37
Million-Dollar Headlines
A Collection of the Most Powerful,
Attention-Getting and Effective Headlines
By Jay Abraham
The
headline is unquestionably the most important element
in most advertising.
Likewise
- it is also the most singularly important element of
any selling message "live or recorded, in person
or by phone, audio or video" your company ever uses.
It
is the opening sentence or paragraph you use in any sales
letter or written communication you ever send out to customers,
prospects, suppliers, or staff. It's the first words you
or your sales people (including in-store clerks, order
department or telephone marketers) utter, when they engage
anyone in a sales presentation or one-on-one discussion.
Likewise,
the "headline," or its "equivalent,"
is the first phrase you begin your conversation with when
a customer or prospect comes in or calls in. It is also
the first paragraph you state when recording a commercial
or when meeting people at your trade show booth display.
The
purpose of a headline is to grab your prospect's ATTENTION.
When I say your prospect, I mean that your headline should
zero in on precisely whom you want to reach - your target
market. For example, if you want to reach homeowners,
put the word "homeowners" in the headline.
The
headline should serve as an ad for your ad. It should
tell the reader immediately and clearly the essence of
what you're trying to say in the body copy. The headline
should give the reader a Big Benefit or Big Promise. So,
create a headline that tells the right people precisely
the benefit you're offering them.
When
you write or decide upon your headline - or its opening
equivalent - you have spent at least 80 cents out of your
dollar. Stated differently, 80% of your outcome - four-fifths
of your result
all but 20% of the success of your
selling effort is effected positively or negatively by
how and what you communicate in the beginning. A change
of headline can make a 20 times improvement in response
or acceptance by your customer or prospect of your proposition.
Every headline or opening statement should appeal to the
prospect's or reader's or listener's self-interest. It
should promise him or her a desirable, powerful and appealing
benefit.
If
possible, try to inject "news" value or "educational"
value into the headline also.
How
Many Words Should a Headline Contain? You may have read
about the desirability of having no more than a certain
number of words in your headlines. Yet I want to point
our here that many of the headlines quoted here are, by
ordinary standards, quite long. Yet, despite their length,
they were successful. Obviously, it is not wise to make
a headline any lengthier than its primary function actually
requires. However, you should not worry if your headlines
are longer than usual - provided the headline's high spots
of interest are physically well broken up and clearly
displayed - and provided the personal advantages promised
to the reader are presented so positively that it is almost
as though his own name appeared in the headline. Worth
recounting is the story of Max Hart (of Hart, Schaffner,
& Marx) and his advertising manager, the late George
L. Dyer. They were arguing about long copy. To clinch
the argument, Mr. Dyer said, "I'll bet you $10 I can write a newspaper page of solid type and you'll read
every word of it. "Mr. Hart scoffed at the idea. "I
don't have to write a line of it to prove my point,"
Mr. Dyer responded. "I'll only tell you the headline.
That would be
'This page is all about Max Hart!'"
Power
Words Produce Powerful Results
The
two most valuable words you can ever use in the headline
are "free" and "new." You cannot always
use "free," but you can always use "new"
- if you try hard enough.
Other
words that work wonders are: "how to", "now",
"announcing", "introducing", "it's
here", "just arrived", "an important
announcement", "improvement", "amazing",
"sensation", "remarkable", "revolutionary",
"startling", "miracle or miraculous",
"magic", "offer", "quick",
"easy", "simple", "powerful",
"wanted", "challenge", "advise
to", "the truth about", "compare",
"bargain", "hurry", and
"last
chance."
Don't
turn up your nose at these clichés - they may seem
trite and shop-worn - but they work!
Always
incorporate your selling promise into your headline. And
make that promise as specific and desirable and advantageous
to the prospect as you possibly can. This requires longer
or detailed news, educational and information-worth statements.
Research shows that most negative headlines don't work
- unless you use negativity to underscore any undesirable
results the prospect can expect to eliminate or avoid.
(See the box on page 3.)
People
are looking to gain more advantage, result, benefit, pleasure,
or value, from their lives
from their actions
from
their jobs or their businesses and definitely from their
relationships. And they want to avoid more or continual
pain, dissatisfactions, frustration, mediocrity, and unpleasantness
from their lives.
