How To Write Effective Safelist Headlines

Your headline is the gateway to your advertisement. It will either entice your reader to continue reading, or turn them of before they've read a single word about your product. A good headline translates into leads.

Headlines are the first thing the eye falls on. If it loses your reader's attention, you automatically lose a potential lead. This translates into a single fact: your headline is what sells your product. An effective headline will be impossible to resist, and it will force the reader to learn more about your product or service.

You only have a few seconds to seize your reader's attention. That being said, it is imperative that you earn how to write good, if not brilliant headlines. Let's start by examining what the function of a headline is.

A headline should grab the reader's attention, communicate potential benefits to that reader, and set-up an expectation of what will follow in the body of the ad-and the headline must do this all at once, instantaneously! Additionally, an effective headline is a filter that attracts your target audience.

Your headline should be educational rather than overly commercial. The best headlines declare an issue or a problem faced by marketing professionals, and they contain the subtle promise of your product or service being able to solve that problem.

For example,"How to?" headlines work well because they appeal to the need for information. Headlines written as a question appeal to the reader's emotions because they will automatically want that question answered and be moved to read on. Headlines written as commands, such as "Double your traffic?" focusing on the most vital benefit of your product or service literally demands your reader's attention.

Another strategy is using a news item as headline copy, such as announcing your new breakthrough service. Finally, consider using the best sentence, subtly rewritten, from a testimonial: My traffic has increased by 50% and sales are at an all time high! Testimonials, which must always be reliable and true to their source, inspire your potential customer's trust and peak their interest.

Obviously, learning how to write elective headlines is essential. But to do that, you must first understand what the qualities of effective headlines are.

An effective headline must be immediately credible. You have to make a claim, but it must not sound impossible or miraculous. If it sounds too amazing, the reader will not believe you, and you will lose them before you get the chance to explain your product or service.

Following this line of reasoning, effective headlines must also be short because the average reader's attention span is short. For the same reason that sound bites work, headlines must be brief and notable. They must be easy to remember, and even better, impossible to forget. Quotation marks work well in headlines, for example, because they both grab the eye and the reader's attention. This is most likely due to the conditioning people receive from reading books. A reader tend to focus more on whats being said within the quotation marks.

Use no more than fifteen words at the most. The shorter the better, so eliminate all extraneous words, such as adjectives and adverbs. These words can make a headline sound unbelievable or like hype, so only use these modifiers in your ad copy.

Headlines should appeal to the reader's emotions rather than their intellect. Generally, strong emotions motivate people to take action, and the more powerful the emotion, the faster the action. So aim to write headlines that inspire awe, excitement, curiosity, even fear, and you will have solidly caught your reader's attention.

Write in the active voice, using the first or second person. Keep all your verbs in the present tense, as it makes the headline more immediate. Aim to write a headline that is in the imperative tense in order to motivate your reader to take some kind of action. In this case, reading on to the rest of the ad.

Think of how you grab someone's attention verbally in your life. You use strong, direct, imperative language. You use strong action verbs and direct nouns and phrases. The same method should be

applied to your headline. You want to stop the reader in their tracks, but then be sure to hold onto their attention.

After you have their focus, aim to entice them by hinting at what your product may do for them. You must accomplish this is in as little words as possible.

The best way to figure out how to entice your audience is to have a clear sense of exactly who your target audience is. Understand what motivates them, what their interests, passions, and priorities are, and what they are looking for.

What is it that causes this target audience to take some kind of action? Once you answer these questions, choose words that will arouse this audience's interest.

However, make sure that your headlines are 100% truthful, accurate, and above all, credible-and your advertising copy must support the claim your headline makes.

It's a good idea to test market different headlines. Once you get the hang of writing them, try out a different headline as you update your ads, and keep track of what ads received the most responses. These are the two or three headlines that you should build your marketing campaign around.

The content of your message in a safelist ad should be educational. Include case studies, research results, testimonials, anecdotes, and the relevant benefits of your product or service.

