Page 173 - Duct Tape Marketing

157Chapter 11: Creating Print Ads

As if the preceding weren’t already a heavy load, the headline has to accom-
plish those things in words that people can read and grasp in five seconds.

Luckily, headlines come with a lot of creative elbowroom:

ߜ They can be short or long, as long as they’re irresistibly compelling.

ߜ They can sit anywhere on the page — at the top, in the middle, or along
the bottom.

ߜ They can present a single word, a stand-alone phrase, a complete sen-
tence, or a question.

Headline how-to’s

Whether you do it yourself or call on the talents of a professional copywriter
or advertising agency, follow these headline tips:

ߜ Lead with your most powerful point. Too many ads use a clever come-
on for a headline and then divulge the benefit somewhere toward the
end of the copy — where few will see it. Flip the sequence. Punch up
your headline and use your copy to back up your claim.

ߜ Turn features into benefits. If you say that your product works at double
the speed of competing products, you’ve stated a feature. If you say that
the consumer can save the equivalent of two days of vacation, you’ve
stated a benefit. If you add that the extra vacation days are a free bonus
with every purchase, you’ve fuel-injected the message.

ߜ Use both uppercase and lowercase letters. Large-type headlines set in
all capital letters are harder to read and, as a result, easier to overlook.

ߜ Don’t end your headline with a period. The last thing you want is to
encourage the reader to stop at the end of the headline.

ߜ Be believable. There’s an old line about advertising: If it sounds too good
to be true, it probably is. Beyond that, media ad departments screen ads
and reject ones that advance deceptive messages.

Amping up your headline language

As you develop headlines, consider the following advice:

ߜ Positive statements carry power. Consider the difference between save
time and work less; or between feel great and reduce pain. Or, using a famil-
iar political campaign example, think of the difference between investing
tax dollars and spending tax dollars. In each case, the first statement pre-
sents a desired outcome; the other conjures up a nagging problem.