Make Your Website Headline Sell by Chris Mole

Free Article Home l Submit Article l Contact Us

Make Your Website Headline Sell by Chris Mole

When a visitor arrives at your website, the first thing they look at is the headline. You have just a few seconds to make a good impression. Otherwise, they may not stick around to read the rest of the page.

Unfortunately, most small business websites waste the huge opportunity to be gained from their headline. Typically, at the top of the page you’ll find the company’s name. Or perhaps something like “Welcome to our website”.

Don’t make this mistake. If you’re serious about marketing your business on the Internet, start by writing a truly compelling headline for your site.

I’m not saying it won’t take some effort to write a good headline. I sometimes try up to 100 different options when writing a client’s website before coming up with a headline that’s just right.

But here are 6 tips that will make the headline writing process a whole lot quicker and easier for you.

Tip 1. Identify the biggest benefit of your product or service.

This is the foundation on which a top-notch headline is built. You need to take a piece of paper and write down all the benefits your customer will receive from your product or service. What’s unique about your product or service?

Don’t neglect this step, or you’ll end up with a mediocre headline. If you’re already in business, you can ask some of your satisfied customers what they think the biggest benefit of your product or service is. If you’re just starting out, you need to put yourself in the shoes of your prospective customer and think what is the biggest benefit you’re offering them.

Once you have a list of benefits, narrow it down to one most powerful benefit. This is the starting point for your headline. A headline that’s centred around an appealing benefit is much more likely to attract interest than one that’s not benefit-centred.

Tip 2. Borrow ideas from other websites.

Don’t overlook the obvious source of headline ideas that other successful websites can provide. I’m not suggesting you steal a headline word for word. That’s plagiarism and it’s unethical. But no one can take exclusive ownership of any word or phrase.

Most professional copywriters have what they call a “swipe file”. It’s full of great ideas they’ve picked up from other people’s copy, which they can then modify to fit the particular situation they’re writing for.

You can do the same. Look around at other great headlines that get your attention. Get some ideas. Then try to work them around your own product or service.

Here’s a couple of examples of how copywriters have adapted an original headline for a different purpose:

Original: “They laughed when I sat down at the piano but they stopped when I started to play”. (John Caples)

Adaptation: “They laughed when I sat down at the piano. They stopped when I picked it up.” (Gold’s Gym)

Original: Breakfast of Champions (Wheaties cereal)

Adaptation: Breakfast of millionaires (Forbes Magazine).

There are countless ways you can adapt a headline for your own purpose. Or even combine part of one original headline with part of another. Just use your imagination.

Tip 3. Brainstorm headline ideas with others.

I’ve found this enormously useful when I’ve been stumped for a headline. Another person can often add an insight that you’ve overlooked. Sometimes, I will run a possible headline past my wife and she’ll come up with a slightly different twist that is much better.

Just let the ideas flow. It’s amazing what these kind of brainstorming sessions can come up with, even in just a few short minutes.

Now, you can edit out any unsuitable ideas and narrow them down to those with potential to make a powerful headline.

Tip 4. Create a combination headline.

Sometimes, it works best to list several benefits all in the one headline. This can be really powerful if you have several benefits that are all equally important.

You first need to follow the advice in Tip 1 and list as many benefits as possible of your product or service. Then string them together.

Here’s a great example I found recently on the website of a web design company called 37Signals.com:

“37 Signals is an elite team of expert web design and usability specialists dedicated to simple, clear and usable customer-focused design”.

There are several benefits packed into this headline. But it works well.

Tip 5. Forget your product. Deliver the dream.

When people buy things, they do so more on emotion that logic. This is a fundamental principle that salespeople use and you can employ it effectively when writing your headlines.

You need to get inside the mind of your prospective customer or client and think about his or her dreams. What would they really like to achieve or accomplish? What can you offer that will help them achieve this dream?

For example, here’s a great headline from the website of a company that sells toys for children … of all ages. It reads:

“We don’t stop playing because we get old. We get old because we stop playing”.

Note how it appeals to the dream we all have to stay young!

Tip 6. Use testimonials from satisfied customers in your headline

Testimonials are a vital part of every small business website. They help establish your credibility faster than any other method. Sometimes, you can make a powerful headline by building it around a comment from a satisfied customer.

If you’re not already gathering testimonials, you should start doing so immediately. Look at all the emails, faxes and letters you’ve had from satisfied customers and note the comments of appreciation they’ve made about your product or service. Then contact them and ask if they’d mind you using these comments as a testimonial.

Here’s an example of a testimonial used in a headline for a fictional weight loss product:

“I lost 10kg in two weeks with this simple diet plan. I have more energy and feel better than I have in years. Thanks so much Miracle Diet!”