Avoid
blind headlines - the kind which mean nothing unless you
read or listen to the whole proposition: because - if
you don't gain your prospect's attention and desire immediately
with your headline, that prospect won't listen, read or
pay attention to the rest of what you, your ad, letter
or sales message says.
Attraction
of the Specific. Let us stop here to impress upon your mind
how significant a part the "specific" plays
in so many good headlines. It appears in many of our initial
headlines. You will visualize how magnetically it helps
to draw the reader into the body of an advertisement. So
observe, as you continue your reading, how many of these
headlines contain specific words or phrases that make
the ad promise to tell you: How, Which, Which of These,
Who, Who Else, Where, When, What, Why. Also note how frequently
exact numbers are used: number of days, evenings, hours,
minutes, dollars, ways, types of something. This "attraction
of the specific" is worth your special attention
- not only as relating to words and phrases, but also
concerning headline ideas themselves. For example, compare
the appeal of "We'll Help You Make More Money"
with "We'll Help You Pay the Rent."
What
Kind of Rewards Do Good Headlines Promise?
The answer is that good headlines explain how the
reader, listener, or viewer or live sales prospect can
save, gain, or accomplish something beneficial through
the use of your product - how it will increase this: his
or her mental, physical, financial, social, emotional
or spiritual stimulation, satisfaction, well-being, or
security. In short, good headlines spotlight the greatest
"benefit" you are offering a sales prospect.
Or,
if you take a deliberately negative tack, they point out
how the reader can avoid, "reduce", or "eliminate"
risks, worries, losses, mistakes, embarrassments, drudgery,
or some other undesirable condition for the use of your
product or service.
Or
how it will decrease this: your prospect or customer's
fear of poverty, illness, or accident, discomfort, boredom,
and/or loss of business or social prestige or advantage,
success, prosperity, richness or wealth.
Whatever
product or service you may think you are selling, always,
when constructing your headline or opening statement,
remember this:
Your
customer is not buying a product or service. They are
buying a result or benefit or advantage or protection
or increased pleasure or etc., etc., your product or service
or company can offer or provide them. Always, always focus
your headlines on the benefit or specific result your
prospect will be receiving.
More
Tips About A "Negative" Approach
This
short subject interjection is about negative headlines.
"Accentuate the positive; eliminate the negative,"
said an old song. For years that has also been the refrain
of the advice often given to copywriters. Discussion about
negative headlines has sometimes sparked more fire than
enlightenment.
Yet
our 37 headlines include a number which are completely
negative and several others that start with a negative
approach and become positive. So the negative approach
must have some good reason for existence. It has. What
is it?
One
of the primary objectives of a headline is to strike as
directly as possible right at a situation confronting
the reader. Sometimes you can do this with greater accuracy
if you use a negative headline, which pinpoints the reader's
ailment, rather than the alleviation of it. (For example,
"is YOUR Home Picture-Poor!" - "Have YOU
a 'Worry Stock?'" - "Little Leaks That Keep
Men Poor.")
So
when you face that kind of situation, you can "accentuate
the negative." Let's move on to more headlines and
guidelines to effective headline writing.
Putting
Headlines To Work
You can multiply the effectiveness of any ad you run,
letter you send out, sales call your people make, retail
sale your store does, or size of transaction your practice
generates merely by changing and improving the power and
effectiveness of your headline.
Here
are 33 critical ways to make your headlines or selling
proposition great. They're the result of research into
the work of the greatest copy writers of all time.
Notice
the highly effective job each of the following great headlines
does:
·
17,000 blooms from a single plant!
