The “Anatomy” of an Ad: Headlines

The “Anatomy” of an Ad: Headlines pt. 1

The first thing we have to understand is that there always three fundamental primary components of any print advertising (especially in print). There’s a headline, there’s body copy and then there’s an offer or a call to action. In most cases we see advertising pieces that have none of the above ah and sometimes just one or two of the above.

This actually does apply to radio and television and other broadcast media as well, but let’s focus on print advertising for today’s purposes. That would include, of course, newspaper inserts, newspaper display ads, daily papers, periodicals, weekly’s, magazines, direct mail, sales letters, flyers, post cards, anything that is landing on the desk of your prospective customer and is designed for them to look at it, get some interest in it, and call you to place an order or to call you for more information.

So the 3 fundamental components of any type of print advertising is number one headline, number two body copy, and number three an offer or a call to action. Following that very, very overly simplistic formula, but for today that’s a good place to start, we’re going to focus on these three primary components.

The Headline:

Just as copywriting is, writing good headlines is an art all in and of itself and you’ll find lots and lots of resources to help you generate better headlines on our member’s sections and things like that, but the first thing to think about is, again, to sort of reiterate what I’ve said already, when you’re thinking about a headline you should think more like an Infomercial, or more like the local newspaper or the Wall Street Journal, or the New York Times, than you do the Ford ad, or the Taco Bell ad, the major national advertisers, Pepsi, Coke, Bud Light.

What we need to think about is how a prospective customer is going to view this piece of material. So let’s, for example, talk about a direct mail letter or a postcard, something like that, something that somebody is going to take out of their mailbox and sit down at their desk and look at.

It’s important first, to understand that the Headline should be something that’s relevant to the prospect. It shouldn’t be something that’s important only to you as a business owner or important to your friends. It needs to be something that’s important to the customer. For example, if my ideal customer is the mom of a nine year old, then my message should resonate with the mom of a nine year old.

The name of your “style”, your Marital Arts Lineage, all the trophies you’ve won, or your Martial Arts resume are not (in general) of interest to your prospects.

Don Swartz says “No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care!”

The headline should do one of three things (I’m very cautious to say the third) but one of three things:

#1 – It should answer a question or solve a problem that the prospect may have.

So for example, if I’m in the health supplements business, then a decent headline for one of my health supplements might be: “Dear Men 25 to 35: Did you know the leading cause of heart disease is high cholesterol . . . this product reduces cholesterol by 79% in 30 days guaranteed or your money back.” Something like that would be a headline that might be interesting to someone that’s looking at that if they fit the criteria of what your headline laid out.

#2 – Promise a Benefit:

The second thing your headline can do to be the most effective is to promise a benefit. Obviously if you’re a “fitness” focused school, your benefit is losing weight or to look deeper into that benefit it’s fitting better into your clothes or to look deeper into that benefit it’s living a longer, higher quality life, to possibly look even deeper into that benefit, to improve your relationships, self esteem, improve the way you feel about yourself, all of those benefits that go along with weight loss.

So that’s the second opportunity in headlines.

#3 – Create Curiosity or Interest

The third thing we should be thinking about when we’re generating headlines is the one that I’m the least excited to talk about, although it’s what most people focus on, because it’s too overused and if we’re in a direct response mindset then we have to be cautious of using this, but the third way to use a headline effectively is to state something in your headline that creates a great deal of interest in the reader, grabs their attention.

It seems simple but it certainly worthwhile exercise to go to the local so supermarket or newsstand and pick up a copy of the tabloids, a newspaper or a top magazine and to carefully observe the headlines.

I’m sure I don’t know what the headlines in today’s paper says but I’m sure it’s something like “Horrendous murder in…….”, or “Tragic Death in………” or Stock Market Plummets…….” or the like. The sensationalism in newspaper headlines if of course not on accident. It’s extremely important for the newspaper editor to get your attention in 5 seconds, and make you pick the paper up and exchange it for 50 cents on the news stand.

We should learn the lesson from this! In our industry specifically I see, on an almost a daily basis martial arts school advertising pieces that focus primarily on the owner’s style their physical prowess the competition record those types of fact that are irrelevant to a prospective buyer

Lastly in considering your headlines, keep in mind that the headline really has only one purpose. The headlines’ purpose is to attract the prospective customers attention and make them want to read the next line of your copy and to know your marketing piece is trying to tell them something important.

**Article Provided By NAPMA, The National Association of Professional Marital Artists, the Martial Arts Leaders in Helping School Owners Add $150,000.00/year to Their Personal Income With Their Martial Arts School.

**Need help accelerating your martial arts marketing results, or martial arts business growth? Check out NAPMA the National Association of Professional Martial Artists. They are the industry leaders in helping martial arts school owners build the business of their dreams!visit: www.NapmaFreeOffer.com

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