obviously its important to grab the viewer's attention, but didn't realize just how critical the headline was. great job covering all aspects of the purpose and building blocks of writing a strong headline!
You did a nice job of properly emphasizing the value of headline writing in your post. Very straightforward instructions that could help a lot of people in the industry. I especially liked how you included a brief exercise at the start. It increased the attention of the entire video.
It's brilliant how you explained that headlines capture attention, sub-headlines stimulate interest, primary copies attract engagement, and your call to action achieves a relationship. This kind of information is what the average person might not know, and it was expressed fantastically. Great job!
My gut reactions were so incorrect, and this breakdown was so informative and interesting. Thank you! I'm going to have to work on my headline writing.
Headline writing is useful for sure and you did a good job at really driving that point home. Very clear instructions that could benefit many in business
Thanks for the videos. While I believe I write well, the one thing I absolutely suck at is writing a headline. Luckily, I found your videos and they're helping me a lot.
The headline you asked for: "Get your Exclusive Univeral Orlando 2-Park Bonus Ticket (Limited Quantity) and Join Over 10 Million Happy Customers!" The headline starts with an implied subject to make it relevant to the reader. The modifiers Exclusive and Limited Quantity play on scarcity. The end of the headline creates a sense of social proof and credibility.
@@meclabsdirector2136 Hi Flint, you personally replied to my comment on the first video of this series if you can remember. My question and your response was something special! You said if I had other questions to email you. I emailed your F.McGlaughlin email. I would love for you to at least read what I have to say. Thank you, Flint :)
@@FlintNotes I have just done this right now! The subject line is as follows: "IT'S JACK FROM YOUR UA-cam COMMENT" P.S. I have a feeling you will love my angle on how I'm a product of your work.
Flint, the first headline test flies in the the face of "clarity trumps persuasion". It doesn't make sense. I understand that there are no hard and fast rules but wow, in this case being clever seems to have been a great approach. Great session. I love all of the examples.
Of course, a lot of us just write a headline with whatever we may feel appropriate but this part is something we want to take a close look at because the headline tells your whole story. If we analyze and oversee the facts about the headline it will surely increase the bounce rate.
Always incredible insight. A question if I may Flint - when testing, do you usually select the 'next step' as the conversion? or do you sometimes go further down the customer journey? ie when testing an email copy, are you only ever looking at the click through rate? OR are you evaluating the lead form on the landing page after? I understand these are two different conversion journeys, but it can be difficult to get clarity around what to focus on. Thanks as always for the amazing insights and information!
Clayton, you ask an important question that I will address more fully under the optimization section of the blueprint. We always work backwards from the ultimate micro-yes. We focus on the metric selected in the design of experiments, but we study the downstream data in order to refine the next round of testing.
I am awed by the mystery of the Mind. This is what makes marketing interesting.
2 роки тому+2
"Until you win attention, nothing else you say matters” that sentence is suffice to understand the importance of headlines and work with enthusiasm in our headline writing if we want to drive down our LP bounce rate.
Palmonia, I can see where you got the first two words, “say yes". It is a smart inference on your part. As I mentioned below, the problem with A/B testing is that it reveals "better" but not necessarily "best". In the experiment you referenced, those words worked. However, they were just "better" not "best". I would start with what the prospect gets not with what I want them to do... Does this make sense? In the next two FASTCLASSES, I will explain in more detail.
I have to admit I would have gone with some of the wrong answers! Amazed quite frankly how even subtle changes in headline writing can have such dramatic results. I think sometimes it's easy just to stick with your own writing style because it's so hard to know how to introduce more effective choices.
I am thinking the difference between A and E is that a billion is much less believable than 5 million, also it probably better matches the customers actual problem. Further "Master and Commander" means nothing, reviewing on the other hand does. As for the headline to be improved, how about: "What is better than visiting 1 park? Visiting 3 amazing parks for the price of one with our limited edition 2-park bonus tickets!"