Measure the size of the claim
· In two seconds, Bayer Aspirin begins to dissolve
in your glass
Measures the speed of the claim
· Six times whiter washes
Compares the claim
· Melts away ugly fat
Metaphorizes the claim
· Tastes like you just picked it
Sensitizes the claim by making the prospect feel, smell,
touch, see or hear it
· At 60 miles per hour, the loudest noise in the
Rolls-Royce is the electric clock
Demonstrates the claim by showing a prime example
· They laughed when I sat down at the piano - but
when I started to play
Dramatizes the claim or its results
· How a bald-headed barber saved my hair
States the claim as a paradox
· Shrinks hemorrhoids without surgery
Removes limitations from the claim
· 9 out of 10 decorators use Wundaweave Carpets
for long life at low cost
Associates the claim with values or people with whom the
prospect wishes to be identified
· Relieves congestion in all 7 nasal passages instantly
Shows how much work, in detail, the claim does
· Here's what you do to get rid of pimples fast
Offers information about how to accomplish the claim
· Before Wheezo hay fever medication made you drowsy
- with Wheezo you can have relief and be alert
Before-and-after the claim
· Announcing: Guided missile spark plugs
Stresses the newness of the claim
· Ours Alone! Persian Lamb originals $289.75
Stresses the exclusivity of the claim
· Does she or doesn't she - only her hair dresser
knows for sure
Turns to claim into a challenge for the reader
· Would you believe it? I have a cold!
States the claim as a case history question
· Pour yourself a new engine
Condenses the claim - interchange your product and the
product it replaces
· Starting July 5th - the Atlantic Ocean becomes
only 1/5 as wide.
Symbolizes the claim - replace the direct statement or
measurement of the claim with a parallel reality
· Floats fat right out of your body
Connects the mechanism to the claim in the headline
· What everybody ought to know about the stock
and bond business
Offers information in the ad itself
· Aunt Mary, who never married
Turns the claim or the need into a case history
· When you're weary with daytime fatigue, take
Alka Seltzer
Gives name to the problem or need
· Don't invest one cent of your hard-earned money
until you check this guide
Warns the reader about possible pitfalls if he doesn't
use your product
· A man you can lean on! That's Abraham
or:
Nobody, but nobody, teaches like Abraham
Emphasizes the claim by its phraseology - break it down
into two sentences, or repeat all or part of it
· If you can count to eleven, you can increase
your speed and skill at numbers
Shows how easy the claim is to accomplish by imposing
a universally-overcome limitation
· The difference in premium gasoline is in the
additives
States the difference in the headline
· See what happens when you crush our Executive
luggage - nothing!
Surprises the reader into realizing that former limitations
have now been overcome
· If you've already taking your vacation, don't
read this. It will break your heart
Addresses the people who can't buy your product, but by
limiting its target, it entices all to learn the secret.
· It took 24 years and genetic engineering to make
this product possible
Dramatizes how hard it was to produce the claim
· It should be immoral to make money this easily
Accuses the claim of being too good to be true
· You are twice as smart as you think
Challenges the prospect's present limiting beliefs
"You"
A Vital Word in Power Headlines
The
most obvious mistake most people make when writing or
creating headlines is they forget to adopt the "YOU"
attitude. To create a powerful headline, your message
must telegraph benefits the prospect can expect to receive.
Your headline or message never should talk about "we"
or "our" product, service, or company. Each
and every possible benefit or result must be written or
expressed with the individual reader or prospect's selfish,
direct interests in mind.
Here
are some other formulas for formulating writing or creating
great headlines or opening statements.
·
Begin your headline with the word, "Announcing".
· Use words that have an announcement quality to
them
· Begin your headline with the word, "New".
· Begin your headline with the word, "Now".
· Begin your headline with the words "at last".
· Put date into your headline; i.e. January 18th
· Feature the price in your headline
· Feature the price reduction or a reduced price
· Feature a special offer.
· Feature easy or more attractive payment terms.
· Feature a free offer
· Offer information of value
· Tell a story
· Begin with words, "How to".
· Begin with the word "How".
· Begin your headline with the words "Why"
or "Which".
· Begin with the words "Who else".
· Advise to offer the reader a test. Use a two-word
headline that refers to a need or situation.
· Warn the reader to delay buying until they compare
benefits and performance.
To
give you an idea of how important the headline is, and
to help you to write good ones, I'll present some of the
best headlines I, as well as other great headline writers,
have written. Now, let's start our tour of the 37 Million-Dollar
Headlines and try to discover why they were so effective.
1.
