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10 Easy Steps to Creating Headlines People Will Read

Friday, June 19th, 2009

Learn how to make your marketing headlines shine with these 10 simple steps.

Writing Headlines Do your headlines lack “oomph”?

Headlines are what motivate a reader to look at the rest of the copy. Thus, headlines demand more attention and more energy than other forms of print copy.

So what do profitable headlines look like? They grab the reader’s attention, fix a problem or deliver them something they desire.

Here are some tips for building headlines that work:

1. Give them a number

Just as I did here. A number represents a clear message that will be easy to read and easy to follow.

2. Motivate to take action

Give them a call to action and give a sense of urgency.

Examples:

Don’t Miss Out! Call Now!
I’ll Only Help 100, So Act Now!

3. Speak to their emotions

Emotions alone can persuade someone to take out their credit card. If you’re headline is strong enough, it will lead them to read more, which will hopefully ultimately lead to the “I really want that!”

Examples:

Make Memories to Last a Lifetime
How to Make a Difference in Your Community

4. Minimize risk

This is giving them the encouragement to give you a try, while also overcoming possible objections they may have.

Examples:

No Obligation to Try!
We’ll Buy it Back From You if You’re Not Satisfied!

5. Tell them the benefit

Readers need to notice your headline to begin with, and then they will want to know what’s in it for them. Being clear about the advantage should get that point across.

Examples:

How to Double Your Site Traffic Now!
How You Can Make Real Money in the Stock Market

6. Be the fixer-upper

We all have things we would like to change about ourselves or have things we would like to have. Show readers in the headline you are here to provide the solution.

Examples:

Drive a Car YOU Can Be Proud Of
It’s Time You Took the Vacation You Deserve

Pointing out what their problem or fault is can be another effective way of using this technique.

Examples:

Get Rid of Bad Skin Once and For All
Stop Worrying About Your House Not Being Secure

7. Tell them a secret

We are all naturally curious and want to know something others may not know.

Examples:

The Secrets to Selling Success
Learn the Secrets of Looking Younger

8. Give away a freebie

It will need to be of value to the customer of course, but offering something free will give them the opportunity to see what you’re all about.

Examples:

Act Now and Get Our Free Report!
Free Guide on How to Be Promoted in 30 Days

9. Speak in their language

Avoid using jargon. You want to keep it simple and use words your customer will understand. If a word would need to be explained to most people, delete it.

Examples:

What Everyone Should Know About Setting Up a Website
Sell Your Stocks While the Time is Right

10. Don’t forget spell-check!

No matter how many spelling bees you won as a kid, do yourself a favor and don’t forgo using spell-check. I once saw a sign on a shop that said, “Bussiness For Sale.” Although a different form of marketing, the question remains the same: would you buy from him?

Tags: Ad Copy, Ad Copywriting, Copywriting, Headlines, Web Copy, Writing
Posted in Copywriting | No Comments »

7 Landing Page Conversion Killers

Thursday, April 9th, 2009

Bob Regnerus, author of “Big Ticket eCommerce,” reveals the seven deadly mistakes that marketers make with landing pages.

There are seven copywriting mistakes that can kill the conversation on your landing page, causing your visitors to lose interest in what you’re saying and leave the page without taking the action you want them to take. Hopefully, your landing page isn’t making all seven of these mistakes, but you’ll probably see one or two things that look familiar. Remember, the more you improve your landing page, the more sales leads you’ll get out of it.

Conversation Killer #1 is putting anything above the headline on your landing page. No matter how pretty your page header looks, leave it off your landing page. It will draw attention away from the headline, which will decrease your headline’s chances of pulling a visitor down the page. This may be hard to believe, but your customers do not actually care about your name, your logo, or your slogan. They’ve seen them before, and they don’t need to see them again before they decide whether or not to accept the offer you’re making on your landing page.

This probably goes without saying, but even if you’ve sold advertising space on other pages on your site, never put someone else’s banner ad at the top of your landing page.