Or this one for a household cleaning product:

“I’ve tried every other bathroom cleaner in the supermarket but none even comes close to the shine I get with Wonder Shine!”

Now, it’s up to you to write a winning headline!

These 6 tips should provide you with lots of ideas to write an attention-getting headline for your website. As a final tip, it’s important you feel comfortable with your headline. It needs to fit with your own personality and the image you want to create for your business.

You need to blow your own trumpet a little bit. So don’t be too modest. But don’t go over the top with hype, either. If you don’t feel comfortable with your headline, chances are it will turn off your prospective customers.

The aim is a good, strong headline that clearly spells out the benefits of your product or service. If you invest a little time, effort and imagination, you’ll be amazed at what you come up with.

And what’s more important, your new headline will almost certainly give your website sales a big boost.

Author Info:

Chris Mole is a freelance website copywriter based near Christchurch, New Zealand. He has more than 20 years experience writing for print, radio and Web media and now specialises in writing truly persuasive sales copy for small businesses. Website: www.web-words.co.nz Email: chris@web-words.co.nz

30 Most Recent Articles :

A Disputed New Business:Virtual Property Exchange

In many ways, the in-game economy is similar to a real world economy - goods and services are traded to mutual advantage and are mediated in currencies(gold,platinum,credit,etc.). An online broker, who goes by the screen name Rolala, was not a fan of online games until his 15-year-old son be[ Read Article]

THE UNITED STATES, A Terrorist Nation

I love the United States of America, but I cannot tolerate the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. No I am not shouting at you, I am simply making a distinction, a difference that thirty-seven states of the union have noticed and moved to rectify. You see, AMERICA isn’t America anymore, nor does it in anyw[ Read Article]

Dollars and Sense

When I speak of the Federal Reserve and the fiat monetary system that controls our lives I feel as though my words are falling on deaf ears. I have the sense that the simplest conversations suggesting that change must be made invoke fear and condemnation from my fellow citizens. When will we tak[ Read Article]

Constitutionality

Is the 16th Amendment constitutional? Of course it is, the Supreme Court has made that as clear as it did the issue of slavery. But let us remember that it took the lives of more than 365,000 brave American men and the destruction of the Republic to wrest the matter from the courts and resolve the[ Read Article]

Five Secrets to Effective Pay-Per-Click Advertising

With so many companies swarming the World Wide Web with their products, how can you and your products and services stand out? Your ready answer would most likely be effective marketing. But how? How can you catch the eye of a surfer skimming carelessly through web pages? How can you keep the at[ Read Article]

How to Sell Bonds

If you want to make good money with banks, or any institution, Government and agency bonds are where it is at. Simply because all Government bonds and agencies are AAA rated, and banks can buy millions of dollars of any bond without incurring any credit risk. All banks own bonds of some sort, a[ Read Article]

Closing in the Car Business

The “P” Word. Closing is all about helping car customers make positive decisions. It is not about pressure or manipulation. Your customers need help overcoming the “P” word. Procrastination! Procrastination is natural when it comes to making a buying decision. Your customer is trying to avoid [ Read Article]

If You Build It They Will Come, or Will They?

All right, so you invested your time and energy to build your organization a great new web site, but you are not getting quite the results you were hoping for. Few customers are visiting or interacting with you and rarely do you get prospects to contact you through the site. So what can you do to [ Read Article]

Confessions of a Yoga Teacher

The following are questions that Yoga teachers still need to answer, despite overwhelming evidence that Yoga is ?the mother of all health maintenance systems.? Mainstream thought is finally catching up, with the progress Yoga is making, but it has taken 5,000 years for us to get this far. Serio[ Read Article]

Vertical Creep in Search Results :: Should Organic Optimizers be Concerned?

I thought for this week I’d give a summary of some of the more interesting Search Engine Strategies sessions which are currently going on in New York City. I was at SES as a speaker last year in New York and I have to say, there is a wealth of information there even if some of it is contradict[ Read Article]

How to build link popularity fast and free

We all knew that back link or link popularity is a big factor to get good position in any search engines. But building link popularity some times really hard if you don't know how to do it. One of the hardest problem for new webmasters is to get back link to their newly stablis[ Read Article]

Does Chiropractic Care Really Make Sense?

The Role of Chiropractic in Treatment Beyond the Resolution of Symptoms Do you have the same nagging injury that never seems to go away? Are you suffering needlessly with pain? Are you fed up with taking painkillers? Do you want to find out what is causing your pain? If your answer is ‘ye[ Read Article]

The Economic Implications of Buying Drugs Online

Although the Internet is fairly new (at least to the mainstream) online shopping has grown by leaps and bounds. Now you can buy almost anything you need, from food to fishing equipment, right through your computer. Of course, this has meant that commerce has been forced to adapt to the changing co[ Read Article]

Manning and Manning-Can Either Brother Win the Big One?

