There is no denying the fact that the
success of an advertisement lies mostly
in the headline. The headline should
attract the reader and make him read the
rest of the advertisement. The headline
should be simply catchy and
various key points should be embedded
when deciding on the headline for the
ad.
The headline should catch attention of
the eye at the first glance. Words in
headlines should act as tags for the
advertisement. It should say it all
about the content that follows. If a
company is selling reasonably priced
furniture, the headline of their
advertisement should be ‘Durable
furniture for less price’. This headline
will attract
the right customers who are on a look
out for durable furniture as well as low
cost furniture. If the customers to
be reached belong to a category that are
interested in decorating their house
with beautiful furniture and aren’t
concerned about the price to get the
right look, then the headline can be
‘Change how your house looks by our
oriental furniture’. Anything other than
the prospects should not be included in
the headline. If both men and
women can use a product, both of them
should be referred to in the title,
missing out even one of the category is
like losing a huge number of potential
customers.
The title should be instant product
seller. According to a research, five
times more readers read just the
headline
when compared to those who read the
complete advertisement. So the
investment is of no use, if the title
isn’t good enough to sell the product.
There can be a possibility that the
content of the ad isn’t strong enough.
All the harm can be undone by having a
powerful headline.
The headline should be centered on the
product and not the company that is
selling the product. The customer’s
interest should be reflected and he
should feel that he is directly
addressed. Start with ‘you’ and not
‘we’. So if
the client specified on mentioning the
company’s name, don’t start the sentence
with it. For example, instead of
writing ‘Tylenol – solution for sever
cold ’, write ‘Got sever cold? Try
Tylenol’. Never forget to mention the
name of the product in the headline. The
product name should be of top priority.
A snapshot of the benefits of the
product should be given in the headline.
This is an important quality of a well-
phrased headline. The customers look out
for advantages when he thinks of buying
a product. Keywords like
whiter teeth, nutritious cereals, or
miraculous growth should be incorporated
in the title.
If inculcating all these factors have
made the headline long, it should be
remembered to write the product
advantages in bold. If a visual is
placed in the advertisement, it will be
a good complement. As a picture speak
thousand words. But care should be taken
that the headline should say some part
of the story and the visual
should say the rest. Don’t repeat the
headline or the picture.
Too much of cleverness should not be
applied to design a headline. There are
nearly five hundred advertisements
in a local newspaper on weekends. A
regular reader reads the headings of all
of them. He will be able to classify
between a false heading and a genuine
heading. No false promises or
information should be included in the
headline. Over smart headlines are good
for award competitions, but don’t really
work with the savvy customers.
The headline should give out a positive
feeling to the reader. Negativity should
be totally excluded as it not only
creates a negative impression but the
mind will also be not receptive
friendly. It sometimes confuses the mind
and
it interprets a negative meaning of the
message being delivered. Confidence
should be reflected in the headline.
Don’t include any doubtful words like if
and but. Conditional phrases are a
strict no. The sentence should be in
present tense, instead of past or
future.
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