If you did know that then you may want to read my previous post about the importance of headlines.

It never ceases to amaze me how many websites and advertisements I see that don’t have headlines. Does yours?

All adverts should have a headline. And a website, flier, brochure – anything you use to market your business is effectively an advert.

So let me show you 5 rules you can follow when writing headlines. You’ll also learn some different types of headlines you can use, and some proven words to use in headlines.

Rules to follow when writing headlines:

1. Your headline must appeal to your reader’s self interest. You should communicate the strongest benefit (or benefits) of your product/service.

Everyone’s favourite radio station is “WIIFM” – What’s In It For Me? Your headline should answer this important question.

2. You must attract the attention of your prospect. If your headline doesn’t it has failed. Your headline must reach out to them and want them to find out more about you. Don’t forget we’re all bombarded by hundreds of messages every day, and YOU need to stand out amongst your competition (and everyone else too).

3. Your headline must deliver a clear message to your audience. Think of how people read newspapers – most only read the headlines.  That’s because we’re all short on time. Because of this, your headline must make a complete statement and compel your prospect to continue reading the rest of your message – the body copy.

4. Including words such as “quick”, “easy”, “guaranteed” can increase readership. People react to emotional words that have a benefit to a problem or challenge that they have. You need to tap in to that.

5. You should use specifics in your headlines, not generalities. For example, “Grow your investment by at least 12.75% in 12 months” is a better headline than “Make Money Fast”. Specifics are more believable. Of course, your body copy can then add an caveats or terms and conditions.

So this is somewhat of a whistle stop tour about how you can use headlines to increase the readership of your message. Of course your body copy also needs to have a similar affect on your audience, but I’ll cover this for you in future posts.

So why is this? Why is it that important?

Well, a headline is really an advert for an advert. Given the function of all your advertising and marketing (including your website, leaflets, brochures, etc.) is to sell your product or service, its pretty important don’t you agree?

And since a headline is an advert for an advert, wouldn’t you also agree writing a good headline is the most important element in copywriting?

After all, the headline gets your reader to continue reading your message. If they stop reading at the headline, you’ve likely lost them as a potential client. The only purpose of your headline is to get your prospect to continue reading your advert, website, sales letter, etc.  It must get your reader’s attention and it must pull them into wanting to know more about you and your business.

You Can Have the Best Product/Service Out There, But …

It doesn’t make a difference because if your headline isn’t any good, your full marketing message won’t get read.
Here’s what two legendary copywriters say about the importance of good headlines:

“On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy.  If you haven’t done some selling in your headline, you have wasted 80 percent of your money.  The wickedest of all sins is to run an advertisement without a headline.”

- David Olgilvy

“Advice to copywriters: When you are assigned to write an ad, write a lot of headlines first.  Spend hours writing headlines — or days if necessary. If you can come up with a good headline, you are almost sure to have a good ad.  But even the greatest writer can’t save an ad with a poor headline.”

- John Caples

If you’re unfamiliar with both of the above characters, you should Google their names… they’re widely regarded as two of the best copywriters ever.

So now you know just how important headlines are in any marketing communication you have. In my next post I’ll give you some ideas on how you can write better, more effective headlines. This will get more people reading more of your message and wanting to find out more about how you can help them.

Testing is the keystone of successful marketing. Those that do it properly will flourish and those that don’t do it often lose a lot of money.

So why is it that almost no one does it?

Well, it may not at first glance appear to be the most ’sexy’ of things. It takes time, and often as business owners we’re looking for that quick fix, that ’silver bullet’ aren’t we?

Do you implement a marketing strategy (it could be your website, a direct mailing, some Google Adwords perhaps) and wonder to yourself  “is this going to work?”.

You’re not alone.

Even I Do Not Have A Crystal Ball

In fact I have business owners that ask me “Do you think this will work?” and “What about Google Adwords, should I do it?” and “What do you think about Direct Mail, does it work?”

And the short answer is “I don’t know – I cannot predict the future”.  I can often tell you if you’ve done something really stupid with an advert or a website or a Direct Mail piece..

But as far as predicting how your target market is going to react to your strategy then neither me or anyone else can tell you. This is why you need to test.

This Could Cost YOU Thousands…

So, why don’t more business owners do it then?

Well, in my experience it’s because they don’t know that they should be. They also don’t understand the implications of NOT testing either, which is scary.

I’ve also come across businesses that worry if they test a Direct Mail piece or a headline on their website and it fails miserably that they’ll do their business some damage, or will have wasted a load of cash.

This is utter rubbish.

Even if a strategy doesn’t work, all you’ll do is lose a few potential clients. But then that is why you TEST, because another Direct Mail piece (for example) may get those that didn’t buy before, to buy this time around.

