Grab them fast or wave goodbye

As a writer, I hate to admit this but if your headline doesn't grab the audience, they will probably never get to the body copy. 

The headline has one purpose - to grab the readers' attention and lure them into your ad, direct mail piece, article or letter.

One of the biggest mistakes some advertisers make is that their headline doesn't talk to the reader.  Remember, your ad is not about your business. It's about the customer and how your product or service can make a difference in their world.

One effective headline technique that will help you keep the customer front and center is the one/two punch. 

The headline calls attention to a problem or makes a statement.  A subhead delivers the solution.  The visual's one/two punch is based on humor and is very effective.  If humor isn't quite right, you have other options.

How about using the technique to ask and answer a question?

Headline: Tired of scrambling to make dinner after a long day at work?
Subhead: Let Mama's Cooking deliver homemade favorites right to your door!

Another reliable headline technique is to open the wound.  Let your headline expose your audiences' pain.  Appeal to their emotions so that they recognize themselves as being in need of your product or service.

Try something like:

Headline: It's 6:13 pm. Have you even thought about what's for dinner yet?

If you create a headline like this, make sure your ad's first sentence or two answers the question.  You might follow this headline with...With help from Mama's Cooking, you don't need to.  We'll deliver homemade favorites right to your door, for pennies a serving.

Considering that a strong headline can increase readership of your ad by over 50%, isn't it worth a little extra effort to make sure you are grabbing every reader you can?

Comments

[sherry borzo]

Great post Drew. Thanks for the "food" for thought. (laughing at my own funny there).

[Drew McLellan]

Sherry,

Happy to "serve up" the good eats!

Drew

[Randy]

I really like the Cheetah headline. Where can I read the rest of the page?

Seriously, I'd love to come up with something that catchy for my computer support business. Funny, grabs your attention, yet related to an advantage for using the services.

[Drew McLellan]

Randy,

I thought it was very well done too. I grabbed it just for its headline, so I don't know where you'd be able to find the whole ad.

I suppose you could try the company's official website.

Drew

[Tom Swartwood]

Great advice Drew, and not just for headlines. Use this concept to get the attention of any audience, even an audience of one. I have been struggling lately to present an investment opportunity. It's a great but not so exciting biz; I could actually feel my prospects yawning as I described it to them over thephone. So I shifted the focus to what makes it great to an investor: Company sells its product for $16,000 and it only costs $6500 to produce it. That's even better than the marketing business. Now they're listening.

[Drew McLellan]

Tom,

I think I need to talk to you about helping me change my pricing strategy!

But we agree-- you start the conversation from their POV and suddenly you are interesting.

Drew