Creating Powerful Headlines for Your Promotional Materials
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If you are like many healing professionals, you probably write your
marketing materials without really knowing what you are doing. While this may appear to save you
money in the short term, in the long run, it could actually be costing you money.
How can this be so? It is because copywriting, the science and art of writing for the purpose
of selling, is not something most healing professionals know how to do, and yet, it plays a huge
role in how people make their decisions when buying products and services.
This article discusses one aspect of effective copywriting: your opening headline--the first
words you use on any of your promotional materials. Effective headlines grab people's attention in the increasingly crowded market. Strong headlines
set your readers up to want more. They draw your prospects in and convince them to stay around and
read the rest of your copy.
Statistics vary, although some have found that about 80% of prospects will read your headlines,
but only about 20% of them will read the rest of your copy. In fact, many people will make their
decision whether or not to follow through on your offer based on the headline alone. Headlines
are seen as being the key to well
written copy so much so that experienced copywriters often spend as much time crafting a headline
as they do writing the body of the copy.
Writing an effective headline is not any easy task if you don't understand the principles
involved. Following the points below will provide you with a beginning understanding of how to
write a strong headline.
Know your Audience
Headlines that are directed towards a specific audience bring the best results. When you
understand the market you are writing for, you can pinpoint the problems, concerns and desires
they have. You are likely wasting your time and money if you gear your headline towards a general
audience, as you can't possibly address the needs and desires of everyone in a single headline.
Focus on a Core Problem or Benefit
Your potential clients are usually seeking relief for some kind of discomfort or pain.
Your headlines should show that you understand this pain. For example, if you target people
with chronic back pain, you might focus on the fact that these people feel frustrated and
fed-up with their inability to find relief, are unable to sleep
at night, are not functioning well at work, or are short tempered with family members.
Alternately, you could focus your headline on the solution your audience is seeking.
In the example of people with back pain, your headline would mention how good they could
feel after treatments with you and how this will benefit them in their lives.
Concentrate on One Idea
Once you have the core idea that you want to convey in your headline, stick with it and don't
muddle it by trying to combine other ideas. If you try to address too much, your headline will
be diluted and consequently ineffective. This can be challenging, as
you really have to commit to one area of focus and not get sidetracked by other points regardless
of how important they seem.
Make it Simple and to the Point
Your headline should get to the point immediately. Don't make your prospective clients struggle
to understand its meaning. Avoid jargon words that are used in your profession. Stick to plain,
simple language that a twelve year old can easily understand.
Make it Compelling
Your headline should compel people to want to read more of your copy. Make it exciting.
Evoke curiosity, or intrigue. When your ideal clients read your headline, they should sit up
and pay attention. Persuade them right off the bat that there is a high chance that they might
want to know more about your product or service.
Make it Believable
While you want your headline to be compelling, it's important that it's also believable. Don't make
claims that sound too good to be true or people won't take you seriously. Having said this, in my
experience, most healing professionals undersell their services and are consequently more prone to
not making their headline compelling enough, as opposed to pushing it beyond the limits of
believability.
Speak to Your Prospective Clients' Emotions
People make their buying decisions based on their emotions and then use their logic to rationalize
their decisions. Identifying the core emotions people are feeling shows that you understand them and
helps increase trust that you know what you are talking about, thus illustrating that you have some
thing to offer them.
Track Your Results
Experienced marketers test different headlines and then track the results of each one. You will
never know for sure what impact a headline will have until you test it. Once you find one that is
working, you can always improve it until you get even better results. There are many ways to test
your headlines depending on where you are using them. You can easily set up what is called a "split
test" on your website where you track the conversion rates of different headlines.
If you don't know how to set up a split test and don't want to spend the time learning how
to do this, at the very minimum, always ask your prospective clients
where they heard about you and why they called. Then make sure you track this information.
Writing strong headlines takes knowledge, practice and skill. If you feel stuck or want to get
the best results possible, hire an experienced copywriter to help write your headlines.
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