Testing is NOT like changing the direction of your business FOREVER: you CAN change your mind, you can tweak it and possibly revert to how things were.

If You Want to be Successful

When you look at businesses with successful marketing systems you may just assume that they struck it lucky, or that they got some system “out of a box”.

I can tell you they didn’t.

Their systems were put together over a period of time, with plenty of effort and trials and tribulations, and there would have been mistakes along the way, no doubt about it.

But the scary truth is, if you aren’t testing ALL of your marketing, you are potentially throwing money down the drain, as well as limiting your income.

And if you haven’t, you really ought to.

The changes could have a profound affect for all businesses. Google announced these changes on 27.10.2010 stating that “Place Search” will give searchers a “faster, easier way to find local information”.

It’s hard to know right now what the end result will be. All I know is that local search on Google will never be the same again.

I have already seen one client that occupied position A. in the “7 pack” Local listing go down to position D.

Initial Impressions Are This…

My initial findings are telling me that the new “Place Search” (as Google are calling it) is focusing on both the local element of the business as well as their organic Google listing.

This means that what used to work will no longer work, and the you’ll need to reassess your SEO efforts to ensure your listing doesn’t suffer.

The listings have also moved. Previously the map that appeared on Google with the red pins and the 7 listings would appear in the top left hand corner. Now it appears on the right-hand side.

Experts that I have been speaking with believe that things will settle down soon and a clearer picture will be evident of exactly what Google is aiming for with these changes.

At the moment all we know is, things are a changing.

So why are testimonials so useful? And how can they be used to their absolute advantage? … To YOUR absolute advantage?…

They should be used in ALL of your marketing materials. So your website (if you have one, if not you should have one), your leaflets, pamphlets and brochures…. and even in your newspaper, magazine or Yellow Pages adverts.

And if you have an office – use them there too. Have them on your wall, in a folder or book so that prospects can read them.

Why this Works so Well

Testimonials help you in 3 main ways:

1) They set you apart from your competition, who may not use testimonials at all, or if they do they use them the wrong way. By using them effectively you will LOOK different, meaning you must BE different, right?

2) If your business offers slightly different services that your competitors do not, your customers can highlight this in their testimonials. THEY will appreciate why you’re different to everyone else. And spelling this out in a testimonial will be hugely powerful for you.

3) This is THE most important aspect. Testimonials will allow you to use your marketing to your advantage. They will allow you to be able to eliminate the argument of price, because prospects will see YOU as a clear EXPERT in your field.

Why believe YOU?

Testimonials use something called ’social proof’ (something I write about in my book, which you can see here) and this is extremely powerful. But why?

Well, the main reason is that its all well and good YOU telling people that you are good at what you do. But when a third party (someone else) says it for you, it has a lot more influence.

Imagine a friend or someone you know recommending a restaurant to you. You may have passed this restaurant a few times before and thought to yourself that it looks like a nice place to go and have a meal.

But when someone else says it too, it carries so much more weight. So much so that you’d probably give it a try based upon their recommendation.

So this is why they work, and why using them EFFECTIVELY is another key to the success of your business. And also do not be afraid of asking for them either, as people are often more than happy to oblige.

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Part Three will now show you how to get maximum impact from your articles, how to increase your chances substantially of getting them read, and how to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

One of key tactics in not only improving the visibility of your article, but also having it read by people, is the headline. In this respect it is no different to a newspaper – headlines are designed to entice readers to want to read the newspaper, and the same applies with your articles.

This Is The Single Most Important Aspect of Your Article

Your headline should of course be relevant to the content of the article, but it should also grab immediate attention. This is because you not only want the article to stand out amongst the crowd of other articles out there, but you also want it to be read.

You could have the most informative and best quality article ever written, but if the headline isn’t compelling and doesn’t convince your audience to read it, then your article is essentially useless. It is a good idea to write your article first, and then think of a suitable headline after.

In fact I would suggest that you write more than one headline, perhaps up to ten headlines to see which one you think is the best. This sounds like a lot of work doesn’t it? But believe me, it is not and it is definitely worth it too.

Do Not Do This

One thing that your article should not do is be promotional. Your article should not ’sell’ anything within the content of the article, as this would more than likely not be accepted for submission. Instead of selling your products or services, your article should be informative, compelling, educational and helpful for its reader.

This in itself is often enough to convince those reading it that they should visit your website, where they can find out more about you and your products or services. Once they arrive at your website, this is where you can do the selling.

Why It Really Does Pay To Be Different

There is a saying in marketing circles (in fact its the title of a book too) which is ‘differentiate or die’.

The fact is that if you are considered the same as or very similar to other businesses in your field or sector, you need to act quickly to differentiate yourself. Once again this may sound like hard work, but number one; it is not hard work, and number two; it is more than worth your while doing it.

