10 simple tips to help you write better headlines and make more sales

Headlines are the most important part of your sales letter. They account for ~ 90% of your success. In other words, if you don’t get your headlines right, your site won’t sell.

What’s the job of your headlines? They have to get your site visitor excited. Their goal is to grab your reader’s attention and to make her continue reading your sales letter. If your headline fails to create excitement, it’s very likely that your visitor will leave your site immediately and probably never return again.

How do you create excitement? You have to intrigue your reader with the fantastic benefits of your product. The headline of your sales letter has to present the most important benefit - the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) -- of your product.

The goal of your headline is to stir emotions and to help your reader to imagine enjoying all the great benefits of your product. People buy for emotional reasons and that’s why it’s so important to describe the benefits of your product and not its features.

Your site visitor is having only one question on her mind: What’s in it for me? -- How can I solve my problem?, How can I make more money?, How can I get that job? ... Focus only on your customer and answer her burning questions immediately -- that’s how to write a great headline.

In your headline, tell your customer that you have a solution for her problem, that you have the answers for her questions, that you will provide what she wants...

The result? Your reader will be excited right from the start, she will be eager to continue reading through your sales letter and chances are really good that you will get the click on the "credit card symbol" at the end of your sales letter.

Learn how to write a great headline and getting the sale will become easy -- outstanding headlines can increase your sales by several 100%.

One headline isn't enough - use also subheadings

* Right at the beginning of your sales letter you have to fire your biggest gun -- your USP, that’s the most compelling benefit of your product. To keep your reader interested and excited, use several subheadings throughout your sales copy.

* Each of these subheadings conveys a benefit. That way you will pull your reader through your sales letter, right to the "Buy Me" button. If you don’t keep your reader interested, you risk loosing her. So, keep on firing benefits. Also, it’s absolutely ok to state one and the same benefit several times in different ways.

* Most web surfers only scan pages, they don’t read every single word, but they will you’re your headlines. Therefore you have to make sure, that a visitor who reads only your headlines understands exactly what he will get out of your product.

* Make your reader’s job easy. Divide your text into small logical blocks and start each block with a headline. A headline is like an ad for the text that follows -- it has to convince your visitor to keep on reading.

10 simple tips to make your headlines more effective:

1. Write down all the benefits of your product. What kind of problems does it solve? How it make people happier, healthier, wealthier?...

2. You might not be aware of all the benefits. Think outside the box and keep on looking for more benefits -- don't let any of them slip away.

3. What is the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) of your product. What makes it stand out of the crowd, what makes it unique? That's your most important benefit, that's the one that will differentiate your product from those of your competitors.

4. Use short, active verbs that rouse emotions and create images.

5. Write your headlines only for your target customer and don’t care about the rest.

6. Powerful words you can use in your headlines: How to, Free, Why, Who wants to know, Finally... or ask an open-ended question: "Why do so many people fail to attract more money?"

7. Don’t hype, what you are saying has to be believable.

8. Brainstorm 10 - 20 headlines.

9. Pretend you are your customer. Which headline would get you excited, which one stirs your emotions? Pick your three favorites and keep on modifying and changing them until you are really happy.

10. Take a break and come back the following day with a fresh mind. Do a final edit if necessary.

Learning how to write a great headline takes time and effort, but its absolutely crucial if you want to succeed. It's very likely that you will spend the same amount of time for your headlines as for the rest of your sales letter -- and that's perfectly ok.

Niche market

According to the pros, don’t waste your time attempting to target anything else! After spending countless hours of learning from some of the best internet marketing mentors, it is clear that they all teach this as the key to your targeting efforts. Don’t re-invent this concept when it works so well. So let’s take a quick look into this.

First of all, what is a ‘niche’?

In terms of successful internet marketing, a niche is, in its simplest form, a group of people, typically known as ‘members’, with a common interest. For example, a group of people who have an interest in training show dogs.

Second of all, what constitutes a potentially good niche?

In order for a niche to be worthy of selecting it must have members with defined needs and wants that can be met by products or services that those members are willing to purchase. Let's take a closer look at what that means relevant to our dog training example used above. Defined needs: they will all likely need to know what the basics of dog show training are and probably all want to know what the best trainers in the world do - what are the secrets to their great training techniques. To meet those needs an example of a great product would be an ebook that explains the basics of dog show training and to satisfy their wants, perhaps a video of an interview with one of the world's best trainers. Finally, check to see if there is an indication that these members would pay for these products. If this combination of attributes exists, then you can proceed with a plan to target that market.

Next, how do you find such a niche on the internet?

There are several ways to find a niche market including studying magazines, general directory of websites, watching infomercials, reading direct mail etc. If you are truly interested in learning the details of each of these methods, I recommend you find a great internet marketing mentor. If you just want to do it on your own for now, use these ways to start your search by trying to see recurring or popular trends. For example, go to 'training dogs for show' websites and see if there are many sites, do these sites sell relevant products and services? Are there show dog training magazines? Using all of the resources mentioned above you should be able to determine whether your chosen area is a niche you can target market.

Finally, how do you pick a hot niche?

You need to learn how to check traffic inventory (how many members go to the show dog training websites, for example), survey what is known as the shotgun splatter effect, analyze the average sales price in that niche, search for competitors, avoid oversaturated markets and then, decide if that niche is likely to have other spin off niches that will be of interest to the niche you are considering.

Once you have made your selection you will be able to market to the members of this niche over and over again. Sound like fun? Get yourself a great mentor if you need to learn more. It is my passion and hobby to seek out internet mentors on a variety of topics that interest me, so I know there are great ones out there on this topic.

Good luck with targeting your niche market!

Doug Gray

If you want to learn more about niche target market tactics, you need to know that this is just one of the many powerful concepts taught at: onlinemarketinginformation. com