Conversion Killer #2 is a failure to tell the whole story. When I say “whole story” here, I don’t mean your landing page should include everything you put on the rest of your site or in your sales letters. I mean that it should provide enough information to make your visitors feel comfortable about opting in and accepting the offer that you make on the page. Remember that some of your visitors may not be very familiar with you even though they’re on your landing page, so don’t take shortcuts in your copywriting—be clear, informative, and convincing.

Conversion Killer #3 is too much blank space. A cluttered or overcrowded landing page will drive visitors away, and a landing page with too much white space will do exactly the same thing. Your page should be laid out in a way that leads the visitor smoothly down from the headline to the sub-headline to the main text. Large gaps or empty spaces can interrupt the flow of ideas.

If your landing page has a lot of blank space, especially above the fold (meaning on the first screen that a visitor sees before they start scrolling down) you’re doing one of two things: either you’re leaving out information that would make your offer more appealing, or you’re using a page design which puts text in the wrong places or uses font sizes that are too small.

Conversion Killer #4 is shortcuts. I don’t mean the good kind of shortcuts, which make your site easier to navigate. I mean shortcuts that might save you a little time or effort when you’re building your landing page, but will come back to haunt you when the page is up and running. Your landing page will only meet its objective if it has everything it needs to succeed. I go into more detail on this in “11 Building Blocks For Landing Page Copy,” but I’ll give you the short list here. Your landing page MUST HAVE a good headline, good cosmetics, an air of credibility, an appealing offer, an effective closing, and it must tell your story. If you omit any one of those elements, you will not see the results you want.

Conversion Killer #5 is too much “me,” not enough “you.” Print out the text on your landing page, and circle each instance of the words “I,” “me,” and “we.” Each one of those words is a conversation killer. I can’t say this strongly enough—your sales prospects do not care about you. They want to know what they stand to gain by doing business with you, and that’s the question you need to answer. The more you can shift the focus to your prospects, the more likely it is that they’ll respond to your offer.

Conversion Killer #6 is not talking about what to do next. Your landing page might look good, and it might do a good job of capturing your prospects’ attention and getting them to read everything on the page, but if you don’t tell them, very simply, what you want them to do when they’re done reading, they probably won’t do anything at all. Tell them what they need to do to get the benefit that you’re offering, and if you can, use an arrow to point them in the right direction on the screen.

Conversion Killer #7 is being boring. Boring web pages don’t last long on anyone’s computer screen. You’ve already put a lot of effort into driving traffic to your landing page, so don’t forget to follow through and give your visitors something interesting to read. Of course, using dull copy is never a good idea, whether it’s on a web page, a sales letter, or anything else. On a landing page, though, where you’re looking to elicit immediate action, dull copy is an absolute killer.

Bob Regnerus is the creator of the Big Ticket eCommerce System™, a four-step process that helps businesses with complex or high-priced products and services maximize their sales using the internet. Utilizing the proven methods of this system, he has created thousands of websites, attracted more than 35 million website visitors and generated 2.2 million leads for clients in more than 30 industries. Visit www.bigticketecommerce.com.

Tags: Big Ticket eCommerce System, Bob Regnerus, Conversion Rate Improvements, Copywriting Mistakes, Landing Page Copy, Landing Pages, Website Design
Posted in Conversion Rate Improvements, Copywriting, Guest Articles | 4 Comments »

10 Things Buyers Hate

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

Here are 10 things companies can do that prospects and buyers really hate.

Angry Customer #1: Claim that no competition exists.

Competitive products and services exist in nearly every industry. Rarely does a product or service have zero competition.

#2: Claim that their product is the next big thing.

It’s great to be enthusiastic. However buyers react best to realistic claims they can believe. Expect them to be skeptical when you tell them that your new air conditioning unit will make the cows in the barn produce more milk.

#3: Talk about the high demand for their product or service.

