If you’ve been listening to me (or any marketer who knows their stuff) you’ll surely know how important the headline is in any advertisement. It’s a walloping 80% of the impact of the advert and someone once said that it’s an advertisement for the rest of the advertisement.

I happened to be looking at the often boring adverts by public authorities in the classifieds the other day and an advert by a Council caught my eye coz of its headline. Instead of the usual, boring bureaucratic language they normally use this advert was headlined “Want to hold an outdoor event or market?” Simple, to the point and attention getting (for those interested in such things); it earns my applause!

Maybe they could have used one of the twelve magic words to make it stronger like “Do you want to hold an outdoor event or market?” but it was a pretty good effort!

It would have been even better if they’d had their logo at the bottom of the advert. Logos are not headlines and don’t attract attention because people only look for the name and logo if they’ve decided they are interested in what’s on offer. To paraphrase the late Zig Ziglar… people who use their logos as headlines have skinny kids!

So what’s the lesson? When you write an advert (or a subject line) spend 80% of your time getting the headline right, so you really get your target’s attention. You’ll be impressed by the results you achieve.

By the way, if you’d like a copy of the 12 magic words to use in headlines, just send us an email.

 

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