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You have two seconds to get all
you want from your Classified Ad and this lies in your headline. Your
headline will get people to read further and click, sign up, order,
register, subscribe, or take action that eventually leads to a sale.
Knowing this as fact, if you had just two seconds to seize everything
you've ever wanted in sales, would you know what to write?
Most of us would not. Skillful writers or
wordsmiths hold the real power in sales. They are the speechwriters,
journalists, novelists, advertising copywriters and the like. And if we
had one at our beck and call, we might submit our barely breathing
headlines and watch as they perform open heart surgery by merely
changing some of our words.
People are moved by words; poets have
known this for centuries. Certain phrases or words create strong mental
pictures in our minds. Mentally we are always busy. We never stop
thinking even in sleep. If you raise a question with your headlines that
drives your reader to look for the answer, then you're going to get them
to read the body of your copy.
It's not the product or service that
inspires the customer's desire for it. Rather it's the anticipation, the
feeling that they will experience as a result of owning it. Therefore,
stop describing all the wonderful features. Instead paint a mental
picture of how their life will change once they have the benefit of using
it.
Campbell Soup gave us a simple mental
image with, "Mmm mm good", That mental image has worked for millions of
buyers. Avis convinces us "We try harder" so when we think of renting a
car, we first think of Avis. I know many guys who only wear Levi jeans
and in particular "501 Blues". Wendy's tells us it's okay to be square.
These are the mental images that endure.
Someone once coined the phrase "sell the
sizzle, not the steak"; a great example of mental imaging. If you're not
advertising a mental image, you probably have a barely-breathing
headline. It matters little how grand the text of the ad is, no one will
get that far. In simple math -- you lose 10 to 100 times the cost of
your product in the time you spend creating your headline.
Do You Make These Mistakes in
English? Here's a title that offers a direct challenge. The hook
is in the word "these" and it compels you to investigate. Do I make
these mistakes you might ask yourself? And if so, there seems to be a
promise of help if you do. Eliminating the word "these" would not force
a reader to inquire further.
Compare these two headlines for appeal --
We'll Help You Make More Money or
We'll Help Pay
Your Rent. The lesson here is the magnetic use of the specific.
A monthly obligation is fixed and distinct in the mind. "More Money" is
just too general.
"Free" is, of course, a rather trite and
moss-covered word. Yet no one has come up with a substitute for it that
is equally as strong or less blatant. It still works for virtually
everyone, but if you are aiming at professional or more affluent
prospects you might think of replacing it with "complimentary".
Each day we are subjected to hundreds of
ads on television, billboards, store fronts, and just about everywhere we
turn. Ad agencies refer to this continual rush of advertising as
"noise". Small wonder we have become immune to advertising. The only
ones we take particular interest in are the ones that rise above the
"noise". Many do this with comedy.
David Ogilvy will be best
remembered for his famous Rolls Royce copy:
At 60 miles per hour
the loudest noise in the new Rolls Royce comes from the electric clock".
Notice that a long headline that really says something is much, much
better than a short headline that says nothing.
Incidentally, when engineers back at the
Rolls Royce factory read Ogilvy's copy, their response was: "We really
must do something about that darn clock".
© 2005 Esther Smith
About
the Author: Smith has published numerous articles and writes a blog for
all artists:
http://the-self-taught-artist.com/blog.html
She also coaches new students on how to leave the time-for-money trap and set up
Leveraged Income for life.
http://thepermanentventure.com/dcc.htm If you can’t sing or ride a
bull, you better learn how to make your money work for more money. |