Buyers simply don’t care about the demand for your product UNTIL they decide they need it. Even then, the demand for the product doesn’t carry much weight and will rarely influence the buyer’s decision regarding which company they’ll do business with, although it may impact how much they will buy.

#4: Push products or services that simply aren’t right for the prospect.

Companies that push products or services that aren’t needed by the prospect waste time. It’s not wise to push snow blowers on people that live in Phoenix, as an example.

#5: Correspondence that’s not addressed to a particular person.

Don’t address ANY correspondence to “owner” or “occupant.” It’s impersonal and makes your communication looks like a form letter sent off to anyone and everyone you could think of or afford to send it to. Use personalization and watch results soar.

#6: Call constantly, be demanding and don’t let up.

It makes no sense to put undue pressure on prospects. You can be reasonable, patient and understanding WITHOUT being a pushover or wasting your time. The prospect understands that the deal is important to you…you need to understand the prospect’s schedule and act accordingly.

#7: Trying to be funny and cute, instead of direct and straightforward.

With pets, cuteness can be adorable. And who doesn’t love a good comedian? For companies though cuteness and humor rarely work; in fact, it usually becomes irritating. Buyers don’t have time for that crap and, if you were any good at it, you’d most likely be on-stage instead of selling. Buyers want to know how you can help them solve their needs and/or problems and they want to know why you are the perfect company to work with. And here’s the crucial part: buyers are busy and want you to get to the point, correctly and quickly.

#8: Being deceptive when trying to gain an appointment or information.

Attract interest in your services in an honest fashion. Don’t be deceptive when trying to gain an appointment. A pet peeve of most buyers is those companies that feign interest in their services only to attempt to switch gears and pitch theirs.

#9: Displaying a superior or bad attitude.

Acting as if a prospect must give you their attention is a real turnoff to most. Believing that you are entitled to a sale is the wrong approach to take. Be polite, show proper respect and focus on the customer’s issues, not your own.

#10: Talking like a salesperson, rather than just a normal person.

Buyers aren’t impressed with your fancy jargon that you assume they understand. They don’t care about your company mission statements, the “skill sets” of your team, your “balanced scorecard” or your Six Sigma initiatives. Buyers want to know how you can help them in plain and simple English (and increasingly in Spanish). Don’t try to impress them with your Tom Hopkins inspired sales techniques, your alternate choice questioning or any other of a myriad of sales techniques. Try acting like one person trying to help and understand another. You’ll be amazed at the positives that come from such an approach.

We’re quite confident that there are more than just 10 things companies do that buyers hate. We invite you to leave a comment with your favorite things to hate as a buyer.

Tags: Copywriting, Customer Relationships, eCommerce, Online Selling, Selling Mistakes
Posted in Copywriting, Online Marketing, eCommerce Marketing | No Comments »

Writing Product Descriptions for eCommerce Success

Monday, November 24th, 2008

How to write compelling product descriptions that increase your search engine rankings and improve your conversion rates.

As anyone worth their salt in the eCommerce industry knows, differentiating your company from the competition is essential. Be it competitive pricing, excellent customer service, special promotions, or a unique niche, your company must aim to gain a unique competitive advantage to outsell your competition. However, despite most companies’ efforts to be unique, many eCommerce sites seem to conform where they really have the chance to shine…in their product descriptions.

It’s too easy to just grab production descriptions directly from the manufacturer’s website and stick them on your site, especially if you have a large inventory. In fact, it’s so easy that most of your competitors are already doing it! After all, who wants to spend all of that time writing product descriptions when there are so many things that need to be done?

The answer is anyone who wants to increase their search engine rankings, up their conversion rate, and most importantly raise their bottom line. Here is why writing your own product descriptions will benefit your eCommerce business:

Unique product descriptions help your natural search engine rankings. Search engines like seeing unique content. If your site has the same descriptions as five others then chances are your site won’t be ranked nearly as high as if your descriptions were unique. By writing your own descriptions you also get the chance to include keywords which will help further improve your rankings.
Writing good product descriptions can increase your sales. Chances are stock descriptions will get mediocre results. You can use what you already know about your customers to write eye catching descriptions that make more people likely to buy your products.