Mark, your thoughts regarding plausible numbers are good. Credibility is important. This experiment was a bit more subtle... I think the winning headline could be improved...
@@FlintNotes I also like what you said that a test doesn't show best just better. One thing I find difficult with testing is that you should get enough traffic, any tips on what to do with less traffic would be awesome. One thing I started doing is not looking at actual sales conversions but more at easier conversions, i.e. the next step towards a sale as they happen more often.
@@meclabsdirector2136 With respect to the headline, quite a few of the suggested headlines are very long. I've seen from testing that very long headlines aren't even read. Its tough to come up with a headline when you don't know enough about the offer. I personally don't even know what Universal Orlando resorts is or what a two-park bonus ticket even is. So my headline was just to participate, and not an example of my best work, not even close.
The headline is always an attention grabber, so many websites use clickbait and users value authenticity and real headlines. The leads will come if you just keep being honest with their users!
@@meclabsdirector2136 for this headline specifically, I would start by testing the verbs "grab" and "receive." Without knowing the offer, I focused on making the headline as clear as possible.
I looked at Universal Resorts website and they actually have 3 parks - Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure and Volcano Bay. I’m not sure if a “2-Park Bonus Ticket” is one ticket that lets you enjoy 2 parks or if it’s 2 separate tickets. The ads submitted are well written, but some refer to a ‘ticket’ and some to ‘tickets’. Definitely think it would boost response if people knew exactly what they were getting. Concerning the training video, I realize it’s easy to state why one headline won ‘after’ you know which headline actually won. But like the rest of you, I’m trying to refine my understanding of copywriting and thought I’d share a couple of things I’ve found helpful. I hope you find them helpful too. The first comes from Copywriting Legend Gary Bencivenga in Marketing Bullet #7 - Can You Pick the Winning Headline? He writes the following: “From now on, whenever you face the question, “Which of these headlines or main themes will likely outpull the other?”, one of the most reliable ways to know in advance, without spending a dime on testing, is to ask, “Which offers the more compelling proof?” This is so effective in predicting winners because your prospects use two razor-sharp questions to cut through their mail: “Is this of interest to me?” . . . and second, “ Is it believable . . . or typical advertising hype?” The second bit of wisdom comes from Drayton Byrd, an associate of David Ogilvy. Drayton was hired by a company to improve sales of a set of encyclopedias. Drayton writes, “I asked myself, what was the ultimate benefit to the parent? How could I dramatise it, make it come to life? I came up with a new headline: “Mummy, mummy, I’ve passed” The new ad used a picture of a boy running up a garden path having just passed an exam, his mother waiting to hug him. The new headline dramatised the moment when the benefit was realised. If you take these two ways of looking at headlines, it helps explain why the headlines in the video won. Take the headline “You are master and commander of a billion documents”. None of the headlines really offered any proof, but of the three, this one did the best job of dramatizing what this product will do for you. It placed you in the picture. The headline “We can help lower your payments by 50%” lost to the headline, “Lower your payments by up to 50 %”. As Flint says, don’t start with your company or what you can do for the customer. Make it all about the customer (I’m paraphrasing, forgive me Flint). The headline that lost started with what the company can do (We can help). The headline, “Protect your family with affordable term-life insurance” lost to “Receive a No-Obligation Quote or a FREE Life Insurance Guide”. Of course a lot depends on where the customer is in the buyer’s journey, but the first headline sounds like the company is getting ready to ask for a sale, whereas the second headline tells you exactly what you’ll receive when you click the button - information. A much easier ask than asking for a sale. Plus, it states it’s no obligation and Free, thereby relieving anxiety. The winner of the Forex training headline also states exactly what the customer will get and stresses it’s Free, no risk, no obligation. (Being specific ads believability). The headline, “Say yes when a client asks you to review 5 million separate documents”, dramatizes what having the product will do for you - you’ll be landing more clients. The headline that added, “And Smile” to the previous headline? Eugene Schwartz in Breakthrough Advertising said that sometimes you have to underpromise if your claim is too big, and first lay the groundwork so the customer will eventually accept your claim (paraphrasing again). I think adding ‘And smile’ to the previous headline is one of those times when the company should have underpromised. It’s hard to imagine anyone smiling at the prospect of reviewing 5 million documents. Stating a claim like that without any proof to back it up probably hurt the believability of the headline and resulted in no responses. That’s my two cents. Thanks for all your great training Flint! Looking forward to your next videos.
