If you want to be successful online, there's one thing that you need to spend more time on than anything else. It's more important than flashy graphics, more vital than amazing ad copy, more necessary than huge bonus offers. "What is it?" I hear you ask ... Your HEADLINE! Your headline is the heart and soul of not just your site, but your ENTIRE business. It is the first thing that people see when they visit your site, so it should be the one thing that keeps them ON your site! Successful online entrepreneurs know the secret to a great headline. Simply tweaking an existing headline can improve sales by more than 624%. Plain and simple, it can mean the difference between success and failure. So just how do YOU write a "Killer Headline"? There are simple formulas you can use to skyrocket your website response changing only your headline. -- Make a clear, yet BOLD statement. Take the following headlines:
"You will lose lots of weight with our new pill" and
"Shed 25lbs in just 25 days with our Amazing New diet-pill" Which do you think is the more effective? Of course it's the second one. It has a bold statement with a well defined benefit for the user. -- Use Power words Take the above example. Simply using words like "Shed" and "Amazing" will create a sense of emotion in the reader. They will become intrigued by the words, enticed to read on. The effect is almost Hypnotic. Other Power words such as "Discover, build, secret, learn, fast, sell" all encourage the reader to stay on your page and read more of your carefully crafted sales letter. -- Ask the reader a question. "How would you like to make $3,564 a month from home?" Asking a question engages the reader in a more personal manner. They are no longer just reading your sales pitch, but they are stopping to ponder on your question. They wonder, would they really like to make $3,564 a month... You betcha! You've just wet their appetite, they'll have to keep reading to find out more! So now you have an idea of how to formulate your headline, but there are still a few points to remember to make sure you don't undo all that hard work. -- DON'T make your headline too long. All the power words and questions wont mean a thing if your visitors get bored half way through. For that reason, keep your headline, short and to the point. Give them just enough to want more - that's when your sales copy takes over. -- DON'T leave out benefits for the reader. If you want people to listen to you, then you need to understand this fundamental rule about the human race... We (that includes me!) will only be interested if we feel that there is something for us at the end of it. It's a commonly (though surprisingly little known) technique of addressing the "What's In It For Me?" factor. Tell the reader how it will help them and they'll have to read more. -- Imagine that the headline is the only thing they will see and that you have to convey your point there and then. Many people rely on lots of long sales copy, with bulleted points and raving testimonials, but this is worthless unless you can grab the reader from the start. Think of an email. If you want someone to read your email, you have to make your headline scream "Open Me" without the reader even seeing the rest of the contents. Treat your site just the same, make your headline scream "Read ME!" To sum up.. If your site is not pulling well, the first thing you should look at is your headline. The greatest sales pitch in the world wont mean a thing without the greatest headline to go with it. Visit other sites too. If they get you reading on and on without realising it, stop and go back to their headline to see how they did it. Pretty soon, you'also be able to "Explode your Online Sales" Copyright (c) 2006 Richard Legg. Feel free to republish this article with copyright and link included. ------------------------------------------------------------ |