Hopefully higher conversion rates and better search engine rankings are enough to convince you that writing your own product descriptions is more than worth the time it takes to write them. Here is how you can write some really compelling copy for your products:

Write short and concise descriptions. There is no need to write an essay about each product write a short, enthusiastic paragraph that gets visitors wanting to buy today.
Make your product special. Explain exactly what the features of your product are from the perspective of “what can this product do for me?”
Aim to inform. Rather than a straight sales pitch, tell customers how the product can be used or provide handy tips and recipes for getting the most out of a product.
Use your keywords for high search engine rankings. Hopefully you are already targeting keywords where you want to be ranked highly. Use these words in your product title and descriptions and watch as your rankings soar.

Depending on how many products your eCommerce company sells you might consider getting outside help to write up all of your descriptions. Luckily, as long as you follow the above rules anyone should be able to write excellent product descriptions and start seeing results right away.

Tags: Competitive Advantage, Copywriting, eCommerce, Online Marketing, Online Selling, Product Descriptions, Search Engine Optimization, Search engine rankings, SEO
Posted in Copywriting, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, eCommerce Marketing | No Comments »

Differentiate Your Business From Your Competition And You Can Dominate Your Market

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

How to differentiate your company from your competitors by using the right marketing message.

By RSS Ray

There are very few industries where the product or service is so unique that there is only ONE place or company to get it from. There may be a few, but the list is very short.

For the rest of us, competition from businesses that supply similar products and services is part of our daily business lives. The more popular the product or service, the more competition there is. Sometimes this is geographically dictated; where I live in the desert southwest, there are literally hundreds of swimming pool builders and air conditioning companies to choose from, but very few places that sell skiing or snow removal equipment. In the northern parts of the country, I’m sure the opposite is true.

So in the face of all this competition, how can you grow your business? You must learn to differentiate your company and communicate those differences to your target market.

As an internet marketing and SEO consultant, the most common thing I encounter working with companies that want to sell more at higher margins is that they fail to differentiate themselves from others in ways that customers are willing to pay for. Even the businesses that try often go about it the wrong way and fail. The end result of this is that consumers think about your product or service as a commodity, and when that happens, lowest price becomes the overriding concern. That is the worst thing that can happen if you want to grow your business and produce higher margins.

Here is one of the essential truths about lowest price businesses:

If you try to promote your business by lowest price, you will go broke; there is always someone who will sell for less. You cannot make sufficient margins with a lowest price strategy to pay your bills and stay in business.

So we, as marketers and business owners need to help customers see distinct differences in our businesses to grow sales, and sell at higher margins. There is a formal term for this, it’s called “points of differentiation” and understanding this is key to being able to make prospects and customers choose you over all of your competitors.

Knowing how to do this is crucial. Companies that make an attempt to differentiate themselves from others often do so in ways that will never accomplish that objective. As an example, they use terms like…..

Family owned and operated
Fast and friendly service
Best team in (fill in the blank)
Your friend in the (fill in the industry)
Our service is the best

I’m sure there are lots of others you can think of. Just cruise the web or Yellow Pages and you will see as many of these as you want. The problem with these claims is that your competitor can easily say the same things, leaving it up to the subjective opinion of the consumer (or lowest price!!) from which to make his or her buying decision.

The other point is that many of these claims, when you look at them closely are often not true! Especially with businesses that make claims about superior service. This is something that I see often with real estate agents, all of whom claim to give superior service. In fact, they will list your home, sell you a home, market your property, and present you with offers. They do not mow your lawn, do your shopping, or baby sit your kids. They do what every other agent in town does, so claims of superior service are meaningless at best.

