headlines
Would the Sex and the City Girls Click on This?
Online or offline, on the magazine rack or the clearance rack, headlines are your one sure chance to make an impression.
Jeff Sexton, our resident copywriting pro, makes his Copyblogger debut today, revealing secret techniques for alluring headlines. Here’s a peek…
I bet you didn’t know that the main characters of HBO’s Sex and the City represent one of the better examples of the four personality temperaments, did you?
Just about every personality typing system—from Hippocrates’ humors to Myers-Briggs/Keirsey or DISK—groups personalities into four primary temperaments. Only the labels differ:
- sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic
- spontaneous, methodical, competitive, humanistic
- artisan, guardian, rational, idealist
and so on.
And, yes, each major character on Sex and the City typifies one of the four temperaments…
Want to know how it’s done? Just order up another cosmo and click here.
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Written by:The Grok
Online Copywriting 101: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet
Blues icon B.B. King was once asked how he found his heart-warming, bone-chilling sound. “It’s simple,” he said. “I only steal from the best.”
After publishing more than 2 million words — online and print — we’re convinced that King was right. To become a good writer, one must first be a studious reader. (How else will you know whom to steal, er, borrow from?) So, in that spirit, we’ve compiled a list of some of GrokDotCom’s favorite Web copy resources in hopes that copywriters everywhere will steal the best tips from our colleagues, friends, and staff. Enjoy!
Writing Headlines
1.) “Headlines: Do You Really Need 200 to Land a Good One?” — Attversumption.com
2.) “Are Your Headlines Missing These Precise Psychological Triggers?” — Ezine @rticles
3.) “Top 10 Ideas for Testing Your Headlines” — GrokDotCom
Readability
4.) “Nobody Reads Web Pages — But Everybody Engages Websites” — American Small Business
5.) “The Secret of Writing to be Read” — Seth Godin
6.) “People Really Do Read Online — Who Knew?” — Marketing Interactions
7.) “Fight the Bull” — Bullfighter software helps to eliminate jargon from web copy
Customer-focused Copy
8.) Test your customer-focus ratio with Future Now’s ‘We-We’ Monitor.
Copywriting Techniques
9.) “Six Types of Words That You Should Axe in Business Writing” — Bizcovering
10.) “Going for Broca: Show Don’t Tell in Action” — GrokDotCom
11.) “Time vs. Money” — GrokDotCom
12.) “What is Substance?” — GrokDotCom
13.) “Style vs. Substance” — GrokDotCom
14.) “Pain vs. Gain” — GrokDotCom
15.) “Intellect vs. Emotion” — GrokDotCom
16.) “Emotional Perspective Redux” — GrokDotCom
17.) “You Ain’t All That! — A Marketing Copy Autopsy” — GrokDotCom
Trust & Relationship Building
18.) “Transparent Marketing: How to Earn the Trust of a Skeptical Consumer” — Marketing Experiments Journal
19.) “Inspiring Online Credibility” (a three-part series) — GrokDotCom
20.) “Screencast: Building Trust & Credibility Online” — GrokDotCom
Email Marketing
21.) Retail Email blog
22.) MailChimp resources center
23.) GravityMail — keeps your emails and newsletters from getting junked by sp@m blockers
24.) SpamAssassin — Open-source spam filter
Copywriting Blogs & Resources
25.) Copyblogger — Brian Clark
26.) The Copywriter Underground – Tom Chandler
27.) Grammar Girl — Mignon Fogarty
28.) ChrisG — Chris Garrett
29.) ProBlogger — Darren Rowse
30.) The Copywriting Maven — Roberta Rosenberg
31.) WebInkNow — David Meerman Scott
32.) Visual Thesaurus
33.) Word Spy
Transcription Services
34.) SpeakWrite
35.) Casting Words
36.) AccuConference — Record interviews and conference calls, download them as MP3 files, and even have them transcribed for an extra fee. Great for podcast interviews, content planning and tutorials.
Copywriters
37.) Jack Forde
38.) Cynthia Williamson
39.) David Garfinke
40.) Chuck McKay
41.) Bob Bly
42.) Tim Miles
Public Relations
43.) “Podcast: David Meerman Scott on the New Rules of Marketing & PR” (a two-part interview on how to make the most of multi-channel public relations) — GrokDotCom
Blogging
44.) “Blogging for Beginners” — ProBlogger (Whether you’re starting a blog or just thinking about it, this is the place to be. A great collection of must-read how-to posts from Darren Rowse.)
45.) “5 Simple Ways to Open Your Blog Post With a Bang” — Copyblogger (Finesse tips from Brian Clark.)
46.) “Write a Review — Rediscover Your Blogging Groove” — ProBlogger
47.) “How to Attract Links and Increase Web Traffic — The Ultimate Guide” — Copyblogger
48.) “The Two Most Important Words in Blogging” — Copyblogger
49.) “Lessons in Corporate Blogging” — Nicholas Carr for BusinessWeek
Persuasive Online Copywriting
50.) Persuasive Online Copywriting: How to Take Your Words to the Bank by Bryan Eisenberg, Jeffrey Eisenberg, and Lisa T. Davis. In our first book, the Future Now team gives a step-by-step tutorial in writing for the Web. Out-of-print since 2006, you can either pay $100 or more for a used copy on Amazon, or download the ebook for just $19.95.
Part 2 of the Cheat Sheet…
Since there are so many great resources to copy, we’ve decided to start with the essentials first — but, yes, there really are 101 links! In Part 2, we share some our favorite tips, including how to use web copy to engage different customer personas and personality types. To make sure you don’t miss out on future copywriting and marketing optimization tips, subscribe to GrokDotCom (weekly, monthly, or daily newsletter — or read daily via RSS). Thanks for reading!
