Online Marketing Sydney, Internet Marketing Australia Freestyle Media

In any website, landing page or advertisement your headline is the most important part. How does this apply online:

1. Converting Visitors on Website landing pages – The first words your visitor reads when they land on your landing page.
2. Getting Traffic from Google Adwords Copy – The Headline in your Adwords copy will determine whether your ad gets viewed or not. I would recommend using the keyword you are optimising for in the headline as it usually gives you better quality score and encourages more clicks.
3. Increasing Banner ads Click throughs – The copy in your banner ad determines whether someone clicks not the image. The image needs to tell a story and support the copy. Checkout some banners on some websites and notice what you look at.
1. Image – This sucks you in and supports the copy
2. Copy – This determines if you click or not.
3. Action to take – What do you need to do to take action.

How can you write a killer Headline?

1. Test – Understand that writing the best headline ever requires testing. Just like with those ads I clipped out from London they had been tested and perfected. I clipped them out because the advertisers had done the testing for me and I noted it in my list.
2. What is in it for you – Start from the key appeal of your readers. What is in it for them. The best headlines have self-interest built into them for their readers to be enticed.
3. Remove complicated words – Any word that doesn’t make sense to a 6 year old, revise it and put something simpler in there. If it doesn’t make sense to anyone who reads it. Revise it.
4. Do not be funny, cute or tricky – Those types of headlines are written for copywriters and they don’t sell. Your headline is there to sell not impress people with your copywriting skills.
5. Copy from the best – There are tried and tested formulas for headlines and you may aswell use them. My personal favourites are “How to travel overseas for under $37 a day”, “Finally! A credit card without fees” or “Advice on saving money with credit card debt”. Simple words that gain your interest, copy them and test your own.
6. Curiosity – If you can get a user curious you will also get more attention. Although, attention doesn’t necessarily mean sales. Headlines that sell are better than headlines that get users to look. You know those funky ads on billboards where they just say something weird and you just get confused. Dump that idea. Just hit your target markets selfish bone and get them into your copy.

Analysis of a great headline

“They laughed when I sat at the piano, But when I started to play..”

This is a classic John Capels ad that ran for over 7 years and sold distance learning piano courses every time it ran. Why?

1. The headline has story value – The copy continues to tell how this person learnt to play the piano and how you too can learn.
2. You are immediately curious – Why did they laugh? What happened when you started to play?
3. The product is bang in the middle – You are immediately enlightened to the benefits of the product. This course will teach you how to play the piano and shock your friends at your new ability.

Headline’s Appeal – Be popular and attract attention, Prestige, Enjoyment and gain more leisure.

I love copy. It makes your website sell. Bad copy. No sales.

When I was over in London last week I clipped a number of advertisements from the newspaper because I felt they had killer sales appeal to consumers. They tapped into the topics which all humans are concerned with. When you look at advertisements look at them carefully to see what exactly they are appealing to. There are a lot of poor advertisements out there that are just wacky pictures and text and have absolutely no appeal or core benefit to the people who will potentially buy their product. Those are the ads which fail. You can tell an ad which fails because it doesn’t get run over and over again.

Why do ads that work keep getting run?

You would have thought that ads that work get tired because all of the people who have seen the ad have decided whether or not they are interested. This is not true. The reason why the same ad gets run over and over again is because it works. It brings in more net profit than it cost to place the ad. For example the sales letter for the wall street journal was run for over 14 years. The same letter sold subscriptions to that newspaper. There was no need to change it because it just kept selling subscriptions. An advertisement close to home are the AMI sniff and stiff ads. They haven’t changed in 2 months, because they just keep making sales. Every time they run one of piano ads their phone rings and they sell enough product to pay for the ads and make a profit.

How to tap into an appeal to make your website sell over and over again?

The first thing when you begin thinking about your appeal is to forget what business you are in. Any business can appeal to a particular appeal but it does not mean that it will sell. The process to figure out which appeal will work best for you is testing. There are some classic appeals for different markets such as

• Business books = Make more money
• Cosmetics = Popularity and attracting attention. (Especially from guys!)
• Doors, Doors, Doors, Doors ads = Bargain. (A little offensive but they have been working for 10 years now)

Appeals which have worked over time

The following appeals have sold products throughout time. Which appeal is your website tapping into?

• Make more money
• Save money
• Retirement security
• Better heath care now
• Healthcare security
• Security in old age
• Advance in profession or trade
• Prestige
• Enjoyment
• Easier chores
• Gain more leisure
• Comfort
• Freedom from worry
• To be one of the “in” group
• A Bargain
• Be popular, attract attention
• Desire to outshine the neighbours

So once you have decided which appeal you are going to test you need to formulate a headline. Headlines are the most important part of an advertisement.

Advice on making a headline that makes your sales.

Want more conversions on your site? Fix your copy! I have interviewed Jon Maxim to help you sizzle your copy to get a better response rate. Jon is a guru copywriter and teaches for ADMA strategy and copy courses.

Here are some of the things you will learn:

1. How to deal with the online medium?
2. Where do you start? _un__ion?
3. How do you get to the point faster, given its online?
4. What tactic should you employ so that everyone understands what you are trying to tell them?
5. What about grammar in the online space? What is so special about “Eats roots and leaves”?
6. How can you improve your copy over time?
7. What increases email readership?
8. BONUS!! Listen to find out!

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How does this apply to online marketing?
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Get in quick on this website because the lawyers are trying to shut it down!!

Seen any golden content recently?