Friday, February 08, 2008
What Automotive High-Performance Marketers Ought To Know About Headlines
Automotive high-performance marketers, why do you advertise your parts? To sell more of them, no doubt. What about the headline in your ad? Is it doing its job? Does it grab readers' attention? How, you might wonder, could a headline help sell more hotrod parts? Follow along as we take a closer look at--The Headline.
Considering the cost of advertising in today's magazines, your entire ad had better do its job. But headlines, as part of the ad, are special; they're the hook that pulls readers into the body copy.
A headline has fewer than five seconds to work its magic. If it fails, the readers move on to something else. If it succeeds, it draws readers into the body copy, and they buy your products. It's not quite that simple, but you get the idea.
Take these drag racing headlines, for example:
* Give Me Three Minutes a Day and I'll Help You Lower Your ETs.
* The Lazy Racer's Way to Lower Elapsed Times
* Do You Make These Mistakes at the Starting Line?
* See How Easily You Can Lower Your Quarter-mile ETs
* Here's a Method That's Helping Drag Racers Lower Their Elapsed Times
* The Secret to Getting Lower Elapsed Times
* Who Else Wants to Cut Their ETs by a Full Second?
* How Red-lighting Made Me a Winner
Clearly, I've combined direct-response copy with drag racing and created some ridiculous headlines. But they prove my point: If you're a drag racer thumbing through a car magazine and come across one of these headlines, it would grab your attention. You'd look because you're interested in lowering your ETs.
(By the way, the direct response ads from which these headlines were taken have proved themselves to work exceptionally well, selling millions of dollars worth of merchandise over the years and turning lots of marketers into millionaires.)
But what exactly does a good headline do? Copywriter Bob Bly, in The Copywriter's Handbook, lists four different tasks that a headline can do:
1. Get attention.
2. Select the audience.
3. Deliver a complete message.
4. Draw the reader into the body copy.
Let's look at each one of these tasks individually.
Get attention: To get attention, the headline must appeal to a reader's self-interest. In the January '08 issue of Custom Classic Trucks, one headline says, "Helping Your Dreams Come True." Another ad says, "You've got the ride. We've got the parts." And yet another says, "The Choice of the Discriminating Builder!"
Offering news is another way of getting attention. In the January/February '08 issue of Street Thunder, the magazine of the National Street Machine Club, one headline says, "SEMA Best of Show," and then pictures and describes 17 new products.
Select the audience: Your headline must be geared toward the correct audience, or it won't do its job. In the March '08 Car Craft, an ad states, "Take a Kid to a Car Show," referring to adults, of course.
On the back cover of the same magazine a headline says, "I got the Pro Touring handling I've always wanted, and the 12 months of 0% financing kept the wife happy," appealing to guys who want high-performance cars and an appreciative spouse.
Deliver a complete message: The Pareto Principle says that 80 percent of people read the headline, but only 20 percent read the body copy. So, it behooves us to write headlines with as complete a message as possible rather than a partial one. In the February '08 Muscle Machine magazine, an insurance ad's headline says, "I should be guaranteed the real value of my Muscle Car if it's stolen or destroyed. We agree!"
In the September '07 Custom Classic Trucks a headline states, "CAD-Engineered For Your Year/Make/Model Truck. Get A Contemporary Stance, Superior Handling And Comfortable Ride!" Both of these headlines tell the whole story.
Drawing the reader into the body copy: To do this you must arouse readers' curiosity. For these examples, I turned to one of my writing magazines, the October '07 issue of Writer's Digest where one headline says, "[T]he 7 Habits of Successfully Published People."
This piqued my curiosity; I had to read the text to see if I had any of the seven habits. In the same magazine, another headline says, "Win $20,000 and Get Published!" Well, I was drawn to read the body copy to see how I could win that money.
This short article isn't meant to be a dissertation on how to write the best headlines. Its purpose is to let you know there's more to writing headlines that sell your products than just putting words on paper.
