Website design By BotEap.comAre you avoiding learning about headlines because you are not a copywriter? Better not, because it does not matter if you make a PowerPoint presentation, a sales call or write an email, you will need this information. The last thing you need is a headline that makes a lot of noise and carries your marketing strategy with it.
Website design By BotEap.comOkay, now that I have your attention, please buckle up as we dive into the science of how to recognize the power behind the headline. Find out for yourself the precise psychological reasons why headlines appeal to us so much.
Website design By BotEap.comHow are we going to play the headline game
Website design By BotEap.comLet me play tour guide. First, I’ll give you three sets of headlines that really work. I will identify the trigger in the headline. Then I’ll tell you the psychological reasons why they work. Right after, you take over and implement these headlines in your marketing strategy. Understand? Yes? Let’s go.
Website design By BotEap.comPsychological trigger n. 1
Website design By BotEap.comBased on questions vs. Statement-Based Holders
Website design By BotEap.comDo you make these mistakes in English?
Website design By BotEap.comDo you know where you fail in your marketing strategy?
Website design By BotEap.comIs Internet Marketing Driving You Crazy?
Website design By BotEap.comLadies and Gentlemen … Introducing the Question-Based Headline! A headline that outperforms the daylights in a simple statement-based headline. When tested, a question like Do you know where you went wrong in your marketing strategy? gets a lot more attention than this is where you are failing in your marketing strategy. Which one would attract your attention the most? Have no trouble paying your bills or Are you having trouble paying your bills?
Website design By BotEap.comSo why does the brain go wakawaka when faced with a question-based headline? The reason is simple. The questions irritate the brain and make the gray cells do a neurological dance. The mere sight of a question mark forces your brain to want to know more.
Website design By BotEap.comDo you have a statement in your headline? You do, huh. Well, change it for a question and then move on to psychological trigger n. 2.
Website design By BotEap.comPsychological trigger n. 2
Website design By BotEap.comProblem-based vs. Solution-based headlines
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Website design By BotEap.comIs your marketing strategy missing a vital link?
Website design By BotEap.comNow that you know the power of questions, these are double whammy headlines! Not only do they make your brain buzz like a wind-up toy, they also bring out a pain in your brain. If your brain is doing mental aerobics right now, it’s because these headlines are causing you real pain and you are the precise target audience.
Website design By BotEap.comYou identify with these problems and are willing to solve them. The brain is obsessed with problem solving. It is a basic survival instinct that kicks in. For thousands of years, the brain has been moonlighting.
Website design By BotEap.comWhile its main function is to make sure that the rest of the parts of your body do what they are supposed to do, its secondary function is to keep you alive. So you actively look for potential problems you might have, and when you see one in the headline, you say, “That’s for me!” and goes straight to the headline based on issues.
Website design By BotEap.comHowever, watch most of the advertising around you. Everything is based on solutions. You see it, then you don’t see it. Recycle your solution-based headline into a good problem-based power pack.
Website design By BotEap.comDone? Ok, let’s yell at psychological trigger No. 3.
Website design By BotEap.comPsychological trigger n. 3
Website design By BotEap.comCurious vs. Headlines not curious
Website design By BotEap.comDo you see the title of this article? Have the floor these on it. This implies that there are certain psychological triggers. Now how the hell will you know what they are if you don’t start reading this article? Sure you may be the living guru of marketing headlines, but even you can’t be one hundred percent sure.
Website design By BotEap.comYou’re going to take a look, you think. A little glimpse. And you do, except it’s a very slippery slide once you get up, buddy.
Website design By BotEap.comA skilled communicator knows that he must get the curiosity factor to move the bag and luggage to its owner. It’s the key to literally sucking in an audience. So it really depends on the quality of the content, the flow, and your ability to keep your audience mesmerized.
Website design By BotEap.comCurious headlines work because the brain is intensely curious. Tell a person not to look behind the door, and they will want to look. Tell them that they can’t have something and that they want to know why. The analysis is part of Mr. Brain’s job.
