Dale Carnegie knew the secret, and that's one reason his book"How to Win Friends and ... People" has sold more than ... copies. In fact, British Airways recently named it, ... Boo
Dale Carnegie knew the secret, and that's one reason his book
"How to Win Friends and Influence People" has sold more than 15
million copies. In fact, British Airways recently named it, "The
Business Book of the 20th Century."
It's a great book. But if Dale had titled it "How to Remember
People's Names and Curb Your Incessant Urge to Argue," do you
think it would have sold as well? Probably not. There's great
power in good titles.
What you may not realize is the words "How to Win Friends and
Influence People" are not only the title of the book. Those
words were also the headline of a mail-order ad, which sold the
book. The ad ran successfully for many years and sold hundreds
of thousands of copies.
So what does this have to do with turning your advertising into
an irresistible customer magnet?
Here's what. Behind the title and headline is a "secret code"
that makes it powerful. Dale knew it. Great advertising
copywriters know it. And now, you're going to know it, too.
The "secret code" is actually a generic formula that gets
attention and creates desire in your prospect's mind. Every
winning headline has a unique generic formula hidden inside.
Here's the formula in Dale Carnegie's book title and headline:
How to _____ and _____.
Let's see the formula at work. Say you are an executive
Recruiter, and you help companies find new executives. In
reality, your biggest problem is finding the executive
candidates in the first place. So, to increase your group of
candidates, you decide to run an ad in your local business
journal. Here's how you could use this formula to write a
headline for your ad:
How to Get a Better Job and Make More Money
…and right away anyone who's even a little interested would read
your ad. Then, if your copy (text) is even halfway decent,
you'd get plenty of calls.
Or, let's say you run a martial arts school. Here's how you
could apply the formula in an advertising headline to get you
new students:
How to Stay Fit and Protect Yourself
Do you see how powerful that is? You've just zeroed-in on
people who are likely to be interested in learning martial arts.
The brutal reality of advertising: An ad with a good headline,
and even mediocre copy, will get you a response and generate
sales. But with a poor headline, even the most brilliant copy
will get you little or no response. Why? Because without a
good headline to get their attention, most people won't read any
further.
The good news is, once you have identified a good headline that
works in one industry or market, you can adapt it (like we did
with the Dale Carnegie headline, above) for your own business.
Great headlines work as subject lines in emails, titles on Web
pages, and of course as headlines in print ads and sales
letters. Great headlines will literally transform your sales.
How does this work in today's economy?
Recently a client asked me to help him introduce a new service
to Internet Service Providers. (Note: To understand what you
are about to read, you should know that ISPs call their
suppliers "backbone providers.") I wrote a direct mail letter
and my client sent it out to ISPs. Because my client was
revealing new information his prospects hadn't heard before, we
used the following "teaser headline" on the front of the
envelope:
What Your Backbone Provider Isn't Telling You
Was this an entirely original headline? No. I had seen a
similar "teaser headline" on a successful mailing to promote an
investment newsletter:
What Your Broker Isn't Telling You About High-Tech Stocks
So I merely identified the "secret code" in the original winning
headline, and applied it to my client's market, ISPs.
The response to the mailing was overwhelming! Nearly 10% of the
entire ISP industry responded to our letter -- and my client has
added eight figures of new annual revenues as a result of the
business that developed.
I'm telling you this not to brag, but to point out the awesome
power of good headlines. While many people spend hours and
hours trying to come up with "the perfect headline" for their
ads, there is an easier way. Find proven headlines that already
work for another business in another industry, and adapt them to
your business.
Then prepare for a flood of new customers!
