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 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 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 following "teaser headline" on front of 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 "secret code" in original winning headline, and applied it to my client's market, ISPs.

The response to mailing was overwhelming! Nearly 10% of entire ISP industry responded to our letter -- and my client has added eight figures of new annual revenues as a result of business that developed.

I'm telling you this not to brag, but to point out 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!

You should constantly promote your brand and logo, and should always avoid significantly modifying it. Creating brand recognition is a huge task, and every time you logo is modified, process must be started over. Promote your logo on all of your products, on all of your correspondence, and most of all, on all of your marketing material. Make yourself know, and use all accessible means to brand yourself to your clients and prospects. The approach is expensive, but when you are branded, your company is first one to enter a prospects mind when they think of your product.

++++++++++++++++++++ IP Ware http://www.freetrainer.com

IP Ware Real Estate Investment Software Allows Users to Create Multiple, Continual, Income Streams with Real Property. Barrett Niehus is director of marketing for IP Ware, http://www.freetrainer.com, and president of trainers marketing association, http://www.alltrainers.com