Write Magnetic Headlines With These 7 Tips

Posted on October 29, 2007 | Filed Under Copywriting

Write Magnetic Headlines With These 7 Tips by Michel Fortin

There are two huge mistakes people make when they write headlines. Either they are too bland and don’t say enough (such as when they attempt to simply summarize), or they say too much to cover all the bases.

In both cases, you will lose readers.

1. The True Purpose of The Headline
The headline is more than a mere summary of the sales copy. Unlike the title of a book, for instance, it’s not meant to introduce the story. It’s meant to generate readership in the first place.

It’s the first thing that people see. Just like front-page headlines of a newspaper are meant to sell the paper, the copy’s headline is meant to sell people on the copy.

If a headline does not instantly give an indication of not only what the page is all about but also the reasons why people should read further the moment they read it, it will actually deter prospects.

In fact, headlines that do not communicate any benefit in reading the next paragraph or navigating the site will dissuade readers from going deeper, which is where sales are made.

So the true purpose of a headline is not to summarize or advertise the website, the salesletter, or the business behind it. It’s simply to get people to read further. That’s it.

In advertising parlance, a headline is the “ad for the ad.” For instance, a resume is not meant to land a job but to land an interview. A headline is, in the same way, meant to land the reader’s attention and arouse their curiosity — not the sale.

If a headline does not achieve this quickly, efficiently and effectively, people will simply click away, throw away the salesletter, or skim over it without giving it much thought.

You may have heard of the famous “AIDA Formula,” which stands for, in order: Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. Ads must follow this formula in order to be successful.

They must capture the reader’s attention, arouse their interest, increase their desire and lead them to take some kind of action.

Other than “grabbers” like graphics, pop-ups, liftnotes, multimedia, or “lumpy mail” (in direct mail marketing, it’s where trinkets are added to grab people’s attention), the first part of the formula often refers to the headline.

If the headline does not command enough attention (or does not command it effectively and, above all, rapidly), then the rest of the formula will fail — no matter how great your copy is.

Ultimately, the headline is not meant to do anything other than to create readership. To “grab people by the eyeballs” and pull them into the copy.

Period.
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Is Your Business Missing Procedures?

Posted on October 25, 2007 | Filed Under Business Management

Is Your Business Missing Procedures?

The most successful businesses around use procedures in
order to grow and thrive, are you? If you aren’t already,
you’ve have a few things to work on. First things first, I
want to know if your idea of procedures is like my own.

A business procedures should be written down in an way
which is easy to follow, without anything left out. The
procedure needs to be easy enough for anyone to follow. If
you’re the one who does the procedure, it should really be
recorded in such a way that your employees, and possible
future owners of your business can follow.

Think creating a bunch of procedures is a waste of your
time? It’s not! All tasks ran in your business can quite
easily be created into procedures. Whether it’s writing
a letter, calling a client, sending a fax, it can all be
made a procedure. It won’t just help others get work done,
following the procedure as directed will result in work
improving and work will just seem easy.

Here’s one benefit for using the procedures you create…
Sometimes people simply forget a step of a process, forget
returning that phone call, but with a procedure, it’s less
likely you’ll miss step B when step C requires the data
from B. One more benefit, when you can actually see your
normal work as a step-by-step process, removing unneeded
time wasting steps are easy.

Do yourself a favor and train yourself to spot areas where
time is leaking. If the fax takes too long, maybe step X
should require an e-mail? Improving and making modification
to procedures is just as important as having them. Once
they are the structure of your business, changing the
procedures is making a change to your business.

Here’s an example of a process I’ve used in my business:

1. Make Video Course
2. Buy domain name
3. Buy website hosting
4. Add video course to website
5. Design a sales letter
6. Install payment processor for course

I made some changes to get reduce time, and not effect
sales:

1. Make video recording
2. Add video to CD
3. Add video to the disk manufacturing service
4. Provide product link to possible customers

The first procedure is for a downloadable product, the
second is a cd-rom product. Even though the cd product
can’t be played by a customer immediately after ordering,
the number of sales weren’t affected, and wasted time in
many areas was eliminated.

Try developing a few processes for your own business. If
you have staff, train them to follow them. Maybe then you
can escape your office for a change?

More information is offered at the authors blog. Aaron’s
blog can be found by going to:
http://www.AaronBrandon.com“>
http://www.AaronBrandon.com

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Remember These 5 Copywriting Formulas

Posted on October 25, 2007 | Filed Under Copywriting, Online Marketing

Remember These 5 Copywriting Formulas
By Michel Fortin

I used to teach marketing and selling at a local college here in Ottawa. And one of the things I
used to teach with (I also use them all the time when I want to learn and remember new things, too) were mnemonics.