You Don't Know Me, I Realize
but I Want You to Have
This Before It's Too Late
· This headline stresses the need for quick action
2.
To The Men and Women Who Want to Quit Work Someday
· Selects its readers without wasting a word
3.
How to Develop a Silver Tongue, a Golden Touch and a Mind
Like a Steel Trap
· Highlights the large audience of those looking
for improvement
4.
New Diet Burns Off More Fat Than if You Ran 98 Miles a
Week
· A headline that anticipates incredulity in order
to overcome it
5.
What's Your Best Chance to Make Money in Real Estate?
The Answer Below May Surprise You
· A stopper ad that will challenge the reader to
read
The
headlines presented here advertise many different kinds
of products and services. Some are sold in retail stores,
some by sales representatives, some by direct mail to
the customer. But regardless of what the product is, or
how it is sold, the principles discussed here apply. We are about to learn by real-life example, instead of through
a long and less exciting discussion of general concepts.
Remember,
Rule Number One for high-impact headlines is "State
the Benefit."
Failure
to use a powerful benefit- or result-based headline can
cost an advertiser 80%-90% of the potential effectiveness
of that ad because the prospect will pass over it. Headlines
must make a promise of a highly desirable result the person
will receive in exchange for reading the ad or listening
to the message. The headline is the ad for the overall
ad. It must incorporate your company's Unique Selling
Proposition or USP. If your USP is "broad selection,"
here are some headlines you could use:
6.
We Always Have 200 Different Widgets in No Less than 15
Different Sizes and 10 Desirable Colors and With a Selection
of 20 Optional Features in Prices Ranging From $6 to $600.
or
5 Times the Selection, 4 Times the Color and Size Choice,
3 Times the Number of Convenient Locations, 2 Times the
Guarantees and Warranties, and Half the Markup of Any
Other Dealer?
If
"discount price" is your USP, or corporate advantage,
these headlines could skyrocket your sales:
7.
We Sell the Same Brands of Hardware as Company A or Company
B - at 25%-50% Less.
8.
Top Quality Widgets Usually Sell for $250 to $1,000. We
Sell Them for $95 to $395. Which Would You Rather Pay?
9.
Most Professionals Start Billing You the Moment You Walk
in Their Door. That Can Add Up to Thousands of Dollars.
At PDQ Services, Our Fee Is Always a Modest $99. No Exceptions.
No Tricks.
Here
are some very useful and effective headlines for a "service-oriented"
USP approach:
10.
When You Buy a Compact Disc From the Wherehouse or Sam
Goody, You Own That Disc, Whether You Like It or Not
When
you buy a compact disc form us, you get a 90-day, 100%
money-back guarantee, just in case it's not what the critics
made it out to be. And you get bonus credits toward any
other album, cassette or compact disc we sell for every
disc you buy and keep.
11.
If Your Car Breaks Down, We'll Tow It - FREE! (Always
use that word "free" as much as you can.")
An
added benefit of placing your car's insurance policy with
XYZ Agency.
12.
Most Locksmiths Work From 9 to 5 But Those Aren't the
Hours When You Can't Get Into Your House or Car.
ABC
Locksmith Company will send a locksmith whenever you need
one. We have 20 service people on 24-hour call, seven
days a week, 52 weeks a year - including holidays. No
extra charge.
How
about the "Snob Appeal" USP? Here's an interesting
possibility of a headline that offers snob appeal:
13.
Only 1,200 XYZ Deluxe Midas Sedans Are Produced Annually.
900
stay in Europe where they originate. Of the remaining
300, 50 go to Japan. Of the remaining 250, 100 go to Canada
and Australia. Each year, only 150 come into the United
States. Of that 150, only 20 are sent to New York - and
WE'VE GOT 15 OF THEM. We'll offer them at very fair prices
to our best customers, as long as the sedans last.
Use
your best headline (as determined by testing) in every
ad and in every letter to your prospects, customers and
past customers.
You
should also use a headline, or "mini-pitch,"
in every commercial.
What
kind of headline works best?
One
that promises the reader a large and attractive benefit.
A
headline that offers topical "news" is often
very successful. If your product or service is newsworthy,
put that special news announcement right at the top of
your ad.
