How A Powerful Headline Can Make Or Break Your Marketing

Make no mistake about it, a powerful headline is the most important part of your marketing piece. It is the first thing your prospect will see, and a decision is made right then and there to continue reading or move on.

There are different schools of thought when it comes to headlines. Joe Sugarman for example used to use short headlines. Sometimes one or two wards. Other experts like Dan Kennedy and Gary Halbert use longer headlines.

If you noticed, most my articles follow the longer format. My choice is not because I believe in one over the other. But due to the way the articles are presented on my website, I feel I need longer headline to communicate with you.

My choice for headlines is not random and follows proven formulas and based on headlines used in sales letters and ads that generated millions of dollars. By the way, one of Gary Halbert’s letters generated over $100,000,000 in revenue over the span of 10 years or so if not mistaken. I hope that gives you an idea how powerful sales letter techniques can be.

I know you may believe that they will not work in Real Estate, or do not work in your city or market. The reality is that they are used consistently and they do work. I follow these techniques and I have predicted results every time I do a mailing thanks to to these formulas.

So lets look at some of the famous headlines and how you can use them:

1. HOW TO Headlines

HOW TO ________
HOW A _________

This is one of the most common, yet powerful headline formats used. If you cannot think of a headline technique, use this format. You may notice I use this format from time to time. I use it because it is easy and quick to use.

Examples in real estate:
HOW TO Sell your house in 30 days or less
HOW A [your city name] man sold his house in 7 days. Realtors were outraged!
HOW TO buy your dream home with absolutely NO MONEY DOWN!

2. SECRET Headlines

THE SECRET  __________
THE X SECRETS __________

These are also powerful headlines. I use them as well when I am going to describe something new, or to give out information. It is human nature to look for the hidden thing that could make us successful. After all, if we did not know it, it is like a secret to us.

Example in real estate:
THE 3 SECRETS To selling your house FAST!
THE little known SECRET to buying your dream home at huge discount
THE SECRET Formula to sell your house in 7 days

3. A LITTLE MISTAKE THAT ________

This headline formula banks on the fear factor and wanting to avoid making the same mistake. Our fear of pain out weighs our desire for profit.

Examples in real estate:
A LITTLE MISTAKE THAT that cost me $3,000 at closing and how to avoid it!
A LITTLE MISTAKE THAT a FSBO seller made and cost him $12,574.00 at closing!

 4. TO _________ WHO WANT TO ___________

This is also one of my favorites. If done right, it gives the prospect the impression that you are addressing their need specifically.

Examples in Real Estate:
TO home owners WHO WANT TO sell their house and pay no commission
TO [neighborhood name] WHO WANT TO know what houses in our [neighborhood name] are selling for

There are many other formulas than these 4, but these should provide you more than you need to get you started. In fact, you probably can use two of them over and over with huge success.

Remember however that the headline’s purpose is to make the prospect want to read the rest of the ad or sales letter. Your response rate will be based on how good your letter is written.

The other commonly used practice is to provide a sub-headline. A sub-headline’s purpose is to further explain and enforce the headline. Sub-headlines become very useful specially in short headlines.

Lets look at an example of a sub-headline to one of the examples above:

---

How To Sell Your House In 30 Days Or Less

Follow these easy to do, proven to work, steps to guarantee the selling of your house in a record time!

Dear Home Owner,

---

As you can see in the above example, the prospect will be so compelled to read on and find out what these steps are. This would be your opportunity to provide the prospect with tips on improving the chances to get their house sold and at the same time sell the prospect on your services to help him implement these tips and provide experienced, professional assessment.

Writing sales letters and ads could be a brain teaser, but there are always short cuts and samples you can use. These are called swipe files. As you run into examples of powerful ads and sales letters, collect them and put them in your swipe file to use in your marketing.

These swipe files do not have to be real estate related. They can be from any industry and with little creativity, come up with real estate version of them that meets your message.

• Elements Of The Perfect Marketing Piece
• Are You Using Advertorials In Your Marketing?
• You Must Have A Powerful Message and Call To Action!
• Your Marketing Sucks!
• Prospects Want Guarantees Not Promises, It Is Your Key To Success!
• Stand Out From your Competition Using Powerful Unique Selling Proposition (USP)!

© 2008 Fadi Zeidan's Articles.