Advertising Advice
|
Advertising Advice | |
|
|
| • Site Map • Site Home Related Sites >Traffic-Reach - Unlimited Quality Traffic - On Demand • SmartAuctioning.com • Forward Productions SitesMap • Join Our Links Directory! | ||||||||||||||||||||
 |
Testing HeadlinesA correspondent to AdBriefing, my monthly newsletter, has posed a very sticky question. How, she asks, can you tell whether a headline you have written is a good one? or not? What she means by this, I imagine, is whether the headline will actually help to make sales, rather than just act as a passing amusement to its readers. The latter precept, that a headline should actually try to sell something, is not as universally known as it might be. The vast proportion of headlines actually say nothing whatsoever about the product and the benefits of owning it. And the reason for this is that good, selling headlines are not easy to write. So the majority of so-called copywriters take the easy route and produce something which they think is humorous or eye-catching and hope that this will do the job. That it won't and doesn't can be witnessed day in and day out in press ads, brochures and websites worldwide. But I digress. There is sadly no absolute test that a headline will do the job it is paid to do. If there were, we benighted copywriters would be earning ten times what we are earning now, on the grounds that our work would be foolproof. Every headline we conceived would be irresistible; and products would move off shelves like Spring snow off a dyke. But there is a test - a very good and worthwhile test - that you can apply to any headline you create. I call it the 'So What? ' test. Allow me to give you an example of 'So What? ' in action. If you produce a headline that says: Our Widget works twice as fast as any other Widget, and then ask yourself 'So What? ', it immediately becomes clear that the line is bereft of a sales proposition. Because there is no obvious benefit to the potential customer. On the other hand, if you write: Our Widget works twice as fast, so you do the job in half the time, then the 'So What? ' has been answered. Your customer can cut his production time by 50%. Likewise, were you to write: Our Widget is so small, it fits into the palm of your hand, you simply invoke 'So What? '. Which results in: Our Widget fits into the palm of your hand, so it goes wherever you go. In this case, the benefit is portability. You can use it anywhere. Over the years, I have found the 'So What? ' test to be invaluable. You might care to give it a try yourself. And on the subject of headlines consider this. When trying to write a headline many people tend to go off half-cocked. They consider the marketing brief, then bash down a headline or two to satisfy it. After that, they write the body copy. Experience shows, however, that if you write the body copy first, the odds are that there will be the makings of a headline within it struggling to get out. Body copy is, or should be, a carefully worked and logical encapsulation of the marketing brief. In other words, the whys, the wherefores and the benefits of owning the product or service. It makes sense, then, that if it is properly written, there is a very real chance of finding an embryo headline lurking within it. Why not give it a whirl? You may be agreeably surprised. Patrick Quinn is an award winning copywriter with 40 years' experience of the advertising business in London, Miami, Dublin and Edinburgh. He publishes a FREE monthly newsletter, AdBriefing. Subscriptions are available at: http://www. Adbriefing.com
Help keep Advertising Advice available by donating any amount.