If
you are promoting a product to one particular group, include
a "red flag" in your headline that will single
out these prospects.
And
remember this: Specifics outpull generalities. Personalize
a headline by singling out the city, state or group to
which it's directed.
Avoid
humor and double meaning in headlines; they waste space
and are non-productive 95% of the time.
The
key point is: The simple failure to test headlines against
each other could cost you more than half of your profit
potential.
Don't
ever run an ad without a headline. And test to see which
headline pulls best.
The Primary Viewpoint - The "Point of You" This
is a short break in the action because it is a lesson
that you already know well. But to stress its importance,
let me point this out to you: Over 1/3 of these 37 headlines
contain one of these actual words - "you," "your,"
or "yourself." Even when the pronoun is first
person singular (for example, "How I improved My
Memory in One Evening"), the reward promised is so
universally desired that it is, in effect, really saying,
"You can do it, too!" Thousands of words have
been written about the "point of you" - but
let me remind you that, given a fountain pen, 96% of 500
college women wrote their own names; 447 men out of 500
looked first for the location of their home towns! Howard
Barnes, of the American Newspaper Publisher's Association,
really was on target when he said: "To call up an
image of the reader, all you need to do is pin up a target.
Then starting at the outside, you can label his interests
in this order: the world, the United States, his home
state, his home town, and we'll lump together in the center
his family and himself
me. Myself. I come first.
I am the bulls-eye."
Here
are several more of the most successful headlines I've
used over the past 24 years of helping companies improve
their marketing leverage.
14.
Almost Everyone Has a $10,000 Idea. Here's How to Make
It Pay.
15.
Heart Attacks Can Be Foreseen From Minutes to Months in
Advance - And Prevented.
16.
An Easy Way to Change Jobs
17.
How to Increase Your Standard of Living Without Changing
Jobs
18.
Send Me to Any City in the United States. Take Away My
Wallet. Give Me $100 for Living Expenses. And in 72 Hours
I'll Buy an Excellent Piece of Real Estate Using None
of My Own Money.
(The
latter headline made a great deal of money and created
a media blitz for Robert Allen, a skilled marketing and
author who made the term "No Money Down Real Estate"
famous.)
19.
Three Powerful Reasons Why Diamond Prices Are Soaring
20.
To a $15,000 Man Who Would Like to Be making $25,000
21.
I'd Like to Give This to My Fellow Man
While I Am
Still Able to Help!
Power
Headlines Produce Powerful Results
You may find it incredible how the use of a headline
can alter the results of the entire ad or letter. I have
tracked and compared hundreds of headlines and been amazed
at the vast improvement in results that one headline can
produce over another headline. Let me illustrate this
principle here with a few real-life examples:
An
insurance company tested two headlines against each other:
22.
** What would Become of Your Wife If Something Happened
to You? and
** Retirement Income Plan
Believe
it or not, the second ad pulled 500 percent more response
than the first. It's a simple, yet effective, headline.
A
famous correspondence school tested these two headlines:
23.
** Announcing a New Course for Men Seeking Independence
in the Next Three Years
**
An Up-to-the-Minute Course to Meet Today's Problems
The
first headline (which started with that magic word "Announcing")
trounced the second headline by about 370%.
An
insurance company compared these two headlines:
**
Auto Insurance at Lower Rates if You Are a Careful Driver
** How to Turn Your Careful Driving Into Money
The
first headline was 1,200% better in testing.
I
could go on
and on! In all these cases, you would
not have known that the vast difference in results would
occur without testing first. The results are often quite
surprising.
Now,
let me get back to providing you with more of my 37 Million-Dollar
Headlines, and some explanation of what makes these headlines
effective. Now we must pause and examine one of the techniques
of writing a headline. It is called VERBALIZATION. And
it is the art of increasing the impact of a headline by
the way in which it is stated.
In
the previous sections, we have looked at what we want
to say in a headline. And now we have to determine how
to say it.
The
most obvious way, of course, is simply to state the claim
in its barest form. "Lose Weight," or "Stop
Corns," for example. And if you are the first in
your field, there is no better way.
