Tips For Writing Headlines That Work

Are you skimping on your headline? What I mean by this is that, are you not taking your headlines as seriously as you should? The bottom line is that the bulk of your advertising success will boil down to getting your reader to stop and read your ad. And the first thing that they use to determine if your ad is relevant to them, is your headline.

Your headline needs to be able to compel your reader into reading more of your ad. Headlines tell your reader what it is that you're talking about. They won't read more into your ad if they don't think your headline is for them. So it's important that your headline has the ability to make your reader want to read more. Here's another aspect that your headline must have.

- Suspends thought

Have you searched on the internet for something and then you came across a link that looked like it was the exact thing that you were looking for? I know for me, I click on these links almost immediately, not thinking about what the entire article is all about. Your readers will do the same with your headline.

Now it's tough to create a headline like this, but you should know that it's possible. You see before your readers reach your ad, they have all kinds of thoughts in their mind. It's your headline's job to literally "change their mind". Your reader needs to stop thinking about what they were previously thinking about, and totally shift their focus on your ad.

As you can see, your headline plays a pivotal role in getting readers to stop and read the rest of your ad. I can remember that I ran an ad in a publication once, and now in hindsight... the ad was completely garbage. Yet nevertheless, I still got a few people to call and leave their contact information. The headline that I used was geared towards selling a product in my ad, instead of generating leads. If I could go back in time to redo my ad, I definitely would do it.

So what's your headline trying to do? Is it trying to sell a product? Is it geared towards generating a lead? Or do you even have a headline at all? Hopefully you do, because the headline represents over 80% of your entire ad's success. So keep this in mind.

If you can get your headline to command attention, you're almost there. You see all successful headlines have this in common: they command attention and generate response. Make sure your headline is able to do this also.

I simply can't stress how important your headline is. If you're currently running an ad but aren't satisfied with the results, consider tweaking the headline of your ad. One small headline change could mean the difference between "OK" response and world-class response. Test different headlines if your current one isn't working, and continue to run it far into the future.

Good luck with marketing and advertising your business.