Write Benefits in Your Headlines to Deliver the Dream!

by George Dodge

Published on this site: August 5th, 2005 - See more articles from this month

When you create headlines, do you put benefits into your headlines to deliver the dream? Do you create headlines that draw your reader deeper into the rest of copy?

Let me ask you a simple question. "Why do people read any printed material beyond the headline?"

The answer, because there was something in the headline that attracted their attention, raised their interest and curiosity, or contained a perceived benefit for the reader. At that moment in time, the headline was an irresistible headline to your reader.

How to Write a Headline to be an Irresistible Headline.

If you are writing material to sell a product, what is it that your target audience is seeking? Of course, it's the benefits that your product offers them (your product does have benefits for your target audience, doesn't it?).

They are looking for a beneficial means of solving their problems. They want to know "what's in it for them." They seek solutions to problems and new options that save time, money, and effort. If your product can do all three, you'll have a winner if you can convincingly convey those benefits to your reader.

But, no matter how good the product is and how well it matches their wants and desires, if you don't create headlines that present the benefits to your readers, then you certainly will not have a headline that makes you rich.

The purpose of this headline writing technique is to present your solution as the solution to your target market's most base wants and desires.

However, in order to render the ideal solution when you create your headline, you must understand what your target market wants their likes and dislikes their disappointments and frustrations with other competing alternatives. What is it that bothers your target market most concerning your niche?

Once you understand the wants, desires, or dreams of your target market, you can "enter into the conversation inside your customer's mind" as the famous copywriter Robert Collier once taught. Copywriter Maria Veloso refers to this as Frame-of-Mind marketing.

Supplied with this important knowledge, it's not too difficult to determine what it would take to create a more beneficial solution. But, you don't want to be content with being a little better than the other options available. If possible, you want to be the ultimate alternative to your target market's problem. What would your target population really desire to have, to be, or to achieve, that their current alternatives fail to provide? What is the right alternative - the best answer to the problem?

So, now it's time to become the master copywriter. Put on your thinking cap. Think of how to write a headline that conveys the benefits of your product or service as the solution to the wants and desires of your target market. When creating your headline, try to put yourself in the shoes of your target audience mentally and think of how to give your audience the "perfect alternative" - the biggest benefit they genuinely desire.

Create the Irresistible Headline.

When writing your headline, your mission is to span the gap between where your target market is and where they want to be. Try to imagine what would be the perfect end state. Then, using picture words, create a mental vision that meets the fundamental dreams and desires that members of your target market harbor inside their own minds. Finally, portray your message as the perfect solution - the dream option.

Create an irresistible headline.

I'm sure that you have heard the old saying that in order to get rich, you need to find a need and fill it. But that is really not the answer. Many sales people will tell you that that course of action is a sure way to the poor house. People don't buy what the need, the buy what they want. If you need transportation, a Yugo will do, but many people want and buy Mercedes, BMWs, and other expensive cars because the want or desire them, not because they need them.

Creating headlines that target needs will result in weak headlines with little results. Create headlines that make you rich by targeting your reader's wants, dreams, and desires. Purchases are made on emotion and then afterwards justified with logic. Sell the dream, not the need.

So, find out what your target audience wants, desires, or dreams about and fulfill that want or desire with your miracle product. Then put the strongest benefit(s) in your headline.

What might a headline look like that puts a strong benefit right in the headline? How about this example from Jimmy D. Brown: "How to Sell 300% More of Your Product in 72 Hours Than You Did All Month." If you sell products, would you like to do that? Could you resist reading at least a little further on to find out how that might be done? For a product seller, that headline is most likely an irresistible headline.

Or how about some of these famous headlines:

1. Headline 1:
   
   "How A New Discovery Made A Plain Girl Beautiful" (If you thought you were a plain girl, would this headline interest you? Would you continue to read on past the headline?)
   
   
2. Headline 2 :
   
   "Hands That Look Lovelier In 24 Hours - Or Your Money Back" (If you were a woman that thought your dishpan hands were ugly, might you be interested in reading past this headline?)
   
   
3. Headline 3:
   
   "Free Book - Tells You 12 Secrets Of Better Lawn Care" (If you wanted a better lawn to win the garden club's yard of the month award, would you order this Free book?)

Want your sales to skyrocket? Create headlines that deliver the dream!

George Dodge is owner of the http://www.Headline-Creator-Pro.com website where you can download software that saves you time and effort by allowing you to quickly and easily create headlines with push button ease. While there be sure to subscribe to his Weekly Headline Tips - you'll be glad you did.