Focus on the most important benefits your customers will receive from your product. Be specific and stick to facts, don't use hyperbole. Be as down-to-earth as possible or you will sound unbelievable. You want to keep the focus on your product,not on yourself, and you want to appeal to a wide range of different types of people.

It's a good idea to include a compelling story. Focus on what makes your product or service unique, and then find a story that illustrates how a customer was able to effectively make use of this uniqueness. This story should lead the reader to an offer that will compel some form of action.

Offer something upfront, such as a free article, a discount, a free trial offer, or even a free ebook. Then immediately follow it with a link to that offer that declares: CLICK HERE FOR FREE OFFER. This will automatically bring the reader to your website where they can learn more about your product.

Keep your message within 3 screens of text. You want it to be long enough to contain all the relevant information and benefits, but not so long that it will become a chore to read.

Make sure your copy is fluent, flowing, and easy to read. Eliminate all spelling and grammatical mistakes. If you're giving out a lot of information, break up the space using bulleted lists to give the reader's eye a rest. A list should summarize the key benefits in an immediately accessible form.

Make sure the text is easy to read, in a readable font, with enough space between the lines. Use color only to emphasize points, and don't use too much of it or it will become distracting. Avoid colored backgrounds, as they are hard on the eyes. Use upper and lower case text. If you want to use caps, save it for your headlines.

Use a blank line between paragraphs instead of an indent to increase the white space on the page.

Keep your ad copy as brief as a single page if possible. The more emphatic and condensed, the greater the possibility of maintaining reader attention.

Using Free safelists is a great way to try out different ad headlines and copy. Monitor the results carefully until you've honed in on the most defective emails. Then go on to subscribe to the Pro lists using your most effective ad copy.

FREE Gift - Safelist Marketing Revealed
http://www.Free-Safelist-Report.com/Dow nload/Revealed

FREE Download - SMASS Auto-Safelist Submitter
http://SafelistSubmittingSoftware.com/Do wnload/SMASS

By Dennis Whittaker
info@free-safelist-report.com

---

How To Produce The PERFECT Viral Ebook

Viral marketing is probably the number one method for generating traffic and sales - IF it is set up properly.Take the case of a viral ebook - which means a book that can... Read More

Free Content -- or Forbidden Fruit?

Dear Cathy:I just found an interesting article on someone else's website. What are the rules if I want to put it into my own ezine? Can I paraphrase and indicate where I found... Read More

How to Explode Your Database Marketing And Back-End Sales To Increase Your Bottom Line Profits

Set up multiple simultaneous marketing campaigns with database marketing automation email software that get results exploding your internet business marketing while growing multiple optin lists, prospects consistent follow, increasing Back End Sales, and... Read More

12 Steps to Creating a Business Online

"E-commerce"A word pervading our society, making headlines around the world, and causing the stock market to rise and fall with startling ease.It seems every business news story centers on some technology company's "DOT-com"... Read More

After Fifteen Years Or More Of Frustration With Internet Marketing, I Think Ive Found It!

Hello Internet junkies and friends,Did I mention my frustration with online marketing and the years it took me to get where I am today?Did I mention I've found the right solution and the... Read More

Internet Marketing Help

If you're looking for Internet marketing help you've come to the right place. Below you will find several tips to help you navigate your way through the mystifying world of promoting your website... Read More

9 Great Reasons To Help An Internet Marketing Newbie

Zig Ziglar the famous self help guru was once quoted as saying "You can get everything you want in life if you help enough people get everything they want in life."No where is... Read More

What is Pay Per Call? How does it work?

Pay Per Call is the next wave of advertising on the Internet. Similar to a Pay?Per?Click advertising. Pay Per Call has a lot more to offer and a wider audience in mind. The... Read More

It Really is only early Days in the Internet Gold Rush....