Challenge: Control: "Get Your Two-Park Bonus Ticket to Universal Orlando Resorts." Variants: "Get Your FREE Two-Park Bonus Ticket to Universal Orlando Resorts." - "Get Your Two-Park Bonus Ticket (Today Only) to Universal Orlando Resorts." - "Get Your Two-Park Bonus Ticket to Universal Orlando Resorts and Experience the Worlds You Know and Love."
It’s really incredible how such small nuances can provoke rich data that you expertly breakdown into comprehensive steps of analysis. Love it.
Love this video, Flint! One of my favs so far. Thanks again for your generosity in sharing this with us all.
Attention precedes interest! Very informative video on headline writing Flint.. Thank you!
obviously its important to grab the viewer's attention, but didn't realize just how critical the headline was. great job covering all aspects of the purpose and building blocks of writing a strong headline!
This is by far the best help for Headline writing I could find.
I think this is a great video and I also like that you mentioned some principles in it to help with decreasing your website's bounce rate.
You did a nice job of properly emphasizing the value of headline writing in your post. Very straightforward instructions that could help a lot of people in the industry. I especially liked how you included a brief exercise at the start. It increased the attention of the entire video.
It's brilliant how you explained that headlines capture attention, sub-headlines stimulate interest, primary copies attract engagement, and your call to action achieves a relationship. This kind of information is what the average person might not know, and it was expressed fantastically. Great job!
Excellent summary Nikhil
Great video on headline writing. I absolutely loved how you provided a quick exercise at the beginning. It made this whole video more interesting.
Headline writing is a true art form and it is explained well here.
Loving the series, Flint and team. Thank you.
What a great review of headline writing. It just shows how powerful headlines can be
My gut reactions were so incorrect, and this breakdown was so informative and interesting. Thank you! I'm going to have to work on my headline writing.
Chris, the next two sessions will breakdown six principles that could really help. By the way, your humility is a key to becoming a powerful marketer.
These tips on Headline Writing are a life saver, thank you so much!
Never knew so many things could drive down my website, glad I found this video!
didn't think I could improve my headline writing so much, so fast...thanks!
This is a great video on headline writing. Very detailed and informative. Thanks for sharing!
These headline principles are of great value.
Headline writing is useful for sure and you did a good job at really driving that point home. Very clear instructions that could benefit many in business
Headline writing is instrumental to the success in traffic of a website. Great overview, your advice could help a lot.
I needed this video. Headline writing is so important to my business.
This gave me a better understanding on headline writing. Your videos have helped me so much
Excellent writing, very interesting thanks for sharing such valuable information!
Headline writing is so important in getting ahead thank you so much for this video
Thanks for the videos. While I believe I write well, the one thing I absolutely suck at is writing a headline. Luckily, I found your videos and they're helping me a lot.
Great information about how to write headline.I will work on it.Thanks for sharing.
I have learnt a lots of things about headline writing for websites
this video contains excellent information, very valuable
The headline you asked for: "Get your Exclusive Univeral Orlando 2-Park Bonus Ticket (Limited Quantity) and Join Over 10 Million Happy Customers!"
The headline starts with an implied subject to make it relevant to the reader. The modifiers Exclusive and Limited Quantity play on scarcity. The end of the headline creates a sense of social proof and credibility.
