Copywriters - 5 Deadly Mistakes to Avoid in Your Headlines

When creating headlines for your ad copy, many home-brewed marketers make a few deadly mistakes that can make the difference between pulling customers like crazy and pushing them away.  Here are 5 mistakes to avoid when creating your headlines:

1.  The headline is simply stated as a fact, and does not create a call to action, or get the person interested in reading the copy (ex. "New and Improved Boat Wax Available starting Monday").  With people nowadays being exposed to over 8000 marketing messages per day, you have about 2 seconds to gain or lose their attention. The sole purpose of the headline is to get them interested in starting to read the copy.

2.  The headline is not tied into your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) in some way. The headline needs to have the USP integrated into it so that your entire marketing plan is built around a single theme for consistency.

3.  You are "we-we'ing" all over your headlines.  Your prospect wants to know what's in it for them. They do not care if you have been in business for 20 years or that you have the best quality in the industry, or that your recipe is top secret (ex. "We have been here since 1926"  "We want your business"  "We are the most respected doctors in the industry"). They want to know how you will solve their pain or give them pleasure. You need to focus your headlines on the prospect, use "you," not "we" when writing headlines.

4.  You have lied to them in the headline just to get attention. Do not use some outlandish headline such as "SEX!... now that I have your attention, buy my spark plugs."  The only thing you will accomplish is to get the person's valuable attention and then piss them off so they will never trust or do business with you.

5.  You are trying to be funny or cute with your headlines.  Again, people get bombarded with 8000 messages a day.  If are trying to make a joke or use words that are silly or cute in order to spark the prospects interest, the prospect will not take you seriously or trust your credibility in the rest of your copy.  Humor has a place, but not in your sales material.