How to Instantly Double the Response of Any Ad, Letter or Web Promotion

How to Instantly Double the Response of Any Ad, Letter or Web Promotion
by David Garfinkel

Masters of marketing know a secret that most business people
don't. I'm going to share it with you now: You can go from
losing money to making money - sometimes, a *lot* of money -
just by changing a few words.

What words are those? The first words... in any letter, ad or
Web page. The words that make up the headline.

Recently I was speaking to a business group about writing killer
copy, and to make my point, I took that day's edition of USA
Today and covered up all the headlines on the front page with
inch-wide white correction tape. I asked them what was wrong
with the newspaper.

"No headlines!" they blurted out, almost all at once.

"Then why," I asked, "do so many of your ads not have
headlines?"

It's a fact: We have been conditioned to decide what to read
based on the effect a few choice words have on our thoughts and
our feelings. With books, it's often the title. With articles in
the newspaper, it's the words in a headline. With a magazine on
the newsstand, it's the headlines on the cover.

Whether you know it or not, we decide whether or not to read
ads, letters and Web pages the same way.

So, if that's the case, how do you write headlines to make
people want to read your copy, and get interested in doing
business with you?

Make your headline create a vivid picture and/or stimulate a
strong feeling.

In your business, many of your conversations are logical and
factual. That's the nature of business - and to do otherwise
would be considered "unbusinesslike."

However, about the worst thing you can do for your promotion is
to have a strictly factual, logical headline at the top of your
Web page, letter, ad, flyer or postcard. Oh yes, the headline
has to be believable and make sense. And what your headline says
has to be supported by logic and facts later in your promotion.

But remember that the purpose of your killer copy headline is to
stir the emotions of your prospect in the direction of buying
what you have to sell... and to get your prospect interested in
reading what comes next in your copy.

Here's an example for a hypothetical product that helps children
do better at school.

First, an ineffective headline:

Children who don't do well at school will have many problems
later on in their lives

Now, a more effective headline:

"Daddy! Daddy! I got straight A's!" he said proudly. Suddenly my
son's future was looking much brighter...

Notice how the first headline states a fact but does not stir
emotions in a big way. The second headline, using the same
number of words (17), conveys 1) excitement 2) pride 3) hope for
the future, and it also creates a beautiful scene in the
reader's mind of a happy parent-child situation.

Action: When you are preparing or revising a promotion, take the
time you need, or get the help you need, to write a great
headline that creates a vivid picture and stimulates strong
feelings in the mind of your prospect.

Use headlines that make your prospect instantly understand your
most important benefit.

One of my favorite pieces of advertising is a headline (and an
old slogan) for a plumbing service. I'm not that big on
plumbing, personally - it's the kind of thing you wish would
work perfectly all the time so you never have to think about it!

Why, then, am I so fond of an old plumbing headline? Because
it's a great example of making your prospect instantly aware of
the benefit of your service.

The company is Roto-Rooter.

The headline is as follows:

Call Roto-Rooter - that's the name - And away go troubles, down
the drain!

Wow - is that perfection in a couple of lines, or what? You get
1) a call to action 2) company identification and 3) a visual
description of the benefit.

That's hard to beat! If you've ever had a stopped-up drain, you
know exactly why this would be of benefit to you!

Killer Copy Point: Show your headline to people who are

unfamiliar with your product and company, but who would be good
prospects for what you are selling. See how slowly or quickly
they understand what you are saying - especially, what would be
the benefit to them. Keep rewriting your headline until these
people instantly "get it!"

Make your headline pass the "Shortcut Test"

Imagine all you were allowed to do was run your headline plus a
toll-free number... as a classified ad. Ask yourself this
question: Would it generate inquiries for you in that form?

I'll give you an example from my own business. I'm taking the
headline and subheadline from a long-copy print promotion for my
product called Killer Copy Tactics:

Money-Making Secrets Every Business Owner Needs

For years, sales copywriting experts have quietly made millions
with these little-known secrets. Now you can use this
information yourself. Call (000) 000-0000

I used this example for purposes of illustration. Read it again,
and ask yourself if these words alone, printed in the right
location, wouldn't prompt qualified prospects to call for more
information?

Killer Copy Point: Put your headline and subheadline through the
Shortcut Test. Make sure that these words alone plus a toll-free
number are likely to generate a response from qualified
prospects.

The art of writing headlines is a special skill well worth the
time and effort it takes to develop. There are many known
statistics in direct marketing that bear repeating here:

· Five times as many people read the headline as read the ad or
letter.

· Changes in headlines have produced documented increases in
sales of 200%, 500% and, in one extreme case, 1,850% more sales!

· It's a good idea to write 15 or 20 headlines for your letter
or ad, and use the "leftover" headlines as part of the selling
copy itself.

Become a student of headlines and a connoisseur of great
headlines. Collect them, think about them, practice writing
them. The reward for your efforts will show up every time you
get another order or inquiry that you never would have gotten if
you didn't make the effort!

(c) 2000 David Garfinkel. All rights reserved. David Garfinkel
is widely recognized by many "marketing gurus" as their secret
weapon. That is, he is known as "The World's Greatest
Copywriting Coach"; because, he can, like no other, teach you
how to turn words into cash. David is also the author and
narrator of Killer Copy Tactics, the Web's first and only
totally interactive audio/visual learning system for writing
killer sales copy. You can learn more about this course at

http://www.roibot.com/r_kc.cgi?R33288_bsng

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