@@meclabsdirector2136 Hi Flint, you personally replied to my comment on the first video of this series if you can remember. My question and your response was something special! You said if I had other questions to email you. I emailed your F.McGlaughlin email. I would love for you to at least read what I have to say. Thank you, Flint :)
I never got that email Jack. Maybe you could resend it.
@@FlintNotes I have just done this right now! The subject line is as follows: "IT'S JACK FROM YOUR UA-cam COMMENT"
P.S. I have a feeling you will love my angle on how I'm a product of your work.
Headline writing is such an amazing art the the way you are able to teach it is simple amazing
After watching this video all the questions I had for headline writing are answered
:)
Never put too much thought into my headline writing but make some really good points in this to bring down my website bounce rate
Flint, the first headline test flies in the the face of "clarity trumps persuasion". It doesn't make sense. I understand that there are no hard and fast rules but wow, in this case being clever seems to have been a great approach. Great session. I love all of the examples.
@@meclabsdirector2136 Such a great point about testing yielding better, not best. Thank you.
Of course, a lot of us just write a headline with whatever we may feel appropriate but this part is something we want to take a close look at because the headline tells your whole story. If we analyze and oversee the facts about the headline it will surely increase the bounce rate.
Always incredible insight. A question if I may Flint - when testing, do you usually select the 'next step' as the conversion? or do you sometimes go further down the customer journey? ie when testing an email copy, are you only ever looking at the click through rate? OR are you evaluating the lead form on the landing page after? I understand these are two different conversion journeys, but it can be difficult to get clarity around what to focus on. Thanks as always for the amazing insights and information!
Clayton, you ask an important question that I will address more fully under the optimization section of the blueprint. We always work backwards from the ultimate micro-yes. We focus on the metric selected in the design of experiments, but we study the downstream data in order to refine the next round of testing.
@@FlintNotes will stay tuned, thank you!
Headline writing is something that really needs to caption attention for readers to want to get involved with other documents.
Fascinating how just 2 extra words can kill the headline like that. Amazing.
I am awed by the mystery of the Mind. This is what makes marketing interesting.
"Until you win attention, nothing else you say matters” that sentence is suffice to understand the importance of headlines and work with enthusiasm in our headline writing if we want to drive down our LP bounce rate.
Well Said...
Get twice the fun with Universal Orlando Resort's 2 park bonus ticket.
Holy cow! Those were unexpected 😂
Challenge: "Say Yes to 2 park bonus tickets to Universal Orlando Resort"
Palmonia, I can see where you got the first two words, “say yes". It is a smart inference on your part. As I mentioned below, the problem with A/B testing is that it reveals "better" but not necessarily "best". In the experiment you referenced, those words worked. However, they were just "better" not "best". I would start with what the prospect gets not with what I want them to do... Does this make sense? In the next two FASTCLASSES, I will explain in more detail.
I have to admit I would have gone with some of the wrong answers! Amazed quite frankly how even subtle changes in headline writing can have such dramatic results. I think sometimes it's easy just to stick with your own writing style because it's so hard to know how to introduce more effective choices.
Get a 2 Park Bonus Ticket + All the Family Fun at Universal Orlando
Thank you for sharing Flint. You are welcome to my trust :-). I'm still waiting to hear if it's true, do emoji's improve conversions?
This is a much better headline than the original. We will discuss the way to build predicates in the next FASTCLASS
Get 2 park bonus tickets for Universal Orlando Resort and create memories that last a lifetime.
HEADLINE: You Deserve A Vacation
SUBHEADLINE: (what Aaron’s headline is below)
I am thinking the difference between A and E is that a billion is much less believable than 5 million, also it probably better matches the customers actual problem. Further "Master and Commander" means nothing, reviewing on the other hand does.
As for the headline to be improved, how about: "What is better than visiting 1 park? Visiting 3 amazing parks for the price of one with our limited edition 2-park bonus tickets!"
Now for a limited time, you don't have to choose between our 3 amazing parks, enjoy all three for the price of one!
