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How To Write Sales-Making Headlines and Text
By: J. R. Beach
How long does it take to make a first impression? On the
fast-paced internet you’re likely to get less than
15 seconds. That’s all they’ll spend on your opening
page unless you grab visitors with something that
interests them.
And if you’ve spent effort and dollars to attract
visitors, you don’t want to lose them in the time it
takes to back out of the driveway. After all, if
you’ve got something to sell, you’re not looking for
“hits”, you’re looking for sales. The only item someone
will buy in fifteen seconds is a face-value ticket
to the Super Bowl.
With the advent of simpler, fast-loading sites with
fewer graphics, headlines and text may be the most
important tools you have during those 15 seconds.
Headlines
The objective of a headline is to interest the
visitor in reading the text. Plain and simple.
Without a well-written headline, visitors will
never go far enough to investigate the details
of what you’ve got to offer. You don’t sell with
a headline. That’s the job of your text. All you
want to do is get the reader to desire more
information.
--Choose the right words
First, certain subjects create more interest than
others. Among the most effective are money, wealth,
love, health and safety. Practice writing three or
four headlines using those subjects.
There are also words that seem to attract greater
interest than others. Here are some of those words:
Learn, discover, easy, new, proven, save, you, now
and free
Now re-write your headlines incorporating those words.
And, of course, many effective headlines start with
“How to…” or “How you can…”
--Use a question
Many times a question works well because it involves
the reader. Ever heard this one? “Where Do You Want
To Go Today?” Sure you have.
Here are some other ways to incorporate a question
into your headline:
“Have You Ever…?”
“Do You Want To…”
“Do You Think You Can…”
“How Do You…”
--Experiment with your headlines
Chances are, you’re not going to hit the best possible
headline on your first try. And nobody can tell you
in advance what will work for your product or service.
Don’t be afraid to experiment early on, trying to gauge
response to each headline.
--Put a tracking system in place
Make sure you have a system in place to track which
headlines are generating response and which aren’t.
An easy way is to make multiple, identical pages on
your site. Each page should contain a hit counter.
Then assign each headline you use to a particular page.
The highest number of responses wins. Headline one
might be www.yourdomainname.com/product/hd1.html
and the second headline aims visitors to
www.yourdomainname.com/product/hd2.html.
Writing Effective Website Text
Now that you’ve perfected your headline, you should
tailor your text to involve the visitor in your
site, describe what your product or service will
do for them and lead them toward a sale. Here are
some DOs and DON’Ts:
--Highlight Benefits
People don’t respond to features, they respond to
benefits (what the product or service will DO for
them or how it will make them FEEL). Therefore,
turning the product’s features into benefits is
critical. For example, people aren’t interested
in a six-cylinder, turbo-charged 280-horsepower
engine. That’s a car’s feature. They are, however,
interested in driving a car with quick acceleration
to merge swiftly into highway traffic, pass slow-moving
trucks on two-lane roads, etc. Those are the benefits
of the engine. So stress benefits. Here’s an easy way
to do that:
W T M T Y I
A technique I’ve used for years to help turn features
into benefits, WTMTYI is an abbreviation for “what
that means to you is…”. For every feature your
product has, think “what that means to you is…”
and complete the sentence. You’ll have a benefit.
“This quality vehicle has a turbo-charged six that
generates 280 horsepower (and what that means to you
is) You’ll have plenty of power to maneuver in traffic
and enough acceleration to feel comfortable motoring
onto the expressway, and that’s important, don’t you
think?”
--Quality over quantity
It’s not how much you say, it is how well you say it.
Less is better. After you first write your text, go
back and make it tighter. Then do it again. The rationale
for doing this is two-fold: reading a computer screen
is harder than reading from paper and, with one hand
on the mouse, your visitor is prone to use it as soon
as he or she feels the least bit bored.
–-Appeal to emotion rather than logic
Most purchases are made on an emotional level. Remember,
people buy what they WANT, not what they NEED. They
buy because of how the product or service will make
them FEEL. That’s emotion, not logic. Your text, then,
should make them want the product, not insist that
they need it. We need food, water, clothing and shelter.
Everything else is a want.
--Don’t use hype
If they’re smart enough to navigate the web, assume
they’re smart enough to see through hype (and they’ve
likely seen enough of it). If your product or service
is worthy, it doesn’t need hype. Besides, to make repeat
or referral sales, you want to deliver more than you’ve
promised. You can’t do that if you’ve promised the world.
--Avoid incorporating incomprehensible vernacular to
persuade your constituents to purchase
(Don’t use big words to sell)
Don’t reach for the Thesaurus in an attempt to impress
your visitor. Text should be easy to read. It should
flow. Don’t use a large word when a smaller one will
do. Please, whatever you do, never write like a lawyer
or the guys who write user’s manuals.
--Use proper grammar
Few things will hurt your credibility as will grammar
and punctuation mistakes. You’ve been to pages
containing misuse of the language. What was your
impression? Not professional, perhaps? No, you don’t
have to be an English professor. Here’s what you can do:
-Use a spell check program. Let it do the work for you.
-Have a friend proof-read your site. Have several friends
proof-read it. If you don’t have any qualified friends,
pay a professional to help you (that’s the cost of
having no literate friends).
-When in doubt, simplify.
There are numerous sources of additional help on
website selling. One of the top sources is
http://www.sitesell.com/ operated by Ken Evoy, M.D.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mr. Beach is a veteran marketer and webmaster of
award-winning BUSINESS-OPP.COM. The site focuses on
identifying guaranteed business opportunities and
offers a unique three-step money-making process.
Plus free reports, promotional resources, a free
e-zine subscription and free DSL Internet access
are available at http://www.business-opp.com
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