Headlines - Discover the 3 Key Ingredients for Powerful Headlines

Headlines - Discover the 3 Key Ingredients for Powerful Headlines
By Brent Allan

All marketing and advertising pieces, whether it is an advertisement, a sales letter, or even just a business card, should have a compelling headline that catches the reader's attention and gets them to keep reading.

So, the question is, how does one create a good headline? These 3 ingredients are the keys to an effective headline.

1) The headline should focus on a single benefit.

Don't list every great feature and benefit of your product or service in your headline. The headline should spotlight one main benefit that is the main topic of the marketing piece.

Examples of effective headlines that focus on one benefit would be:

"How I made $14,000 in just 20 minutes!"

This focuses on the benefit of making money. It doesn't talk about how easy the process was, how it was fun, or anything else.

"12 Secrets every man should know about driving women crazy with desire."

The benefit of this is that men will be able to attract women.

I think you are starting to get the picture. So now let's move on to . . .

2) Headlines should target a specific market.

Who are you trying to reach with your marketing? If you say "Everybody," then you are fooling yourself and harming your marketing. No matter what your product or service, not everybody is going to care about it. If you sell fine luxury cars, is an 8 year old going to care about your advertising? Not at all. However, many smart toy companies target children during cartoons, knowing full well that those children will then pester Mom to buy them that toy. Your headline should likewise speak to a specific group.

Let's use one of the earlier examples of a targeted headline.

"12 Secrets every man should know about driving women crazy with desire."

This quite obviously is targeting men who wish to attract women. This eliminates young children and most senior citizens.

Also, keep in mind that you can target your audience simply with the choice of media you market through. If you are advertising in a magazine specifically for entrepreneurs, then your ad is already targeted, and you simply need to attract the reader's attention with a compelling benefit. However, if you are advertising in a local newspaper, then that ad could be viewed by soccer moms, business owners, police officers, airline pilots, and any number of different types of people. Of course, the group is targeted in that they are all form the local town, which may be helpful if your product or service is geographically limited. But generally, you want to target your audience more than just geographically. If you run a local daycare, you want to target parents in your local area.

3) Use keywords that attract attention.

Research shows that there are certain words that grab a person's attention. These are words that jump off a page, even if the reader is not specifically looking at them. These are words you should use in your headlines. Below is a partial list of these magnetic words:

· Free

· Secret

· Discover

· Key

· Now

· Today

· Important

· Vital

· Reveal

· New

· Improved

Again, this is only a partial list. Here is a learning exercise you can do. Grab a newspaper, flip through it fairly quickly, and see what ads and stories jump out at you. Then try to figure out why. What words in the headline seem to draw your attention?

If you include those three ingredients into your headline, then your marketing piece will have a higher likelihood of success. More prospects will be drawn to read the marketing piece, and to act upon it.

Brent Allan has been marketing his services as a professional entertainer for the past 18 years. He also has a Bachelor's Degree in Marketing. He has become an expert in regards to what works and what does not work for successfully marketing a small business.

Besides performing all over the United States, he consults with small businesses and gives presentations on such topics as marketing, personal branding, relational business, and others. He presents at sales meeting, trade shows, corporate gatherings, or any other occasion when a powerful message needs to be communicated in a meaningful way.

For more information, check out http://www.BizWarriorOnline.com

Feel free to distribute or reprint this article. However, all reprints/distribution should include the following credit at the bottom:

Brent Allan, the Biz Warrior http://www.BizWarriorOnline.com

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