First of all you need to ask yourself this question: “What do you have or provide or do that will encourage prospects to choose you, rather than one of your competitors?”

Well, if you implement an article marketing strategy you’ll find that by putting the name of your company into a search engine such as Google, Yahoo! or Bing, you’ll have multiple listings appear from a variety of credible sources and websites.

This would be a good start. It builds credibility, and prospects should be impressed and reassured, and feel that your business is one that they’d like to be involved with. Are your competitors listed multiple times across the internet? Why not have a look?

When you hear me mention about credibility and the correct positioning of both you and your business, this is what I mean. Having a presence and an authority is critical in any business, and you may have heard it many times but perception is reality. If you can get these key aspects in place they will form the solid, sound foundation to your empire from which everything else is built on

When you compare the benefits and advantages that credibility can bring to your business, it makes it a no-brainer in my opinion. It’s relatively easy and quick to implement and the ROI (Return On Investment) could be huge. Do you think your competitors are focusing on improving and increasing their credibility? I very much doubt it.

In Part Two of this article I am going to go in to more detail as to the benefits of article marketing, why every business should be using it and why the ones who are not will lose out to those who do.

As you have already read in Part One, information can travel very quickly across the internet and this is one reason why the strategy of article marketing works so well. As well as spreading your company’s name and credentials across the internet, there is another massive advantage to your business to using this form of marketing.

The Lifeblood Of A Website

By distributing articles about your business across the internet, you are providing your business website with something that the search engines (Google, Yahoo!, Bing) consider to be a huge online vote of confidence. It is so valuable because it acts as confirmation that your website is authentic, valuable to readers and worthy of being considered an authority in your particular area of expertise.

So what is it?

Well, what article marketing can do is provide valuable links back to your website, and this is considered a huge ‘thumbs up’ as far as the search engines are concerned.

The links to your website simply come from the article that you have submitted, and so there is no mystical force at work here, it is not magic. You are merely using leverage once again, something that many businesses fail to do at their peril.

What enables you to have a link (or links) back to your website is this: At the end of your article you are generally asked to write a short biography about you and your company. Within this biography you are often able to include a link (more than one in some cases) back to your company’s website, and it is this that can be like gold dust for your website.

Quality Over Quantity

Of course, the idea is to have good quality and interested articles to submit, as opposed to thinking that submitting hundreds of poor articles will still benefit your website. Believe me they won’t, so do not do it under any circumstances.

The links that your site receives are known as ‘back links’ – a term that you may or may not be familiar with. These back links can have an massive effect on your company’s website and its ranking within the search engines.

In fact it is something that all experts agree can improve your business’ online visibility, and in the highly competitive internet arena, being on the first page of searches can be hugely profitable for a business.

The whole concept of article marketing is considered to be one of the most efficient modes for generating traffic to your website. One reason for this is that once your articles have been submitted to the relevant directories, they are normally visible very quickly.

In fact, I have actually had some articles visible in a matter of hours in some cases.

What Will Your Competitors Think?

It is unlikely that many (if any) of your competitors will be using this highly effective strategy. You’ll also be pleasantly surprised at how quickly this strategy can be implemented.

It really is not a difficult as you might think, because you’ve no doubt got reams of relevant, quality information sitting somewhere in your business that could be put to great use. It might be on your work’s computer, or a member of your staff’s computer, or in a file somewhere.

Wherever it is hiding, this information can be used to good effect, and it would seem pointless for it to not be used to your benefit. As long as an article is your work and has not just been blatantly copied or plagiarised from another source, there is no reason why it cannot be used.

So that concludes Part Two of this article. In Part Three, I am going to reveal some of the key strategies and tactics that will have people wanting to read your articles and find out more about your business.

The report as a whole identifies some Huge Myths that you probably believe about your business.

The report comes in 2 parts – Part One is 36 pages long – and whilst that might seem a bit of a Mammoth , it goes in to a lot of detail about areas such as:

• Why working HARDER does not mean you’ll be Successful
• Why reducing Your fees is a HUGE mistake – even in this economy
• How Perception is Everything
• Why copying other businesses is often the WRONG thing to do
• Why too many Referrals is a BAD thing
• What Dating and running Your Business have in common
• The 5 reasons to have High Prices

Part Two, called The Missing Myth, looks at an area that you may not have considered. Its an area that has helped a lot of businesses in the past (including mine), and I know that it will help yours too.

If you’d like a copy of the report, you can send an email to Report @ SimonPaulThurston.com – and please indicate the type business that you have.

In fact in terms of subject matter, articles can be literally written about anything relevant to you and your business.

You Might Think It Is Too Complicated

And before you start thinking that you do not have any time during your busy day to sit down, think about what you want to have written in these articles, and then either do them yourself or have them written, think again.