But
where you are competitive, or where the thought is too
complicated to be stated simply and directly, then you
must reinforce that claim by binding other images to it
with the words in which you express it. This is verbalization.
And it can accomplish several different purposes.
A.
It can strengthen the claim - by enlarging upon it, by
measuring it, by making it more vivid.
B.
It can make the claim new and fresh again - by twisting
it, changing it, presenting it from a different angle,
turning it into a narration, challenging the reader with
an example.
C.
It can help the claim pull the prospect into the body
of the ad - by promising him information about it, by
questioning him, by partially revealing information.
All
of these goals are accomplished by adding variations,
enlargements or embellishments to the main headline claim
of the ad. These additional images are bound into the
main claim by the sentence structure of the headline.
They alter the main claim, to make it more effective.
There
are, of course, an infinite number of these variations
(every good copywriter invents a few himself). But there
are general patterns that most copywriters follow. Here
are some of these guideposts, for your own consideration:
Measure
the size of the claim:
24.
I am 61 Pounds Lighter by Using XYZ Product
State
the difference in the headline:
25.
The Difference in Premium Gasoline is Right in the Additives
Stress
the newness of the claim:
26.
Now! Chrome Plate Without Heat, Electricity, Machinery!
State
the claim as a question:
27.
Who Else Wants a Whiter Wash - With No Hard Work?
Turn
the claim into a challenge for the reader:
28.
Which Twin Has the Toni? And Which Has the $15 Permanent?
Challenge
the prospect's present limiting beliefs:
29.
You Are Twice as Smart as You Think
Address
your prospect directly:
30.
To the Man Who Will Settle for Nothing Less Than the Presidency
of His Firm
Address
the people who can't buy your product:
31.
If You've Already Taken Your Vacation, Don't Read This.
It'll Break Your Heart
Accuse
the claim of being too good:
32.
Is It Immoral to Make Money This Easily?
Warn
the reader about possible pitfalls if he doesn't use the
product:
33.
Don't invest one cent of your hard-earned money until
you read this guide!
State
the claim as a case history quotation:
34.
Would You Believe It - I Have a Cold!
Metaphorize
the claim:
35.
Melts Away Ugly Fat!
Measure
the speed of the claim:
37.
In Two Seconds, Bayer Aspirin Begins Relieving Pain!
Is
It New and Improved?The Headline Should Tell!This tutorial
is meant to remind you that in a great number of effective
headlines you will find the word "new" - or
a connotation of it, such as "new kind of,"
"new discovery," "new way to," etc.
Americans are partial to the new or novel; they do not
suffer from neophobia. To the average American, the mere
factor of newness seems to be prima facie evidence of
"betterness."Undeviating affection for the old
and tried may be strong in other countries; in ours, the
desire to try the new is stronger. The great achievements
of our inventors and enterprising manufacturers have trained
us to believe that if it's new, it is likely to be better.
However, the word "new" in a headline should
be backed up by copy pointing out the merits of something
really new and advantageous, not some transparently trivial
difference.
Testing
Leads to Success
Test! Test! Test! You can have far more sales, inquiries
and store traffic for the same money just by cross testing
alternative headlines, format and copy:
*
By testing different ways to say the same thing
* By trying different copy
* By testing the pull of one magazine against another
* By testing one mailing list against another
* By testing one radio time slot against another
* By testing one offer against another
* One price against another
* One guarantee against another
* One sales pitch against another
* One direct-mail package against another
If
you use a headline, or offer, or price, or guarantee,
or medium, or mailing list or sales pitch without testing
it against another version, you are denying yourself and
your company the potential of increased sales and profits
that cost no more than you are currently spending. Remember,
ads or sales letters cost the same to produce, whether
you get a 1% response or a 35% response. Now that is leverage!
It's
relatively easy to test and track ad results and to ruthlessly
leverage every marketing dollar.
Failure
to test, retest and test again is tantamount to admitting
that you aren't the businessperson you should be.
One
of my first clients, a silver and gold broker, ran a headline
to announce a new and very appealing marketing breakthrough.
Unfortunately, he never tested his headline (and, unluckily,
the headline was boring).