. .
EDITOR’S NOTE: Join us on June 2, 2008 in Manhattan for FutureNow’s Persuasive Online Copywriting seminar. Tickets are only $795 for this popular one-day crash course on the most profitable ways to move the bottom line with nothing more than words. Just words.
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Written by:The Grok
Google Website Optimizer Testing: Bold Text
Everyone wants to test nowadays, but few know what to do. People are out there testing thousands of headlines at a time, trying to figure out what is the best combination. While testing, there are sure to be combinations which will negatively affect conversion and the overall branding of the site.
So, why not put your best foot forward? Look at your site’s conversion stumbling blocks and find ways to break through them. Test a couple of examples, find the best combination, then do follow-up tests. Doing so helps keep your site relevant to the visitor while showcasing it in a professional manner. Simple persuasion elements like headlines can be easily tested and, oftentimes, these are the things that end up making a big impact overall.
While working with Jigsawhealth.com we decided to do some testing using Google Website Optimizer on a page to move visitors forward, through the product categories. The links on the page were ineffective, so we decided to test a bolded version of the links with the gray “Supplements” bar beneath the links. This resulted in a 7% increase of conversion.
When such a simple thing like bolding can affect a site’s conversion rate, imagine what can be done once you optimize your site’s other persuasion elements…
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Written by:Josh Hay
Headlines + Hyperlinks = Conversion + Cash
You want to know what to test to improve your conversion rates, right? Sure you do. Everyone does. You want to know the fastest way to online riches. And maybe you want to insert “easiest” into that last sentence. I hear ya.
Brian Clark told an interesting story in his delightful Copyblogger. Two guys put up essentially the same post about Paris Hilton. Guy One got a handful of “diggs,” while Guy Two was at 1072 “diggs” as of Clark’s post time. The difference? Guy Two wrote a snappier, more descriptive, more appealing, funnier headline.
Headlines. Eight out of ten people read them. Only two out of ten people bother reading anything else. Guess where you want to spend time flexing your copywriting and testing muscles?
Add hyperlinks to your persuasive headlines and you’ve got an element that moves more of your visitors deeper into your conversion process. That’s the fast part.
Do you need an IT person to make these kinds of changes? To write the persuasive copy? To do the hyperlinks? I hope not. That’s the easy part.
Give your headlines some attention. Improve them. Link them. Test them. It leads to a better conversion rate. That’s the riches part.
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Written by:The Grok
Top 10 Ideas for Testing Your Headlines
Websites have tons of elements you can test. Some elements will have very little impact on your ability to persuade and convert your site visitors. Others will have a dramatic impact. Of course you’d like to know which elements rank among the most influential when it comes to your bottom line.
We’ve spent the month of January working on Quick Start Guides that can help you understand which elements have the biggest effect on your conversion rates and how to test them using a simple A/B (or split) test: we now have a guide for retailers and one for lead generation. And we’ve also been working closely with Google to create a 10 Minute guide for their Website Optimizer.
When we created our example test for Google’s nifty (and free) online testing tool, we chose a headline. When it comes to the persuasive copy you create for your website, headlines should rank as one of your highest priorities.
Why are headlines so important? They are among the very first elements of your persuasive process with which visitors actively engage. Readers of your pages use headlines and sub headlines (headers and subheaders) to understand the content on a page and decide if they want to read more of your copy. Headlines aid in the visual task of scanning and skimming, which helps your visitors organize the information you present. Worded appropriately, they encourage your visitors to go deeper into your persuasive copy.
How do you go about creating highly persuasive headlines? What sorts of things about headlines can you test? These are the same questions the Google folks asked us. So, for our documentation, I created a list of ways you can test your headlines. Below is an excerpt of the top ten, with examples.
1. Test fractions or percentages to prove your claim
Nine out of ten children in Sub-Saharan Africa have HIV
90% of the children in Sub-Saharan Africa have HIV
9/10 of the children in Sub-Saharan Africa have HIV
2. Test asking questions in the headline (make sure you directly answer the question after the headline)
Make a difference in the life of a child
Do you want to make a difference in the life of a child?
Can you make a difference in the life of a child?
Will you make a difference in the life of a child?
3. Test using emotional-laden words
Bring comfort and solace to the life of a poverty-stricken child
4. Test different types of formatting: bolding, fonts, colors, capitalizations, sizes
Make a Difference in the Life of a Child
Make a difference in the life of a child
Make a difference in the life of a child
MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIFE OF A CHILD
MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIFE OF A CHILD
5. Test the number of words used in the headline
Make a difference in the life of a child
Make a difference in a child’s life
6. Test using exclamation points
Make a difference in the life of a child
Make a difference in the life of a child!
7. Test using text to convey the benefits versus the features of your products or services
Your donations help us make a difference
Your donations bring medicine to the needy and support research
Your donations go directly to the front lines in the global war against AIDS
8. Test self-focused (we/I) versus customer-focused text (you)
We help make a difference in the life of a child
You can help make a difference in the life of a child
9. Test using quotations in the headline (consider the length of the headline)
President Bush has committed to make a difference
President Bush has committed “to turn the tide against AIDS in the most afflicted nations”
10. Test the reading level of the headline
Few receive pediatric antiretroviral treatment (Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level = 12)
Few get appropriate medical help (Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level = 9.9)
Few get the medicine they need (Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level = 2.4)
Writing good headlines is an art. It takes time, practice, patience. It also takes knowing what works best for your audience (which is not always what you think will work best for them). When you test your headlines, you’ll be able to add knowledge of your audience to your copywriting equation. And that’s when your headlines will be at their persuasive best!
Good luck and let me know how your testing goes.
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Written by:Josh Hay
