Many professional copywriters estimate that
headline contributes to 80% or more of success of any ad, article, or sales letter.One direct marketing expert goes so far as to credit headline with 100% of success or failure of any ad or sales letter, because if headline fails to pull reader into main body of ad or sales copy, then there is no chance of success!
And they are both right! If your headline fails to perform its' function of getting reader to read further into your copy, then headline is fully responsible for failure of ad or sales letter.
However, if headline is successful, then other sales copy factors come into play, such as benefits presented, guarantee, offer, close, etc. Now they all share in effectiveness of sales copy as well. But if headline fails, they then play no part.
Think about how you read a newspaper or magazine. Do you start with first article and then read every word from front to back of publication?
Of course not!
Instead, you quickly scan headlines, looking for something that interests you, either because of curiosity or because there might be something in it for you. You skip over all rest!
Well, guess what. That's same way your readers view your ad, article, sales letter, or sales page.
So, here are three main reasons for headline failure.
1. You Fail To Grab Your Reader's Attention!
Your headline serves as ad for your ad, article, or sales letter. Its' mission is to grab reader's attention, stop them dead in their tracks and get them to want to read further down into article. If your headline fails in its' purpose, then whole ad, article, or sales letter will fail because they will never get read!