When
I entered the picture, I first came up with 10 different
headlines to test. One of them outpulled his headline
by more than 500%.
Instead
of spending $30,000 a month to produce $1 million in sales,
that same $30,000 started producing $50 million in gross
sales - and, at the very least, $2.5 million in additional
profits. Testing your headlines can pay handsome rewards.
So,
assuming we see eye to eye on objectives, let's now learn
how to test.
How
to Test
Let's talk once again about basic aspects of your
marketing that you should constantly be testing.
*
If you run display ads, first and foremost test your headlines
against each other with the exact same body copy.
*
Identify the best possible headline and start testing
body copy.
Test
only one variable at a time. This is the scientific principle
of control: It means isolating the variable, so that you
are sure of the source of different results. If you're
testing a guarantee, don't change the headline. If you're
comparing one price against another, don't change any
other variable.
Keyed
Response -The Key to Testing
If you have two different approaches that you're
testing, you must design your test to give you specific
results keyed to each approach. You must know which ad
each and every prospect is responding to.
You
can do this in different ways:
*
Use a coupon - a differently coded coupon for each version
of your ad.
*
Tell the prospects to specify a department number when
they call or write - (there doesn't have to be an actual
department).
*
Ask the prospect to tell you he/she heard it on radio
station WWXY in order to qualify for a discount or special
offer
*
Include a code on the mailing label returned with the
order - the code identifies the source of the label, or
the version of the ad you mailed.
*
Use different telephone numbers for respondents - each
offer is accompanied by a similar, but distinct phone
number.
*
Make different package tests and note which bonuses or
prices people ask for.
*
Have the caller ask for a specific person - (the name
can be fictitious).
You
must be able to attribute each response to one of the
approaches you are testing.
You
should also make a point of keeping meticulous track of
each response and its results: simple inquiry, sale, amount
of sale, previous customer. Keep track of every piece
of information that you need in your marketing. And be
sure to differentiate in your record keeping between responses
and actual sales. Prospects are fine, but sales are what
you are after.
Then,
when you have all the results tabulated by method "A"
or method "B," compare the two approaches and
select the better one. Then test again, using your winner
in competition with a new contestant. Always compare the
new effort against your proven winner, and look to beat
the current winner.
Direct-Mail
Testing
So far, we've talked mostly about display advertising,
but if direct mail is your preferred method, read on.
You
probably use direct mail to inspire people to:
Come
immediately into your store,
OR call your order desk,
OR send a coupon so that you can call back or send a salesman
OR send a check or charge card order.
Using
the same principle as in testing display advertising,
do an "Nth-name" A/B test. An "Nth-name"
sample is a theoretically perfect cross section of the
quality of the list you're testing.
Before
you mail to 100,000 untested people and spend $25,000
or $50,000 in postage and printing, do a 5,000 "Nth-name"
test sample of one version of your mailing piece against
another.
Test
the same mailing pieces with two different headlines.
Repeat the headline on the outside of the carrier envelope.
Try different body copy with the same headlines. Try different
orders.
Try
different physical components, along with the basic sales
letter: such as a folded "read me" note - or
an accompanying brochure - or a reply device with a postage-paid
reply number - or a coupon, etc.
Test
as many things as possible in the smallest possible arena
before you risk a big part of your advertising budget
on one expensive marketing approach to a large audience.
Why
guess what the market will welcome, or what price they're
willing to pay, when the marketplace is willing and even
eager to tell you the answer?
The
same fundamental approach applies to TV, radio commercials,
field sales, in-store ads and telephone sales as well.
Why for example, run five 60-second TV commercials each
day saying something only one way, when another presentation
of the same message might pull in many times the customers?
If you use TV, wouldn't you want to know whether showing
your product or service in use makes a difference?
Since
the cost is the same, whether that 60-second commercial
produces 10 customers, or 110, isn't it worth your while
to find out answers to questions like these?
