. Have you thought about all that? Good. Now you’re ready to tackle the last thing you need to think about: What’s your headline going to be? Your headline might need to be last on your task list, but last doesn’t mean least important. Often, it means just the opposite. How about you? What else do you think people need to do before they get to their headlines? About the Author: James Chartrand is the copywriter setting your business priorities in the right order. Check out Men with Pens for more tips, tricks and techniques on how to write better blog posts, or better yet, sign up for the Men with Pens RSS feed right here .

headline big news Why You Should Always Write Your Headline Last

See the rest here:
Why You Should Always Write Your Headline Last