Don't Give Me a Reason to Stop Reading
When you're writing a sales letter you should only reveal the product in the context of what it can do for your prospect.
It holds doubly true for the headline.
Recently a friend of mine who wants to break into copywriting sent me a headline and lead she'd written. In her headline, she made a mistake that many new to copywriting make. She mentioned the product by name.
The general rule of thumb is that you should avoid mentioning the product by name in your headline. As we both know, people don't buy products, they buy what the product will do for them.
So, instead of a headline like this …
Our "In-Home Study Program" Will Teach You How to Speak Spanish in 30 Days
Say …
Speak Spanish in Thirty Days or Less
Also don't identify what your product is in your headline. By not identifying the actual product, you make your reader curious and more likely to want to find out more.
For example, instead of …
New Pill Will Make You Look Ten Years Younger
Say …
How to Look Ten Years Younger Without Exercising or Changing Your Diet
Admittedly, this is a pretty basic example. If you tell people in your headline that what you're selling is a new pill, they'll think to themselves "A new pill? I've tried that before. It didn't work. I'm not interested."
If you just make them a promise, you force them into your copy to find out what it is they need to achieve the results you mention in the headline.
Of course there are exceptions.
For instance, if your promo is going to your client's warm market where there's a relationship already established, sometimes you can mention the product and still make it work. But even then, I'd try to avoid it if you can. Also if the main benefit you're offering your readers is a massive discount, putting that in the headline may be the way to go.
But more often than not, you should avoid mentioning the product and/or name in your headline.
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I have a question. In today's copy from virtually every niche, there is a lead-in sentence or phrase in normal font then you get the bold headline ...is this really effective?
Rich Boyd Copywriter
Rich Boyd – February 27, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Hi Rich
What you're referring to is commonly called an "eyebrow".
A good eyebrow can do a few things for you. It can pinpoint who your intended audience is - i.e. "Exclusively for Online Marketers". It can boost your letter's credibility by putting A) a testimonial in it, or B) by stating a relevant statistic. For example, this is Rebecca's online video letter eyebrow: "Research firm eMarketer reports this cutting-edge niche is expected to grow to $2.3 billion by 2011..."
It can make an announcement; add further clarification to the main headline, reinforce the main benefit and so on.
So to answer your question, is it effective? - If adding an eyebrow helps the headline perform its main task of moving the reader into the lead, then "yes" using one can be very effective. But ultimately the success of your headline still rests on the idea behind it.
John Wood – March 6, 2009 at 11:34 am