Headline Techniques

This is a guest post by Cameron Martel, the second in a series of three. The first post can be read here.

Headline Techniques

Many marketers fail because they don’t employ basic techniques in their headlines- the same techniques you are going to learn for free in just a few moments from now.

The headline is the face of your website, product, or service.  Think of it as the initial attraction that draws the attention of the visitor and transforms them from a visitor into an interested and qualified lead.  Your headline will make or break you during the crucial first few seconds where a new visitor decides whether or not they are going to read further.

Your headline is full of opportunities.  Have you ever actually sat down and honestly gave thought to what your headline has to do for your visitors? 

Your headline has to:

• Create interest in your product, service, or offer – If there is no interest there is no reason to continue reading.
  
• Develop a level of qualification for the user, and vice versa – As marketers, affiliate marketers, webmasters, and business owners, we tend to forget a key piece of the puzzle: we have to qualify ourselves to our users in the same way that they qualify themselves for us.
  
  Think of it like this: what are you so earnestly seeking online?  High-quality, qualified traffic.
  
  What is your user seeking?  Solutions that meet their immediate or future needs.  In order to determine which website, vendor, or business they will use they qualify the websites or businesses they are exposed to. 
  
• Create a compelling case for the user to continue to read your copy – Do you remember how the beginning of this document described this very section as the section where you will learn how to write “powerful and compelling” headlines?  That verbiage was chosen for a reason: it created an honest want in you to find and read this section.
  
  The same can be said for your users when they reach your website.  Ask yourself, and perhaps even your friends and colleagues, “what would I want to see in order for me to have a genuine desire to continue reading?”

Pretend you are looking to join a dating website.  Imagine what you’d be looking for in a dating site, then have a look at these headlines.  How effective or ineffective do you feel they are?

Join DATING SITE, Where Over 1,000,000 Members Have Found True Love!

Meet Local Singles on DATING SITE.  DATING SITE is Free to Try for a Limited Time!

Find Your Match at DATING SITE, Where Over 1,000,000 People Just Like You have Found Their Partners.  Read our Success Stories and Try Us for Free!

Of those headlines, which of the three did you find the most engaging?  While opinions vary, most people tend to agree that the third headline is the most effective.  Why?  Because it does what the other two fail to: it speaks to the users needs and provides an effective layer of qualification that the other two didn’t.

Once you put yourself into the mindset of your user you are able to speak to them in more effective ways.  With that in mind, what is someone looking to join a dating site seeking?  Companionship, approachability, success, affirmation of personal value, and results.  Of course that list could be wildly different depending on who you ask, but we do know one thing for sure: someone looking to join a dating website is looking to meet someone new.

With that in mind we can dissect the effectiveness of each headline.

Join DATING SITE, Where Over 1,000,000 Members Have Found True Love!

This headline is ineffective because, while showcasing the fact that DATING SITE has had success in matching couples, it doesn’t speak to the user specifically.  Instead, it sounds as if the website is bragging about its accomplishments.  The user doesn’t care about the websites accomplishments; they care about their own accomplishments.

Meet Local Singles on DATING SITE.  DATING SITE is Free to Try for a Limited Time!

This headline is ineffective because it makes DATING SITE sound expensive, and while it’s free to try for a little while, eventually the user is going to have to fork up some money to continue using it.  Why should someone get involved with a dating site for a limited time? 

Find Your Match at DATING SITE, Where Over 1,000,000 People Just Like You have Found Their Partners.  Read our Success Stories and Try Us for Free!

This headline is more effective than the other two because it uses needs-focused language (“Your match”, “Just like you”) and presents an approachable solution while simultaneously verifying past success (“Read our success stories and try us for free!”).  The user likely knows that there is some kind of cost associated with a dating website, but where this headline differs from the second headline is that this one is much more approachable in its delivery of the free trial message.

This kind of mindset can be applied to just about anything- even your pay-per-click ads!  Which one is likely more effective?

To summarize:

• Your headline is tasked with creating interest in your website, product/service, or offer.
  
• Headlines are most effective when they use messaging that speaks to your users needs.
  
• Creating interest, curiosity, or excitement in your product/service or offer will cause your users to continue to read your copy.
  
• Effective headlines use approachable language and focus on the solution your user is seeking.