We’ve all seen them… Those sales letter headlines that *scream* cheesy, used car salesman style copywriting newbie.
It is sad when I see entrepreneurs do it, because they’re probably just copying what they’ve seen online and hoping it will succeed. It is even sadder when I see actual, supposedly professional copywriters doing it – because someone PAID for that headline. *shudders*
What is one thing that most of these headlines all have in common? Length. And lots of it. And then some extra length, as if to say “30 words isn’t long enough to get your attention, this needs to be a full run-on sentence!” For example,
“Discover The Super-Simple Easy Secret to Driving Visitors AWAY From Your Website, Losing Thousands of Dollars in Sales, and Flooding Your Bank Account with Nothing At All Using These Secret Insider Strategies for Uselessly Long and Mundane Headlines!”
I could continue, but I think you get the point. While these headlines are more common in the internet marketing niche, they’re popping up all over the place on sites owned by internet marketers who choose to get their information from the most reliable sources available – unmoderated forums. </sarcasm>
The best thing about internet marketing is also the worst. The low entry cost of the internet marketing business means that almost anyone can give it a try, and get involved. It also means that people typically don’t have a whole lot of business sense, and are willing to believe whatever they read – simply because they don’t know better.
That is why I’m writing this particular post. I want to show internet marketers (and potential future internet marketers) that there IS a better way. Even if you can’t afford to hire a professional copywriter like me to write your sales materials, you don’t have to resort to a headline like the above atrocity.
Just use Twitter.
There are a few ways that twitter can help you create profit pulling headlines. First, look at popular retweets and hashtags. Seek out trends. Look at what is currently working – within 140 characters – to get attention. Use those tweets for inspiration, instead of some rehashed old copywriting ebook, written by a penny a word ghostwriter who never knew the first thing about copywriting to begin with.
And second, when you come up with a killer headline idea, type it into Twitter. Will it fit into 140 characters? Chances are, if it is longer than that, you’re fabulous headline will be lost on potential customers.
Third, and this is perhaps the most useful tip of all, TWEET IT! Don’t just type it into twitter, see if it fits within 140 characters, and move on. Tweet the headline. See if you get any response from it. If not, it isn’t an idea killer (that really depends on what kind of an active following you have.)
But if you get people asking you about your headline, then you’ve probably got a little piece of marketing gold there. Because you just got a response from your headline! It attracted attention! It made people want to know more! What else is a headline supposed to do, after all?
What other ways to use Twitter for headlines have YOU discovered?
