HEADLINES are one of your biggest weapons for getting MORE PEOPLE TO NOTICE YOUR ADVERTISING, for whatever medium you choose to use. Now you are using headlines, aren’t you? And NOT your logo – that’s not a headline. Only one person cares about your logo, AND THAT’S YOU.

Whereas a headline is something every single one of your prospects will be glued to like a kid on a cartoon. Whatever you’re writing, you’ve GOTTA HAVE A HEADLINE. But here’s the deal, there a are good headlines and bad headlines, so I’m going to give you an absolute killer template headline that you should use THIS WEEK in your business.

Remember, a headline’s goal is to do one thing only – STOP YOUR PROSPECT IN THEIR TRACKS AND LOCK THEM ONTO YOUR AD, and some people say you only have 1.5 seconds to catch their attention, so you need to make it good!

Master copywriter David Ogilvy has said… “On average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent 80 cents out of your dollar.” So if you’re using your own logo at the top of your ad, you could improve your response IMMEDIATELY, just by sticking ANY kind of headline up instead!

So would you like to know one of the great secrets for writing headlines that literally slap your prospect in the face and demand they open their wallet?Good, well here it is for you… MODEL HEADLINES THAT ALREADY WORK!!
Don’t try and reinvent the wheel, the best way to come up with fantastic headlines is to take what already works, and adapt it to your own business.Isn’t that simple?

Here’s an absolute knock-’em-dead blockbuster template for a headline:

IMPORTANT NEWS FOR HOMEOWNERS:
Don’t pay another phone bill until you read this…

IMPORTANT NEWS FOR WOMEN:
Don’t buy any makeup products until you read this…

IMPORTANT NEWS FOR BUSINESS OWNERS:
Don’t run another ad until you read this…

Do you see how powerful this is? And I’ve shown you 3 different versions, so all you have to do is apply it to your own business and you could easily double or even triple your responses! How about these headlines:

Do You Make These Mistakes With Your Money?

Do You Make These Mistakes Playing Golf?

Do You Make These Mistakes In Bed?

Do You Make These Mistakes Baking Cakes?

I could go on, but I’m sure you get the idea. This particular headline works on your curiosity. It gets the reader to say to themself, “maybe I’d better read on and find out.” The main thing you really want your headline to do is to get your reader to be interested enough to see what else you’ve got to say. MAKE AN IMPACT! Remember the old saying ‘first impressions last’? Well that saying still applies today.

And now that we are bombarded with up to 5,000 advertising messages each day, it is more important than ever to stand out and BE NOTICED! If you have a headline that literally screams out, READ ME, then you’ll be more than half way to having an effective advertising campaign that starts making profits for your business! Remember the 80 cents out of each advertising dollar? Well now you know how to focus your efforts to have the maximum impact!

Seek and Ye Shall Find?
Sometimes finding a good writer can be harder than finding a soul mate because writing and copywriting are subjective arts and if you are not a writer, you can not see the difference between a good writer and an excellent writer. If you are looking for a writer on the Web by searching on terms such as writer and copywriter, there are few things you should look for once you find a writer’s website:

Excited, Delighted or Uninvited?
Excellent writing entertains and excites, quickly and concisely. When you read the writer’s website you should be drawn in. Does she ask the reader questions? Does he understand what you want? Does she seem friendly? Does he have relevant experience? Does she list what kinds of services she offers?

Location, Location, Location
Often businesses hiring a writer want to look for someone nearby so they search, writer, Los Angeles if they live in Los Angeles, if the writers don’t show an address or location where they work, you’ll never find then. You’ll be able to get a general idea of where the writer is by either the contact page or by references to work completed.

A Bad Writer Ain’t Hard to Find
If you notice grammar and spelling mistakes you are probably on the wrong page. Also if the style and design of a writer’s website looks bad, even if their writing looks good, you should be wary. Good writing is neat and pleasant looking.

Ample Parking and Samples
Excellent writing on the Web, gives the reader plenty of potential to stop, park, click and look for a while. If the writer doesn’t link to more writing and industry resources, she/he is less professional than the ones who do know that linking is best form of networking around. You ought to find several kinds of writing samples. If you don’t find the kind of samples you like, e-mail or call the writer and ask for exactly what you want.

RSVP
Response is also important to you and the writer. Although a few second e-mail response-time is possible, a day or overnight return time is reasonable. If you want a faster response, be sure to tell the writer that you are in hurry and on a deadline. When writers don’t respond in a timely manner, they miss out on your work.