Mnemonics are tools or devices that aid retention. My best form of mnemonic are acronyms.

Do you remember the little ditty to remember all the planets taught mostly in kindergarten? It goes, “My very eager mother just served us nine pizzas,” where the first letter of each word
represents the name of each planet in our solar system (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto).

Similarly, I use acronyms to teach about copywriting. I do this to help you remember, appreciate, and understand the process I go through when I write copy. Here they are, with their meaning (they are also linked to their respective articles covering the formula in detail):

1. UPWORDS Formula

“Universal picture words or relatable, descriptive sentences.”

“Up words” are picture words, mental imagery, metaphors, analogies, examples, etc so that all
people in a given target market can easily relate to and understand, in their minds, your message and its meaning.

2. QUEST Formula

Qualify, Understand, Educate, Stimulate, and Transition.

This is the process prospects go through when they are reading your sales copy. In addition to the AIDA formula (attention, interest, desire, then action), it guides people, as if going “on a quest,” so to speak, as they progress through your copy until they take the prescribed action.

3. FAB Formula

Features, Advantages, and Benefits.

Simply, this one is to not only help remember but also understand what true benefits are.

Features are what products have. Advantages (what people often mistakenly think are benefits) are
what those features do. But benefits are what they mean — at a personal, intimate level. They are real benefits. You can also call them “end-results.”

4. OATH Formula

Oblivious, Apathetic, Thinking, or Hurting.

“Are your prospects ready to take an oath?” These are the four stages of your market’s awareness.

From not knowing they have a problem to desperately seeking a solution, your market falls in either one of these. Knowing this helps to determine not only how to write your copy but also how much is warranted.

5. FORCEPS Formula

Factual, Optical, Reversal, Credential, Evidential, Perceptual, and Social proof.

Finally, these represent the various proof elements you can include in your copy. This is particularly helpful when your product is new or unheard of. Proof is the single greatest requirement in all sales copy, especially online — and the lack thereof is the biggest killer of sales, too.

Do you have any formulas or acronyms you refer to to help you write your copy? I’d love to hear about them, and why you use them.

— About the Author —
Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, marketing strategy consultant, and instrumental in
some of the most lucrative online businesses and wildly successful marketing campaigns to ever
hit the web. For more articles like this one, please visit his blog at http://www.michelfortin.com/ and subscribe to his RSS feed.

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Goal Setting Explained

Posted on October 23, 2007 | Filed Under Motivation

You say you have set your goals?

Congratulations!

Are they set for the right reason?

We set goals for short term objectives. Most of these
objectives concern materialistic wants: money, and physical
things.

Let’s look at a slightly different approach and I think you
will find yourself much better off in the long run.

Begin by working backwards from the future by deciding what
your life should be. What will your life five years from
now? Ask yourself these questions.

What are my surroundings? What kind of places am I in?What
am I feeling? What are my emotions?What types of people are
around me? What kind of feelings do I get from them? What
am I doing? Physically?Where am I going? My future? Where
have I been?

Notice I did not ask about money, or named places, or named
people. These answers will provide you with attitudes,
feelings, values, perceptions and other non tangible ideas
that make life worth living no matter where you are, who
you are with, or what you are doing!

Create a life that we like, and the physical part of our
lives will fit right in perfectly! Take a look at the
lifestyle you want to create, and set your plan to achieve
the lifestyle instead of ‘things’ we set our goals to
achieve.

To go even deeper, define your values very clearly and make
sure that your vision of your life in five years fits with
your values.

Is it worth it? You have heard the phrase ‘plan your work
and work your plan’? If you do not create your life by
setting goals and a plan to reach them, someone is doing it
for you. If you think about it, that is really scary! What
kind of vision would some else have for you?

Think of it this way. Look back five years ago in your
life. Are you today where you imagined you would be five
years ago? Or are you where someone else imagined you would
be?

How much would your life improve if you made the plan
instead of ‘them’? Don’t you think you might have a little
more interest in your life than someone else? I should hope
so.

As the advertisement says so well:

Just do it!

Miami Phillips mentors and teaches individuals how to
live have a successful business and personal life.
Great life stories, and the free ‘3 Secrets to Happiness”
Go to:
http://www.miamiphillips.com

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