Can you imagine this conversation? “Honey, let’s list our home with this agent because she says she gives superior service”. People who want to sell their home want the highest possible price they can get and in the shortest time imaginable. If that agent’s advertising said “I’ll sell your home in thirty days or less at the list price or you can cancel your contract with me and we part friends” they would have a MUCH better chance of getting the business.

Suppose you are in the air conditioning business. On a hot summer day when your customer’s air conditioner doesn’t work, will they be motivated to call you because you are family owned and operated or will they call you because you promise total home comfort TODAY, or they don’t pay you a penny?

This shows you that when you market your business, you need to talk about how you solve problems and fill needs better than anyone else. Think about what your customer is looking for when they go on the internet to find your product or service. Understanding what they want or need, supported by performance guarantees and testimonials, free trials, or free consumer reports are the ways to provide points of differentiation.

Focus on things that other businesses can’t say ‘me too’ or are not subject to interpretation. These are the ideal things to feature in your marketing if and only if they bring real value that people will pay for.

Here are some examples:

Same day service, instead of ‘fastest service in the city’
30 minutes or less or it’s FREE, instead of ‘fast delivery’
All our instructors are past PGA tour pros instead of ‘best instructors in town’
7000 cars in stock give you the widest selection in the city, instead of ‘see our huge selection of cars and trucks’

There is one other thing to check before you decide to make a claim in your advertising. Can it pass the “I would hope so test”? What is this? It’s when you state the obvious, as in these examples:

When an auto repair shop claims “We have the equipment and training to diagnose and repair all problems” ……. You think, well, I would hope so! That’s what you do, isn’t it?

When and office supply store claims that they have hundreds of the most common office supplies in stock….Well, I would hope so, that’s what your business is about, isn’t it?

If a web design company tells you that they have the training and people to help you have website of your own……Well, I would hope so! That’s what web design companies do, right?

You get the idea; focus on the specifics that differentiate your business keeping in mind how this will affect the decision of the consumer, and avoid all obvious and meaningless things you will see being used by your competitors. You are not your customer; so you must spend time thinking about your business from their prospective and why they should choose you over all the other options including doing nothing at all. Once you have done this and communicate these points of differentiation in all your marketing, you will get more customers, more revenue and profit, and in time dominate your market.

If you need help creating the right marketing communication for your company RSS Ray can help. Contact us today by filling out our privacy assured online form or by calling (877) 837-8803.

Tags: Competition, Copy Writing, Marketing Communication, Marketing Message
Posted in Business Building, Copywriting | 1 Comment »

Where do you start when writing copy? A simple answer that eludes the best of us:

Friday, January 26th, 2007

Wednesday’s guest David Garfinkel just sent us this fascinating article he recently wrote on copy writing. Check it out:

Where do you start when you are writing your copy? A surprisingly simple answer that often eludes even the best of us:

It’s the question that’s on everyone’s mind when they sit down to write copy: “Where do I start?”

The answer is simple… but even when you understand it, this little bit of simplicity can easily escape you.

For our answer, I turn to page 70 of Vic Schwab’s classic book “How to Write a Good Advertisement.” The master writes:

“… newspaper writers have a saying: ‘Start where the reader is.’”

That’s funny. My mother, a retired social worker, says that social workers have a saying: ‘Start where the client is.’

And so it is for coaches, psychotherapists, lawyers, doctors, and any number of other professionals who have to reach people and guide them on a path to a better place.

It’s the answer for copywriters, too. But how often do we forget to do this?

Persuasion of the Spoken Variety

I’m planning an article on persuasive public speaking, and I was discussing it the other day with my good friend and colleague Jim Van Wyck. The article will have a five-point formula for making your case to an audience.

The first step of the formula is a speaker’s version of the concept: “Start where they are.” I ran it by Jim and asked him if it was too basic, too obvious… just too much old news.