One of the questions that I am getting more and more used to hearing lately is:'Is it too late for me to start an online business? Have I missed the boat and have... Read More

Anatomy of an Online Marketing Failure

Wife: "I'm getting sick of these harrassing bill collectors who call me all hours of the night and day."Husband: "I know Sweetheart. I'm going to turn things around financially for us. Bill, down... Read More

Dos and Donts for the Internet Marketing Newbie (Part 2)

You are now reading Part 2 of my article the "Do's and Don'ts for the Internet Marketing Newbie". Part 1 covered the Do's and this part will cover the Don'ts.? Don't throw your... Read More

Highly Recommended Pre-Fab Marketing Business

Unfortunately most 'ready-made' business sites don't seem to be very user or customer friendly and are extremely expensive for what is being offered. Most of these programmes have only one way to make... Read More

Starting an Internet Business is not for Everyone

Creating and building your home internet business does not need to be a daunting task. Knowing how to start an internet business will pretty much be the most important thing you would want... Read More

The New Marketing Landscape

Many of us in the marketing services and/or agency business are starting to see some real tangible marketing patterns emerging that businesses need to be aware of if they want to leverage their... Read More

An Internet Marketing Secret: Using Tie-Downs to Increase Sales

If you could get your prospective customers nodding their heads in agreement with every major point in your sales copy, that would be likely to increase your sales, wouldn't it?If you could get... Read More

How To Increase Your Profits By 40% Or More With No Extra Work!

Before I expand on the above heading, I do have a slight confession to make - you will have to do 'some' work for this process to work but I promise it really... Read More

The New State Of The Art Method For Making Money With Joint Ventures

If you are anything like me, you spend a lot of time researching joint ventures and going through the chore of analysing all the joint venture proposals you get on a daily basis... Read More

Build the Snowball and It Will Run

Setting up your own online business can seem extremely daunting. Whether you've already got a business and want to sell products and services online or want to start from scratch with a new... Read More

Online Sales: Easy Way To Turn Freebies Into Sales

Freebies. Freebies. Everyone loves getting things for free.You can increase sales and profits by offering freebies to people who buy your main product or service.Freebies increase the over all value of your main... Read More

Internet Marketing for Dummies!

There are many people every day jumping into the online world. With more and more people using the internet the floodgates of internet users are opening wider everyday. But how, as a home... Read More

4 Simple Secrets for Net Marketing Success

Starting an internet based business when you have zero marketing experience is, to say the least, bewildering. I speak from personal experience as I started out with no specialized knowledge. I gradually weaved... Read More

Subconsciously Command Your Readers To Buy

Tell your readers what they are probably thinking, feeling or doing as they read your ad copy. This strategy will usually trigger their own subconscious mind to bring out these feelings or actions.You... Read More

Take the Guesswork Out of Niche Marketing

Many of us learn from the Gurus that we should identify a niche and dominate it, so we can make money online. They give us brief glimpses about what is to be done,... Read More

The Yin & Yang of Internet Marketing

Westerners believe opposites flow in a natural cycle always replacing the other. They tend to look at things as black or white, right or wrong, up or down, giving a separation and unrelated-ness... Read More

Make Money With A Business Opportunity Online

There are so many business opportunities these days that promise to help you make money online. What should you do to choose one? Here are some tips to help you with your decision.1.... Read More

There is Hidden a Successful Formula in Everything

Although many say that things change on the net, still what worked before keeps working. You can advertise with start pages or banner exchanges. They are both good tools. They can be the... Read More

Chameleon Advertising: Marketing to Your Niche Markets with Stories

Do you remember how, in days gone by, salesmen would go door to door selling their wares? These entrepreneurs would "go the extra mile" just to have the chance to demonstrate their products... Read More

Dollars In The Details!

When it comes to your marketing message, the little things count. Trouble is, you'll never come to respect how much, until you make a commitment to science.Let me ask you something. Do you... Read More

Sheep Spend and Lose, Leaders Make Money

Remember that leaders spend more money on learning and growing, but they do their homework and work hard to make money.Sheep follow the herd blindly with their wallets open hoping someone else will... Read More