I say this because you more than likely have good, relevant information and material stored everywhere in your office. Perhaps you have previously had an article written about your company and its products or services for a trade publication or a local newspaper.

Equally you may have been featured in a local magazine or even on local radio, and been able to highlight your business and its features and benefits. Failing all of that, you will certainly have plenty of material available in the filing cabinets of your office, or on your works computers, that can be used in order to help promote your business’ products or services.

Use This To Your Advantage

So what article marketing can do is to harness the power of the internet, where news and information can be transmitted virtually instantly. This is therefore worth utilising in order to help your business, and means that its impact is somewhat different to its ‘offline’ cousin – traditional printed articles in newspapers and magazines, because it can hit the headlines a lot quicker. One thing that the internet can give you is speed.

I suppose the one similarity between online and offline printed articles is that they need to be worth reading. There needs to be some interest for your reader, whether its in educating them about what your company does, or running them through a trouble shooting exercise, or answering their top ten questions about issues that they encounter.

So they need to be relevant, interesting and written so that they can be understood. It generally helps to try and minimise jargon and to explain any acronyms that you use. Do not assume that everyone will know what you’re talking about.

What Do You Do Next?

So once you have gotten some articles written to be used to increase the online visibility of your business, what do you do with them?

Well, unlike printed articles, instead of submitting your article to a traditional offline publication, it can be submitted to the many article directories that exist on the World Wide Web.

Each article directory site is similar to a huge, online library of articles. The articles that these directories house cover practically every subject and topic known to man, and therefore if you’re thinking that this type of strategy doesn’t apply to your business, you really should think again.

It benefits all businesses.

Increase Your Company’s Visibility

The principal benefit for you and your business is that the majority of the main article directories are well respected by the search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing). This very fact enables you to leverage your business on the back of their authority, and this can improve your chances of your article (and therefore your business) being seen by a targeted prospect.

One way of looking at this is that it is like being able to post a notice of your business or its products and services on ten (or as many as you’d like to use) of the best and most viewed notice boards in cities around the country, or indeed the world, as anyone globally will have the ability to view your article online.

This is one of the biggest advantages of using this particular strategy. You are in effect, scattering your company’s name across a variety of quality locations, a little bit like sewing seeds. And in doing so, you are increasing the chances of your company’s name being found online.

There is a lot more to article marketing too, as it has what I call a ‘double-edged sword’ effect that can benefit your business substantially. This is something that I will talk about in Part Two of this article.

This is possibly due to the fact that the concept of video marketing is still relatively new, and this could mean that most business owners simply do not understand how to use it effectively.

So if you’re business is not using video at the moment, then this is potentially good news for you, and bad news for your competition. If you could start creating some videos about your business, you could steal a march on your competitors.

The Good News Is

Your competitors are unlikely to be using video marketing yet, and so this could be happy days for you and your business. And as you may have read in my previous article about video marketing, it is neither very difficult or expensive to create and produce a video.

In fact the very concept of video marketing has grown in popularity hugely in recent years, mainly due to substantial improvements and the greater availability of affordable technology. Digital and HD (High Definition) camcorders are now relatively inexpensive to buy compared to when they were first launched, and this has allowed many more people to film and upload their videos for all the world to see.

This Is Why Video Is So Powerful

And this is without doubt one of the assets, the power if you like, of video marketing. It allows your business to capture the imagination of your prospects, and be completely honest and transparent about the products and services that you are offering.

Video also gives you the opportunity to enhance your reputation in the process. It can of course, also allow you to demonstrate in a few seconds on video, what would potentially take longer to explain in audio or in print.

Video marketing has now emerged as possibly the fastest, most efficient and persuasive mode of online marketing available, hence the importance that I believe it has as part of a successful marketing campaign.

But despite the fact that some larger corporations are now using it, the small and medium sized business community still appears to be lagging behind. They still do not appear to have grasped the fact that video marketing can be hugely beneficial in attracting more interest in what they are selling.

And It Gets Even Better For You

Fortunately for you, this is still great news for your business as your competition are unlikely to be using it either.

One of the keys to the success of video marketing has been the popularity of the You Tube website. Since the creation of You Tube a number of other video sharing sites have emerged on to the scene, however You Tube remains the one that is the most popular. In fact, such was the success of You Tube that in October 2006, internet giant Google purchased the site for a reported $1.65 billion. Yes that was billion with a ‘b’!

And in 2008, according to a service called Alexa, You Tube was the second most trafficked site in the world, getting 60 million unique views per month. Alexa is a well respected source of online information that has built an unrivaled source of information regarding websites, including visitor statistics, related links and much more. Given these facts, do you think it may be beneficial to your business to have a presence on a site that has 15 million visitors each and every week? I think you know the answer.