Writing a "Killer" Headline - Your Headlines Have been Killing You!
By James Ojo
Ok, you want to outsell others! You want to succeed where others are failing! You want to heap tons of money into your bank accounts after each month’s online business venture! One major powerful tool which you have been ignoring is the “KILLER” headline.
Did you know-? That your headline is much more important than the quality of your products?
That your headline will either drive people away fast from your online shop (website) or keep them there longer than they intended?
That your headlines can multiply the quantum of money coming to your bank account every month without any alteration in your product?
That your headline can make you rich or poor?
That you will continue to waste tons of money on ezine ads if your headlines are poor?
That your headlines may eventually make you a failure and close your online shop for ever?
Then what can you do to write “KILLER” headlines? That is why you are reading this article. I will now give you a step by step guideline and principles to writing “KILLER” headlines.
STEP ONE.
Take up your pen and write down the various benefits derivable from your product. Apply this principle to whichever product you are selling online. You have derived many benefits from the use the product (I guess). List these benefits down. You will need them in creating a “killer” headline for your product.
STEP TWO
What are the pains, sufferings, inconvenience that the use of your product will alleviate or remove? List them down. You need these as well. Here, you must read the minds of your prospective customers through serious brainstorming. What difficulties are they passing through that will warrant the purchase of your product?
STEP THREE.
Turn these two lists into headlines! That is the first secret that distinguishes online failures from successes. Those who fail use the description of their product for their headlines while the successful gurus use the benefits of theirs to arouse the interest of their prospective buyers. However good a product is, most people don’t buy because of the quality or perceived and relative effectiveness of the product. People only buy your product because of the benefit they will derive from such products or the pains and inconvenience it removes from them. Learn this secret fast and you are on your way up to success! Neglect this fact and you are throwing away money and you may soon call it a quit with online business.
STEP FOUR
Make your readers as curious as you can. Your headline must arouse the curiosity of your reader. He sees hundreds (if not thousands) of headlines daily. Why should he neglect others at the expense of yours? Yours must contain some elements lacking in others. While you are creating curiosity, be sure you don’t promise what you can not offer. If they eventually get to your site and discover that your product is not worth the ads, they will leave and guess who is at loss.
STEP FIVE.
Be specific and straight to the point. This is an important principle you must employ not only in your headline but in your e-mail subject line. Many online buyers have limited time to stay online daily. They want to minimize the time they spend on each website. If you tell unnecessary stories without giving them the substance of your product, they will leave and you will lose!
STEP SIX.
Test your headlines. Before you waste much money on big ads project, determine which headline will be worthwhile. Create different tracking links to your various headlines. This will help you to determine which ads are successful and which ones are not. You know how to eliminate and retain the successful and failed ones respectively.
STEP SEVEN.
In testing, there are some free ezine ads which you can use freely. Go to google, or any search engine of your choice, and search for free ezines. The requirement for most of them is free registration. Some will also allow you free subscriber ads if you join their mailing list. You must be sure that the numbers of subscribers are sufficient for your test. Alternatively, there are a bunch of ezines which charge you peanuts for the job.
STEP EIGHT.
Determine the outcome correctly and wisely. Choose about four to five most successful ezines and send each of them the same ad copy but different headlines. Determine your best headline by considering number of sales per ezine vis-?-vis the circulation of each ezine.