Copy Writing Hints

Throughout this series of Copywriting Hints, we’ve established the fact your headline is extremely important.

I’ve recently seen this demonstrated in a split test I put together on an entry page to one of my web sites.

The highest conversion is 17.92% while the lowest conversion is 10.36% when converting visitors to subscribers. That’s huge – almost a 73% increase in result.

The main difference between the 2 versions is the headline.

So whatever you do, don’t scrimp on the size of your headlines. It’s an ad for your ad. And it needs to be Big.

Just take a look through the editorial of any of the major newspapers or magazines, and you’ll get my point.

In fact, if you really want to understand this concept then pick up a newspaper and look through it to see what captures your eye.

You’ll notice that it’s the big headlines which appeal to you. And they’re much bigger than the body copy.

I’ve seen people try and cut the cost of their ads by using a smaller headline. And that’s a big mistake.

You need to make sure your headline takes up 20 – 25% of the space of the ad.

After all, wouldn’t you rather pay the extra money to have an ad people will actually read?
It’s also important that you model what people are used to. So don’t run your headline on an angle. Don’t try and be clever. Run the ad the way people read – in a straight line, from top left to bottom right.

Following these simple steps, you should be able to increase your conversion rate considerably!

People tend to read your ads and sales letters in 2 different ways:

1. Word For Word
2. Skim through it and see if anything catches their eye

Which is the exact reason why you should incorporate at least 2 sub-headlines per page.

You see, many people will skim through your ad or sales letter because they may be short on time. But if something catches their eye, it will hook them back into your pitch.

So how do you generate sub-headlines?

Can you remember my suggestion in an earlier issue to write 30-50 headlines? Well, of course as a result of this, you can only choose 1 headline.

However, you’ll find you have created a bundle of other ones you can use as sub-headlines.

Nothing will help you understand this like an example. So let me give you one:

Recently, I created a sales letter for one of my clients.

Here’s the opening line (before the headline): Discover the fortune that lies hidden in your salary…

Here’s the headline: “Here’s A Quick And Easy Way To Get Started On YOUR Road To Real Estate Riches…”

And here are some of the sub-headlines:

• Real Estate has been responsible for more millionaires over the last 60 years than any other form of investment!
• It’s a shame for you not to create financial freedom through Real
• Estate When These People Are Doing It So Easily
• How the next 5 minutes can get you started on the road to financial freedom, so you can laugh at money worries in the years to come

Think about it. If you were flicking through a sales letter and saw the headline:

“How the next 5 minutes can get you started on the road to financial freedom, so you can laugh at money worries in the years to come…”

There’s a good chance it hook you back into the copy, isn’t there?

Now I thought of the idea for every single one of these sub-headlines while in the process of writing the main one.

So make sure you get busy writing those headlines!

I want to let you in on a ‘gold mine’ headline creation strategy which 99% of people have no idea about.

Your headline is the most important element of any advertisement, but most people don’t spend anywhere near enough time creating one.

And when you consider the fact many copywriting experts recommend you invest at least 80% of your time on the headline… you’ll understand exactly why it’s so important.

Because if the headline doesn’t grab the attention of your reader… then you can be guaranteed - nothing else will.

So how many headlines should you write?

I always recommend generating at least 30-50 headlines to grab your customer’s attention. Then choose the best of the bunch.

And how do you get ideas for headlines? The method I use is to base your headlines on proven and tested formulas.

You’ll find a bundle of these formulas in

• How To Write a Good Advertisement by Victor O. Schwab
(available from Amazon.com)

• Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples (available from
Amazon.com)

But here’s a few examples to get you started:

WARNING:

Announcing…

Who else wants…

How to…

7 good reasons why

Let’s make this practical with an example of how a mechanic could apply this to his business:

WARNING: Don’t call any other mechanic until you read this

Announcing: The mechanic that guarantees he’ll fix your car on time… or your money back

Who else wants a mechanic that specializes in fixing BMW’s (perhaps this could be used in a BMW Magazine!)

How to instantly make your car as safe as possible

7 good reasons why you should call Scott’s Mechanic’s right
now…

Remember, come up with 30-50 of your own… circle the 5 you like the best and then nut it all down to your one ultimate headline.

Hope this tip helps – there’s lots more, so stay tuned.