Attention : I Headline !

As a marketer or audience whatever you read, see or hear can be the divergence of your success and failure. You need to offer news, information and your promises to get attention because it is well on its way to persuade the reader to buy your product. Someone says that an advertisement can’t force your reader to buy, but it can make the purchase seem more appealing.

Headlines that appeal to the reader’s self-interest, are newsy, offer new twists on familiar sayings, and evoke curiosity.

David Ogilvy says, copywriting means writing to sell. And up to 80 percent of your selling is done through the headline. You must find a way to get your reader’s attention by writing a great headline, each day? Hundreds? Thousands? You must let the reader, viewer or listener know, right from the start, what's in it for her. Learning how to write good headlines is capital in the depository. Who is your target audience? That's whom you want to talk to. Readers want to know: what’s in it for me? One headline tells the reader: "Hey, stop a minute! This is something you want!"

Strategies include:
Where?
How?
What? and
Why?

Have you ever come across to the types of headlines?

Few includes benefit, news, selective, curiosity, reverse benefit and puns.

Tread in your computer for the fastest desktop in the world. Reverse benefit ad of Power Macintosh G4.

See it. Feel it. Peel it. Benefit ad Headline of EPSON photo printers.

Who is your respondent?
You have to say something meaningful to that person or that group of people, your target audience. You have seen those ads for the institute of art student’s Literature that read "we are Looking for People to Write Art Student’s Books". This headline hooks only those readers who actually are interested in making these kinds of books. The Institute won’t have to waste time by responding to people who are not likely to buy their writing course.

Grabs your reader's attention
Catch your reader’s interest. How? Start your headline with "Hay, do you know?" or "Now there is something new for you". You may make the page totally blank and at the end of that page just write see on page #5 to get your audience’s attention. Never avoid some words such as how to, why, last chance, sale, proven.

Use Specific Numbers in your ad. One ad of news paper I have seen that gave the image of copies of newspapers and beside that there was picture of Eiffel Tower and the headline of that ad said that The Malayala Manorama Newspaper crosses a record 1 million copies daily! Means it would measure 10 times taller than the Eiffel Tower. "The 19 Power Principles of Marketing that You Won't Learn at Harvard Business School", or "You have 100 of reasons to build a Sybase Enterprise Portal. Any 2 thought to be enough." Using the question technique, the advertiser sets up a responsive, chatty tone. "Do you make these common mistakes in English?"

Use humor, create secrecy, and make a provocative statement. "Man’s oldest institution. Celebrated with Remond since 1925." This kind of testimonial ad that attests results that have been gotten with your product or service.

You can directly call your audience. "Kutch is getting back to business. For entrepreneurs, it offers a capital holiday." Or "Moms - Look".

When you are writing an ad for a trade magazines or professional journal remember that your ad need to see that how can your product save them time or money? Just giving them this information in the headline can led to excellent response rates. There’s a difference in thinking you’ve made the right business decision. And actually knowing it." SAS Institute.

"Reduce Electrical Costs on Your Production Line by 38 percent- just by using this New Utility Automation Software from XYZ" the reader, immediately knows that xyz understands the energy wastage problem and Provides a solution to fix it.

Effectiveness extends further than the corporate or trade empire. Your product or service that address one of these concerns, you might do well to use a headline that delivers the entire message.
"POSCO expects to save $120 million each year using Oracle E-Business Suite."

"Save Paint, save time, save your Back"

"What a helmet is to a rider Network Security is to your business."
In all of these examples, the customer receives enough information to make a buying decision without having to read the respite of the ad. And that’s important concern in today’s soaked advertising environment. This is a suitable headline approach and can be used successfully, but it takes skill and experience to make it work.

The way to get really really good is to write headlines and more. The sooner you get that done, the sooner you will become great at writing headlines. Chet Holmes, a 25-year martial artist and master marketer and business builder, teaches that you get great at each action by doing that one action over and over.

Further readings and source:
www.suite101.com,
Creative Strategy in Advertising- A. Jerome,
The Elements of Copywriting- Gary Blake,
Copywriting & The Headline by Phyllis Schwartz.,