Your title is the most important part of your website or any advertisement.
Here’s why: You have LESS than 10 seconds to grab your visitors’ attention and show them that you have the perfect solution to their problem. So the first thing they should see is a title that clearly states the biggest benefit your site has to offer.
If no one sees your headline, it’s unlikely they’ll see your ad. The most important element of any ad is the headline. A small change here can increase or decrease your response rate by up to 700%. For example, the red font always beats black!
Anything you say in your advertising needs to be very, very specific. A headline should talk about your customers, not you because nobody cares about your company. You need to grab people’s attention and get them to read your ad.
A headline shouldn’t try to be cute or clever, unlike agency-style advertising, it should offer a benefit, elicit an emotional reaction, or simply get people interested enough to read more. DO NOT mention the name of your company; it is a waste of space. No one cares about your company, they only care about your problems and how you can address them!
Here are some real examples:
Bad headline: New Weight Watchers diet hits shelves
Good headline: New diet burns more fat than a 98-mile run
Bad Headline: New Sydney University Study Claims 35% Of All Men Are Unfaithful
Good headline: 7 ways to know if your partner is cheating on you
Which ad is more interesting? Which catches you? The company/institution should never be in a headline.
A good place to study good ads is Cosmopolitan magazine. Cosmo editors admitted that they spend more time choosing good headlines than they do choosing the articles to include them! After all, if the magazine isn’t bought and taken off the shelf, it doesn’t matter how good the stories are! Another good resource is the headlines on the home pages of Google, Yahoo or MSN.
Here are some powerful headline strategies that also work great in newspapers, magazines, and with Google AdWords:
– Offer the highest promise of profit
– Identify your ideal prospect
– Offer news if possible
– Quick and easy fix (here’s how to break a cold)
– Ask provocative questions (Are you sick of …….)
– Make the reader feel inclined to continue reading
The Secret Publicity Formula That Always Works
Every piece of advertising, every web page, sales letter, brochure, or banner ad you send out should…MUST…include ALL of these ingredients.
– A headline that draws attention.
– Emotionally provocative benefit-driven message that establishes your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)
– A compelling call to action, offer something valuable to contact you
Not some stupid, wimpy statement like ‘please contact us for more information…’ yes, that will make them jump out of their seats and pick up the phone. Think about it!
Strangely, most advertising does not list any of these ingredients, or at best, at least one is missing! If you do NOT include all of these ingredients in all of your advertising, please send your advertising budget to a good charity where it can be useful.
Remember newspaper ad reps, yellow pages reps, advertising agencies…anyone who makes money selling advertising will do anything to convince you otherwise, after all, that’s how they get paid.