Check References
Once you locate the name of the writer, do not hesitate searching for other references of the writer on the Web. Type the name in a search engine with an appropriate word such as writer. For example, when I searched my name Lynn Walford with the word writer, along with my website http://www.freelancewriternow.com, a photo of me standing next my former editor Michael Goldstein at a Justice Magazine party appeared. I never saw the photo until I searched my own name! Of course writers and authors names should also appear on magazine articles and bylines in other media. I also found myself in an article on naming books by Robin Quinn at the PMA website.

Titular Savvy or Tense—What’s in a Name?
Look at the title of the writer’s website. Is it catchy? Memorable? Does it Make Sense? Of course when someone is born Anna Matto Poeeah, (pronounced just like onomatopoeia, the poetic word for when something also sounds like its name such as whispering or clang) you can’t hold it against her. However, when writers don’t take the time to name their websites appropriately they can’t write a title for you.

The Price is Write
Some writers charge by the hour, by the piece or by the word. Whomever you choose, she/he should be able to give an estimate on how much your project will cost. Vagueness usually means no experience.

Rewrite Right?
Most excellent writers and copywriters will give a free rewrite if you don’t like what they do. Always ask if they will rewrite it for you if you don’t like it.

Test, Quiz
If you are planning a major project such as a white paper, which can be expensive, look for a writer in advance and ask him/her to write a small project for you first, then you can see if you can work with him/her and also test knowledge.

Well, Well, Well.
Writing well is a precise art with a sense of urgency and a taste of the divine. You should be able to tell good writing when you find it. It comes to life, sings and shines. When you read something like ” Avoid cliches like the plague,” found on 26 Golden Rules for Writing Well you are definitely in the wrong place.

One of the biggest challenges you need to overcome in order to create more sales in your business is getting people to trust what you say. Now you may very well have a great deal of integrity and be very trustworthy when it comes to your business (and I’m sure you are). But do your customers know that? And how can you make sure that they do?

‘Lack of trust’ is a big problem in advertising. You probably don’t realise how many customers DON’T believe what you say or claim in your advertising. In fact, the best rule of thumb to go by, is that NO ONE BELIEVES YOU. We often see on TV current affairs shows, people who get ripped off by businesses. And it might only be 1 in 1000 businesses in that particular industry, but of course it’s that one that will always get the headlines.

Then the general public see this and make a broad judgement on that industry to protect themselves, and then they become wary of every business. So it’s not enough to just tell people that you have this fantastic, well-respected
reputation… and so therefore you’re the company to choose. It just doesn’t work that way anymore, you need to go much further these days. Here are two powerful tips that will have more people trusting what you say.

1. People believe more of what other people say about you…
than what YOU say about you.

If you were to tell me that you are the best basketball player in your state, that you score more than everyone else and hand out more assists, I would have a fair bit of scepticism as I haven’t heard anything about you. But if 10 people came up to me and say stuff like, “Have you seen this guy? He scored 40 points last week! He was simply amazing. Plus he handed out 12 assists, he was on fire!” then you can see that makes it more readily believable right away. So go to your customers and ask them for their opinion of you. Get them to write down the wonderful experience they had dealing with you, then you can use it to show others why they should do business with you!

There is however, good and bad ways of writing a testimonial, so I’m going to tell you the best system to use. It goes something like this – ‘once I was lost, now I’m found’. For example, if you’re promoting a weight loss program, tell people how your customer ‘once weighed 180kg, and just by eating this amazing fruit bar, I lost 80kg in 2 months!’ That’s just an exaggeration of course, but just to illustrate the point. Plus, you should always include the full name and suburb, and if possible a phone number. The more information you provide the more realistic it is, and therefore more believable for your customer!

2. Simply guarantee what you do.

You are required by law to guarantee your product or service. If something doesn’t work, or breaks, or goes wrong, 99.9! A guarantee takes the risk off the customer and puts it on you, and if your customer knows you’re prepared to take the risk then they’ll feel more comfortable doing business with you.

The reason most business owners will keep their guarantee hidden is that they are worried about their customers taking advantage of them. Let’s say you’re getting a very low return rate now like 1, and by offering a guarantee it goes up to 6%. So your returns go up by 3 times, but by doing so you also triple your SALES, doesn’t it then make financial sense to offer that guarantee up front?