MORE RESOURCES:
Advertising - Google News | | | | RELATED ARTICLES Outdoor Sign Many business organizations that needs to disseminate late-breaking information to a large number of people. Out door sign boards are the perfect solution for them that command the attention of all who pass underneath. Marketing Lessons I Learned in Chicago this Week... I was in the fine city of Chicago this week to speak at a marketing conference. And I learned some interesting things:1 - Traffic in Chicago is much worse than the allegedly bad traffic in Atlanta where I live. Seven Ways to Kick Up the Power of Your Print Advertising - More Small Business Power Tools If you're a retailer and the only kind of advertising you do is built around sales events, you don't need much in the way of advice. All your advertising needs to do is spell out as clearly as possible what's on sale, the amount to be saved and your store's name, address and phone number. You should also include your web address as most of today's consumers expect you to have one. But what if you're not a retailer or you don't have a sale to advertise? Where's Me Pot of Gold and Lucky Charms? We already know this from our history books. If you want to make money today, you must first look back in time to the first time in history that a large portion of our country all tried to get rich at the same time in the same place. Vinyl Banners for the Right Occasion The sinage marketplace is competitive! Consequently, some companies are going to focus on price and neglect quality. To complicate the situation, companies that produce stock vinyl banner material offer a bevy of different materials based on weights/thickness, color, reflective properties, ink absorption properties, etc. How To Make Your Resource Box Sell Ezine Articles - they're everywhere! And little wonder. They're one of the fastest ways of building traffic to your website. Avoid The Big Advertising Mistakes Is your advertising copy getting the results you want? If not, look at your current marketing to see if you're making one of the major copywriting mistakes: Selling features instead of benefits. Telling your customer that your "fabulous new ALF-400 comes complete with AeroScan and BandControl technologies!" doesn't actually tell them anything. 10 Ways to Advertise Your Business For Free! At some point many small business owners are left with no or a small amount of capital to promote their business. But many entrepreneurs utilize these free or low budget yet effective tactics to promote their business online and offline. How To Tame The Buying Beast Inside Your Customer What if you can understand and control your customer's mind? What if you can influence, persuade and motivate your customers to buy from you? Well, I'm not talking about a magic trick or lay down a lesson of motivation. It's about understanding the different reactions made by the human mind in various situations. How To Write Super-Effective Ads and Sales Letters! "The more things change, the more they stay the same". That saying couldn't be more true, especially when it comes to writing ads and sales letters. Customer-Involving Signage and Selling Here are some easy ways to create signage that will attract, not annoy customers (and local government agencies that regulate signage):1. Since movement always attracts attention, any banner, sign set of a pole that might move with the wind or electrically-turned sign will stand out from the static messages around it. Offline Advertising Secrets: Using Offline Advertising to Get the Most from Your Name Squeeze Page Many people online are not using one of the best advertising methods around. I'm talking about offline print advertising. Advertainment is Sneaking Into Music, Movies, TV and More The very name "advertainment" sends thrilling vibrations up the spine of anyone with marketing in their blood or communication in their genes. And it produces a strong shiver of disgust from many of my colleagues in the music industry. How To Create Instantly Compelling Ads Every Time Use This Quick 3-Question Evaluation Process, So You Can Be Sure Your Message Will Sell! EVALUATION #1: "Well, I Would Hope So!" When you make a claim, don't think about it in terms of words coming out of your mouth. Think of it in terms of words entering your prospect's ears. Radio Interview 101 Different Types of Station Contact - Reaching radio hosts (for the purpose of trying to get booked for an interview) can take on various forms, depending on the type of station the show is done at. What's best? All of them at the same time, of course. Why Not Use the Humble Fax in Your Advertising Strategy? When my daughter complained recently about the prohibitive cost of news media advertising, we had a discussion about the ways in which she could sell her range of body products (hand creams, lip balms etc). I explained to her that huge firms like K Mart wouldn't spend millions of dollars annually for advertising if it wasn't necessary. Create Your Dynamic Elevator Speech So, what's an elevator speech, and how do you get one? What Is It? An elevator speech is a short (15-30 second, 150 word) sound bite that succinctly and memorably introduces you. It spotlights your uniqueness. Giorgio Armani: A Persuasive Campaign Lets examine the use of Giorgio Armani Company's advertisements for a persuasive campaign. My reasoning is because the company is separated into several different divisions, while each tries to sell their product, the advertisements must maintain an overall company image. A $40 Million Dollar Little Known Referral Strategy Would you like to know how a car wash chain with only 12 locations has cleaned over 33,373,975 cars and has an annual revenue of over $40 Million (that is not a misprint) using little to no paid advertising? Well, sit forward because I'm about to tell you. The company name is "Car Spa" and here's how I discovered their brutally effective referral strategy. How To Make Your Advertising Work! Many believe that when it comes to advertising, it's a necessary evil. At least that's how some businesses approach it. | |||||||||||||||
| Site Map • Site Home Related Sites >Traffic-Reach - Unlimited Quality Traffic - On Demand • SmartAuctioning.com • Forward Productions SitesMap • Join Our Links Directory! |
|
|
| © 2006 Forward Productions |