It was just over a year ago, after the Colts lost to the Pats in their post-season contest, that Boomer Esiason said on national television, "I think maybe Peyton (Manning) is this generation's Dan Marino." Esiason went on to state that Manning "is a great football player, but he's not going to get[ Read Article]

Branding, Branding, Branding - MSN fails to keep it Straight

Sometimes you see promotions come along and you wonder: did they just do that? The current MSN promotion called msnsearchandwin is a prime example of this. Not only do they use “black hat” or at least “questionable” tactics on the site, but the messaging is inconsistent. In this article [ Read Article]

The New MSN Search Interface :: A positive change or the antithesis of transformation?

Now, instead of wide blue bars there are sleek silver-grey bars. Also, the top bar where the search box is became narrower. To me this makes the page seem less “closed in” and more visually appealing. I now feel as if I can trust the results more because they have more room. I’ve also noti[ Read Article]

Malta Holidays

With Malta visitor numbers static in recent years and facing new competiton from former Eastern Bloc countries offering cheap holidays, the recent announcement by the Maltese government that negotiations were at an advanced stage with two low cost airlines has[ Read Article]

Drug Rehab Treatment Centers as an Experience, not a Punishment

Choosing a drug rehab treatment center is a decision that calls for both negative and positive emotions. Nobody wants addiction to overtake their life to the point that rehab is the necessary step. However, the decision to go to one is something to look forward to, as it is the decision to rebui[ Read Article]

Some ways to improve your king content

There are thousands of articles, books and forum posts which showed that content is king in search engine optimization (SEO). In this article, you can find some ways that can help you improve this king content for your web site. * Content for people first, not for search engines - Some webmaste[ Read Article]

Aerosmith Just Keeps On Rockin’

For over three decades, Aerosmith have been one of rock's most revered and popular bands, crafting classic songs full of raw guitar runs and intensely energetic vocals. The band first reached fame in the 1970’s with a string of hits including "Dream On," "Sweet Emotion" and "Walk This Way." During t[ Read Article]

Chicago Cubs Pitcher Mark Prior Re-signs

After many trips through the rumor mill, Mark Prior accepted the Chicago Cubs’ offer on January 27 to a one-year, $3.65 million contract. That is $900,000 more than the salary he would have earned under the contract he voided in November. Since Prior's definitive season in 2003 (18-6), he has cooled[ Read Article]

Social Networking - The Next Great Marketing Medium?

There has been a virtual explosion of social networking sites in the past couple of years. Even the big players like Google, Yahoo and MSN are getting into it. With so much interest in how social networks work, one begins to wonder if there is marketing potential within these social network[ Read Article]

How to choose paid directory for web site listing?

How to choose paid directory for web site listing? Search Engines are the major source of traffic for any website. High search engine ranking can boost number of your visitors and in turn leads to increase in sales. The best way to get top search engine placement is to improve link popularity [ Read Article]

Addiction Treatment Centers Using Experiential Therapies

Life is experience. Substance dependence overtakes a person’s ability to make her own decisions to experience life, and life is no longer actively participated in. Therefore, in overcoming addiction, it is vital to learn to re-experience life. This lesson helps a treatment center resident reint[ Read Article]

The DH: Making Life Tough for AL Pitchers

In 1973 Major League Baseball instituted three rules designed to lessen the power of pitchers and create more offense. One theory at work was that the game needed to be energized and that more hitting would create additional runs and excitement. Both the National and American Leagues lowered th[ Read Article]

Vacation on the Beach the Smart Way

Vacation on the Beach the Smart Way Almost everyone agrees; there is no more relaxing way to vacation than to take it to the beach. For the vacationer/traveler who hasn't considered a beach house rental before, they represent an affordable and fun family oriented alternative. There is an intell[ Read Article]

Malta Holidays and Hotels Buzzed by New Jets

The Rising Cost of Prescription Drugs

If you’re like many Americans, the rising cost of prescription drugs may be costing you your health. In particular, seniors living on a fixed income with no insurance are finding it difficult to pay for necessary prescriptions out-of-pocket, and as a result, may be failing to receive the treatment[ Read Article]

Who's Tops in Hockey and Who's Not

The National Hockey League needs to do more to encourage better coverage of the hockey games. With so many other sports realizing national coverage, the NHL is sometimes forgotten. However, this year, there's a race for the Stanley Cup, and only one is set to win it. But which team will that be? [ Read Article]

The Danger Of Rounding Up Your Debts

Rounding up your debts is one of the biggest dangers to your financial position. It's also one of the easiest ways for your debts to get out of control. This way of thinking is best summed up by the following comment; ‘I already owe $27500 so what’s another $500. It takes my debt to a nice round [ Read Article]

World Top Stories :

XML error: not well-formed (invalid token) at line 7