Remember, the principal ingredient for a successful ad is the headline. It must grab attention by doing one or more of the tasks listed above. Writing headlines is nearly a science, and testing headlines is the key. Try different headlines until you find the one that keeps readers reading.
Considering the cost of advertising in today's magazines, your entire ad had better do its job. But headlines, as part of the ad, are special; they're the hook that pulls readers into the body copy.
A headline has fewer than five seconds to work its magic. If it fails, the readers move on to something else. If it succeeds, it draws readers into the body copy, and they buy your products. It's not quite that simple, but you get the idea.
Take these drag racing headlines, for example:
* Give Me Three Minutes a Day and I'll Help You Lower Your ETs.
* The Lazy Racer's Way to Lower Elapsed Times
* Do You Make These Mistakes at the Starting Line?
* See How Easily You Can Lower Your Quarter-mile ETs
* Here's a Method That's Helping Drag Racers Lower Their Elapsed Times
* The Secret to Getting Lower Elapsed Times
* Who Else Wants to Cut Their ETs by a Full Second?
* How Red-lighting Made Me a Winner
Clearly, I've combined direct-response copy with drag racing and created some ridiculous headlines. But they prove my point: If you're a drag racer thumbing through a car magazine and come across one of these headlines, it would grab your attention. You'd look because you're interested in lowering your ETs.
(By the way, the direct response ads from which these headlines were taken have proved themselves to work exceptionally well, selling millions of dollars worth of merchandise over the years and turning lots of marketers into millionaires.)
But what exactly does a good headline do? Copywriter Bob Bly, in The Copywriter's Handbook, lists four different tasks that a headline can do:
1. Get attention.
2. Select the audience.
3. Deliver a complete message.
4. Draw the reader into the body copy.
Let's look at each one of these tasks individually.
Get attention: To get attention, the headline must appeal to a reader's self-interest. In the January '08 issue of Custom Classic Trucks, one headline says, "Helping Your Dreams Come True." Another ad says, "You've got the ride. We've got the parts." And yet another says, "The Choice of the Discriminating Builder!"
Offering news is another way of getting attention. In the January/February '08 issue of Street Thunder, the magazine of the National Street Machine Club, one headline says, "SEMA Best of Show," and then pictures and describes 17 new products.
Select the audience: Your headline must be geared toward the correct audience, or it won't do its job. In the March '08 Car Craft, an ad states, "Take a Kid to a Car Show," referring to adults, of course.
On the back cover of the same magazine a headline says, "I got the Pro Touring handling I've always wanted, and the 12 months of 0% financing kept the wife happy," appealing to guys who want high-performance cars and an appreciative spouse.
Deliver a complete message: The Pareto Principle says that 80 percent of people read the headline, but only 20 percent read the body copy. So, it behooves us to write headlines with as complete a message as possible rather than a partial one. In the February '08 Muscle Machine magazine, an insurance ad's headline says, "I should be guaranteed the real value of my Muscle Car if it's stolen or destroyed. We agree!"
In the September '07 Custom Classic Trucks a headline states, "CAD-Engineered For Your Year/Make/Model Truck. Get A Contemporary Stance, Superior Handling And Comfortable Ride!" Both of these headlines tell the whole story.
Drawing the reader into the body copy: To do this you must arouse readers' curiosity. For these examples, I turned to one of my writing magazines, the October '07 issue of Writer's Digest where one headline says, "[T]he 7 Habits of Successfully Published People."
This piqued my curiosity; I had to read the text to see if I had any of the seven habits. In the same magazine, another headline says, "Win $20,000 and Get Published!" Well, I was drawn to read the body copy to see how I could win that money.
This short article isn't meant to be a dissertation on how to write the best headlines. Its purpose is to let you know there's more to writing headlines that sell your products than just putting words on paper.
Remember, the principal ingredient for a successful ad is the headline. It must grab attention by doing one or more of the tasks listed above. Writing headlines is nearly a science, and testing headlines is the key. Try different headlines until you find the one that keeps readers reading.
# posted by Medical Information : 2:09 AM
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