Website design By BotEap.comAll questions must be answered, otherwise it throbs in your head like a jackhammer with questions that go incessantly Why? Why? Why? (Read the power of why) When you create a curiosity factor, you literally turn on every light in your customer’s brain.
Website design By BotEap.comHeadlines with a HOW in them are typical curiosity-based headlines. They involve a problem that you might have and need to solve. And to prove my point, look at the following line and see how your eye goes white – right on it!
Website design By BotEap.comHow to build headlines without doing a complete
Mess of things
Let me show you how I would do it. For example, I wrote a lot of potential headlines for this article. These were the last four:
Website design By BotEap.com1) Psychological reasons why these headlines work like magic
Website design By BotEap.com2) What precise psychological reasons make these headlines work like magic?
Website design By BotEap.com3) Is your marketing strategy lacking in these precise psychological triggers?
Website design By BotEap.com4) Are your headlines missing these precise psychological triggers?
Website design By BotEap.comLet’s put these guys on a couch, okay?
Website design By BotEap.com1) Psychological reasons why these headlines work like magic
Website design By BotEap.comThis headline had only one of the above characteristics. I had a curiosity factor. However, he was missing one question and he certainly got a big zero on the problem factor. Needless to say, it soon receded into oblivion.
Website design By BotEap.com2) What precise psychological reasons make these headlines work like magic?
Website design By BotEap.comOh, this was pretty powerful. I had the question. He was full of curiosity, but fell flat on the audit of the problem. Goodbye, Mr. Headline.
Website design By BotEap.com3) Does your marketing strategy lack these precise psychological factors?
Website design By BotEap.comHe scored on all points. Curiosity, problems, and questions happily sat together, hoping I was as pleased as a punch. I was, until I noticed a slight discrepancy. It was attractive to the wrong target audience.
Website design By BotEap.comThis headline would attract people interested in the marketing strategy, not the headlines. They went in, found themselves in the wrong room, drank a glass of wine, and ran away. He needed people to stay for the party. He needed people interested in the headlines. People like you. Inevitably, I had to refine it a bit. And this is what I came up with.
Website design By BotEap.com4) Are your headlines missing these precise psychological triggers?
Website design By BotEap.comPersonally, I think this was the most powerful of all. If I were a man, I would let him marry my daughter (if I had one) and give her my blessings. This headline not only encapsulated all of the above triggers, it was precisely located. You targeted a niche audience and got their undivided attention.
Website design By BotEap.comWhat does Abraham Lincoln have to do with the headlines?
Abe apparently said, “If I had six hours to cut down a tree, I would spend the first four sharpening the ax.” Your headline is what you need to spend most of your time improving.
Website design By BotEap.comYou see, people are always in their own world, thinking about their own problems. If you don’t get them out of their reverie, you have no chance of getting them to buy whatever it is you’re selling.
Website design By BotEap.comThere is also another dimension to this sharpening job
Website design By BotEap.comYou cannot be totally satisfied with the title simply if it fits these three parameters. That is science, not art. The art is getting into the brains of your customers. You will find that a slightly different title will generate twenty to two thousand times better returns without any change in content.
Website design By BotEap.comThe only way to know which one works best is by testing the headlines. The tests are not as difficult as you think. Put it in an email and send it to a dozen friends and colleagues. You will soon get a pattern and probably some valuable feedback. Take it. It will help you create a headline that really grabs the attention of your customers.
Website design By BotEap.comDo you need all three psychological triggers to work together?
No, you don’t. A headline can work perfectly with one or two of the above psychological triggers.
Website design By BotEap.comIn life, three can be a crowd, but in the headlines, the more the merrier. Use the power of headlines in your marketing strategy, your PowerPoint presentations, sales calls, emails, newsletters, and even articles like these.
Website design By BotEap.comBetter headlines mean better results. Simple logic, huh?
