If you’re intending make a single modification to boost your response rate on your website, concentrate on your headlines (you do have headlines, don’t you?).

Five times more people read your headline than than read your copy. Quite simply, a headline is…an advertisement for your copy. People won’t stop their busy lives to read your copy unless you give them a good reason to do so. So a good headline promises news with at least one benefit or more if you can give them.

Think of the last time you browsed through your local newspaper. You looked through the articles, one after another, and occasionally a headline may have caught your eye which in turn made you read the article in full.

So why did you read certain articles?

Because the headline promised news. The headline was so compelling that you were convinced that it was worth a few minutes of your time to read the copy. The headlines were powerful and important enough for you to read them. Maybe the fonts and type were appealing.

I’ve read many articles over the years that didn’t even have a headline. And that’s just ridiculous. It’s the equivalent of flushing good money right down the drain, not to mention the time it took you to write them.

Why? Because your response can increase dramatically by not only adding a headline, but by making that headline almost impossible to resist for your target market.

And those last three words are important. Your target market.

For example, take a look at the following headline:

Announcing…New marine fuel test detects microbial contamination saving money on expensive biocide treatments.

News, and a benefit.

Will that headline appeal to everyone?

No, and you don’t really care about everyone either.

But for someone who runs a fleet of ships it is especially important if it saves money on expensive biocide treatments when they are not needed.

That’s your target market, and that’s how you get them to read your article. Your headline is the way to inform them with an added benefit.

It should go without saying that when you use other successful headlines, you adapt them to your own product or service. Never copy a headline (or any other written copyrighted piece of work for that matter) word for word. Copywriters and ad agencies are notoriously famous for suing for plagiarism. And rightfully so.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010