The other day, a client asked me to review a direct mail piece he was sending out. His question was: “How can I tweek this to make it even better?
I’m sorry but in this case that was the wrong question. He had made the classic error I see most business owners make. It was boring. It was just a list of the things his business did and a weak offer.
But his biggest mistake was not the weak offer, it was that the copy was not interesting at all. Hardly anyone with a need for his product would be excited about calling him. There was nothing that would grab the readers attention and cause him/her to exclaim, “What is this talking about? I’ve gotta read more of this.”
If you cannot get that kind of reaction from your advertising, it will fall flat and get poor response. And at the prices we are paying for advertising these days and the poor reach that advertising media gives us, we’ve gotta make it count.
So to make it interesting, right off the bat, there must be some type of BIG interest grabbing headline specifically targeted at some specific market. It must be meaningful to the target market. It must immediately grab their attention and cause a response. For example:
How To Get a NEW ROOF And A FREE 42″ Flat Screen TV
Just In Time For The Big Game
I Really Don’t Want To Lay Off My Crew This Winter
And I Only Have 10 TVs – Call Now To Be Sure You Get Yours!
You must make it interesting even if you product is dull and boring. You must find a way to get the prospect to respond and call you. Headlines are critically important to getting your prospect to take action. Most people I see writing their first time, always use a Question for a headline. I don’t recommend that for beginners. There are good question headlines but most of the ones I see are weak and UNINTERESTING!
Try writing 20-30 different headlines and then choose the best. There is something magical that happens when you make a list of different headlines. They get better and better. Start a file on your compute listing great headlines you have seen. Keep adding to it every day and then use it as an idea starter every time you have to write a headline.
A great headline will bring you over 50% of your results. So isn’t worth the effort not to be boring?
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