Dead Ducks Can’t Quack!

CREATE A POWERFUL HEADLINE

If your sales copy has a lousy headline, it just doesn’t matter much what the rest of the message is.  A headline that doesn’t grab attention and interest makes your sales message dead on arrival - thus the title of today’s message ‘Dead Ducks Can’t Quack”.

Every part of your sales message is important. Your opening is crucial; Your presentation of product benefits; Your proof and credibility elements; The offer and premiums; Your guarantee; and of course Your closing - Asking for the sale are all critical.
But of all the things you do to produce a sale, nothing equals YOUR HEADLINE when it comes to pushing response through the roof.  

 ”Anything that is wasted effort represents wasted time. The best management of our time thus becomes linked inseparably with the best utilization of our efforts.”
~ Ted W. Engstrom

Two Reasons Headlines Are So Important:
Why are headlines so important? Two reasons:  First, your headline is the raising of the eyebrow — the whisper in the ear — the tap on the shoulder — or the blowing horn that you can’t ignore - that makes it impossible for your prospect to look at anyone’s ad but yours.  Second, your headline opens the gate to the rest of your sales copy - it is what persuades your prospect to read your sales message.  

When you study the most effective headlines ever written, you can’t help but notice that they accomplish these twin tasks by offering the reader a strong benefit in exchange for reading the sales message.  Whether explicit or implicit, shouted or whispered, the best headlines you’ll ever read - or write - will be a proposed transaction: “Read this — and this very specific, very wonderful thing will happen for you.”  

Three extremely powerful headline techniques that produce big returns are described below - perhaps your marketing efforts could benefit from some headline doctoring by better using one of these three approaches! 

1. Pure benefit headlines present only the primary practical benefit offered by the product.
While pure benefit headlines have worked very well in the past, today’s prospects are being offered identical benefits by dozens, scores, or hundreds of competing advertisers.  Unless the benefit you’re offering is truly unique - or presented in a very unique and intriguing way - you’ll need to do more than just present or imply a benefit.

Here’s how one marketer turned a benefit headline into something absolutely unique, and made his ad a must-read:
“Amazing Secret Discovered by One-Legged Golfer
Adds 50 Yards to Your Drives, Eliminates Hooks and Slices
   . and Can Slash Up to 10 Strokes From Your Game Almost Overnight” 

2. Pure emotion headlines directly address the emotional need, frustration, or fear that the product’s primary benefit addresses - only hinting at the practical benefit.

Pure emotion headlines can work very well but only when they are followed immediately with a strong presentation of the benefits that are being promised.

3. Combined benefit/emotion heads present the product’s chief benefit and either imply or state the emotional payoff for the reader.

“Laugh All The Way To The Gas Pump!
     - - - How rising gas prices can make you up to 258% richer in 2008″

How to Give Your Headline Greater Selling Power:
Regardless of whether your headline is pure benefit, pure emotion, or a combination of the two, there are several ways to give it greater selling power.  Here are a few:

Present a proposition: Great propositions make a statement that the reader already believes and tantalize him with the implications of that statement.
 ”For every illness, there is a country where it simply doesn’t exist.”

Propose a transaction: Transaction headlines add credibility to your promised benefit by disclosing that you’re asking something from the reader in return.
 ”Read This Now — Or Kiss Your Money GOODBYE!”

Use specificity to create credibility: Include specific facts or connect your headline to a current news event.
“7 ‘Bear Stearns’ Are Now Racing Toward BANKRUPTCY”

Get the prospect’s natural curiosity working for you:  Intrigue and curiosity heads tease the benefit or begin the conversation by telling a fascinating story.
 ”How I Made a Fortune With a Foolish Idea”
 
Six Key Questions to Help You Craft a Powerful Headline:
1. Does your headline offer the reader a reward for reading your sales copy?
2. What specifics could you add to make your headline more intriguing and believable?
3. Does your headline trigger a strong, actionable emotion the reader already has about the subject at hand?
4. Does your headline present a proposition that will instantly get your prospect nodding their  head?
5. Could your headline benefit from the inclusion of a proposed transaction?
6. Could you add an element of intrigue to drive the prospect into your opening copy?

DAILY PRAYER  
Lord, help us get clear on the key benefits of our products and services and to be committed to learning the craft of powerfully communicating attention getting headlines to the market that we serve.  In Jesus name, Amen.

Spend some time improving your skills at crafting powerful headlines - it will payoff big time.  Need some help  - consider buying Headline Creator Pro - downloadable software that helps you craft dozens of headlines in just a few minutes  - check it out at http://www.headlinecreatorpro.net/.