“David,” he said, with a pregnant pause I have come to learn means something profound is ahead, “how many people start where their listener is… ever?”

How many, indeed?

The question stopped me cold. I didn’t know. When I thought about it, I realized the answer was “few to none.” I knew my article was on track.

Why Is This So Hard To Do?

You’ve probably heard of my good friend Joe Vitale as a famous author, but some of us know Joe is also a terrific and highly accomplished copywriter.

He has a pithy and profitable saying he uses when talking about copywriting: “Get out of your own ego, and into your customer’s ego.”

I think that nails it pretty well. It’s so easy to be concerned about what’s important to YOU, and in the heat of the moment assume the same thing is important to your customer (when almost always it’s NOT)…

… and when you do this, you can easily (and mistakenly) assume your customer is starting in the same place, mentally, that you are… and end up writing copy that misses the mark by a country mile.

The Case of the Revised Contract

Just this evening I was talking to my book publisher David Hancock of Morgan James Publishing. He casually mentioned that he had been keeping track of the questions his authors kept asking over and over again about his publishing contract, and he had his lawyer rewrite the contract… brace yourself here… in PLAIN ENGLISH… to address those questions before they had to be asked.

So there’s a clue.

You learn where your customer is by paying close attention to the questions that keep cropping up over and over again.

Why Does It Matter?

If you have a good product, and you describe its benefits clearly and compellingly, then what difference does it make whether you start where you are… where your customer is… or where the man in the moon is?

I mean really… why should it matter?

Here’s why.

Because, as a copywriter, you have a tremendous disadvantage going against you, compared to, say, a Danielle Steel, or a Tom Clancy, or a John Grisham, or a J.K. Rowling.

Unlike with the works of popular authors, when it comes to copy, PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO READ WHAT WE WRITE.

I wish I could claim credit for that insight, but it goes to Ted Cooper, a friend of mine who writes copy and whom I greatly admire. (And *I* want to read what he writes, even if nobody else does.

Ted’s point is this:

THEY DON’T GIVE A HOOT ABOUT YOUR PRODUCT.

Your offer. Your bullet points. Your guarantee. Your price. Your bonuses. Your special discount.

Not at first.

They care about…

… themselves.

They care about what’s on their minds. The words they mumble to themselves, or think silently as they struggle with their problems and drool over their dreams.

They are wrapped up in their own lives.

Just like you.

And so if you want to reach them right from the git-go, what better way than to get into their world… talk about their thoughts… their feelings… their present-moment experience of life?

And that’s called, “Starting where they are.”

Tags: Copywriting, Ray Recommends
Posted in Copywriting, Guest Articles, Ray Recommends | No Comments »

David Garfinkel’s Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich

Wednesday, January 24th, 2007

As promised here is the link to David Garfinkel’s book Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich: Create Winning Ads, Web Pages, Sales Letters and More

You can see all of the books recommended by RSS Ray here.

Tags: Copywriting, Marketing Education Resources, Ray Recommends
Posted in Copywriting, Marketing Education Resources, Ray Recommends, Show Announcements | No Comments »

Strong Copy Writing with David Garfinkel

Monday, January 22nd, 2007

David Garfinkel

If writing ad copy was like painting pictures, then this week’s guest on Online Marketing with RSS Ray could only be Claude Monet or Leonardo da Vinci. With over 20 years of marketing experience, David Garfinkel, the president of Overnight Marketing, has seen and done it all. From writing sales letters that have generated millions per year to consulting for industry giants like IBM, MCI and Pacific Bell, David Garfinkel is a wealth of valuable information that will make you money.

RSS Ray is highly anticipating picking David’s brain and getting a taste of the information that most people pay thousands for. Join us this Wednesday at 1 pm Eastern/10 am Pacific on Online Marketing with RSS Ray for what promises to be a spectacular interview.

Tags: Copywriting, Ray Recommends
Posted in Copywriting, Guest Announcements, Ray Recommends | No Comments »