Now,
Let's Write A Headline for Your Business
It's
easy. Get out some paper and a pencil and start by doing
the following. First, ask yourself this question. "What
are the key or primary reasons why ("reason why"
is a key recurring theme in everything I'll share with
you) your customers acquire, desire or seek your product
or service? In other words, what is the primary benefit
or advantage or value or performance, result or improvement
or reduction or avoidance or advantage they end up receiving
or getting when they use your product, service or business.
You
should have multiple answers to this question. When you
get them, rank them by the most valuable and specific
and the most frequently desired.
How
many ways can you specifically measure or compare or denominate
the effect or benefit your product or service for a customer?
Write as many as you can down on a sheet of paper.
Now
go through each one of the elements I just shared with
you and apply it by modifying it to your situation. For
example, pick out a few of the words that work wonders,
and try adding them to the result or benefit or advantage
your product or service produces. Example, how to rid
yourself of stress overnight
announcing a way to
get twice the productivity out of every hour you drive
to work. "Amazing discovery, get the job of three
people done for the cost of just one," etc.
Take
each one of these "wonder words" and try your
hand at writing a powerful headline. Do the same thing
with the tested "key word," making sure you
write each statement or cluster of thoughts down separately.
Don't
stop now - the fun has just begun.
An
important word about your return on investment.
Great
copywriters and legendary sales trainers spend days
sometimes
weeks
laboring over the details of a headline or
opening statement for an ad, letter or sale presentation.
Why?
Because
those "pros" know how much of a pay-off this
process produces.
Don't
limit yourself to creating just one single headline.
The
great masters I've learned from would write no less than
100 different approaches before they kicked out the three
to five best.
You
should not settle for anything less.
The
more headlines and opening propositions you write, the
more this mindset will become your own.
If
it's a little uncomfortable at first, that's perfectly
normal.
Try
this simple exercise if you get stuck: Ask yourself to
fill in the blank describing the most powerful result
or benefit your product produces. If you were talking
to a prospect about this result you'd be telling them
how to ______________ what? Once you fill in that blank
with the answer to the result your product or service
produces, you've written your first really good headline
- so keep going!
Stale
News to the AdvertiserMay Be Fresh News to the Reader
This is the last tutorial on headlines presented
here. Don't think because it is the last one it is of
least importance. In fact, its value becomes apparent
when you realize how many of the effective headlines employ
it. "Get news (or new value) into your headline"
is probably the best way to define it.Since you can't
pack everything into a headline, stick to your principal
appeal - but give it news value if you can. And remember
that what may be stale news to the advertiser may be fresh
news to the reader. The advertiser is, of course, thoroughly
familiar with his manufacturing methods, the ingredients
he uses, the function of the product. These topics may
have no news value for him. They may even be similar to
those of his competitors. But that is not true of the
readers of his advertisements. Something about the product
or the service it renders may be entirely new and sensationally
persuasive to the public. And the advertiser who features
it first captures its appeal for himself, regardless of
the "me too" efforts of competitors who may
have heretofore failed to capitalize upon it. Many companies
have found an element of their product or manufacturing
process, even if it was commonplace in their industry,
and produced huge advertising results by highlighting
the feature or process.
The
Power of Emulation
In the beginning, you don't have to recreate the
wheel. Merely go through each reference area, like the
headline multipliers, and the formula for creating headlines
and modify each one to your situation.
You're
ready to begin development of your first successful headline.
Read other headlines, consider your benefits, uniqueness,
and advantage, draft dozens of headline ideas, formulate
and eliminate less valuable ideas and test your best headlines.
After
you've written 25 to 50 good headlines or opening statements,
organize them the way you did the results you wrote down
in the beginning - picking out the best five that make
the advantage/result apparent to the customer.
I
guarantee you this: If you only do this with me and create
50 to 100 trial headlines and choose the best five - one
of those five will out-produce your current headline or
sales opening by 35% to 1,000% or more.
Much
luck and headline success!
Abraham
Publishing 27520 Hawthorne Blvd. Suite 263
Rolling
Hills Estates, CA 90274 310-265-1840
Website: www.abraham.com
Copyright © 1998 -2007 Success Strategies International Inc - All
rights Reserved.
34950 Hwy 58, Eugene, Oregon 97405, USA Phone: 1-541-736-9631 or
1-877-636-9631
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