I am thinking because they are on the website we don't have to mention "Univeral Orlando"
Mark, your thoughts regarding plausible numbers are good. Credibility is important. This experiment was a bit more subtle... I think the winning headline could be improved...
@@FlintNotes I also like what you said that a test doesn't show best just better. One thing I find difficult with testing is that you should get enough traffic, any tips on what to do with less traffic would be awesome. One thing I started doing is not looking at actual sales conversions but more at easier conversions, i.e. the next step towards a sale as they happen more often.
Leveraging FOMO: “Don't Miss Out on Universal Orlando's Two-Park Bonus Ticket!”
Well done... :)
Get A Two-Park Bonus Ticket To Universal Orlando Resorts.
Get two park bonus tickets to Universal Orlando Resort.
@@meclabsdirector2136 Interesting. Is it that David’s version is more readable or conversational?
headline writing is one of the topics that really needs to be investigated.
Get a Free Two-Park Bonus Ticket to Universal Orlando Resort
@@meclabsdirector2136 We could certainly create a poll in the CRO Junkies group :)
@@meclabsdirector2136 With respect to the headline, quite a few of the suggested headlines are very long. I've seen from testing that very long headlines aren't even read. Its tough to come up with a headline when you don't know enough about the offer. I personally don't even know what Universal Orlando resorts is or what a two-park bonus ticket even is. So my headline was just to participate, and not an example of my best work, not even close.
@@meclabsdirector2136 sounds good. I'm ready when you are.
Hopefully, my website gets more clicks with headline writing.
Get Your 2 FREE tickets as a BONUS to Universal Orlando resort.
This is a solid headline. Well done.
@@FlintNotes, thank you so much for your feedback.
The headline is always an attention grabber, so many websites use clickbait and users value authenticity and real headlines. The leads will come if you just keep being honest with their users!
You are correct. Keep up the clear thinking.
Free 2 Park Bonus Ticket included< when you Stay at Universal Orlando Resort
That is worth testing... Well done. :)
Grab An Admission Ticket For Universal Orlando Resort And Receive A 2-Park Ticket
@@meclabsdirector2136 for this headline specifically, I would start by testing the verbs "grab" and "receive." Without knowing the offer, I focused on making the headline as clear as possible.
I looked at Universal Resorts website and they actually have 3 parks - Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure and Volcano Bay. I’m not sure if a “2-Park Bonus Ticket” is one ticket that lets you enjoy 2 parks or if it’s 2 separate tickets. The ads submitted are well written, but some refer to a ‘ticket’ and some to ‘tickets’. Definitely think it would boost response if people knew exactly what they were getting.
Concerning the training video, I realize it’s easy to state why one headline won ‘after’ you know which headline actually won.
But like the rest of you, I’m trying to refine my understanding of copywriting and thought I’d share a couple of things I’ve found helpful. I hope you find them helpful too.
The first comes from Copywriting Legend Gary Bencivenga in Marketing Bullet #7 - Can You Pick the Winning Headline?
He writes the following: “From now on, whenever you face the question, “Which of these headlines or main themes will likely outpull the other?”, one of the most reliable ways to know in advance, without spending a dime on testing, is to ask, “Which offers the more compelling proof?”
This is so effective in predicting winners because your prospects use two razor-sharp questions to cut through their mail: “Is this of interest to me?” . . . and second, “ Is it believable . . . or typical advertising hype?”
The second bit of wisdom comes from Drayton Byrd, an associate of David Ogilvy. Drayton was hired by a company to improve sales of a set of encyclopedias.
Drayton writes, “I asked myself, what was the ultimate benefit to the parent? How could I dramatise it, make it come to life?
I came up with a new headline: “Mummy, mummy, I’ve passed”
The new ad used a picture of a boy running up a garden path having just passed an exam, his mother waiting to hug him.
The new headline dramatised the moment when the benefit was realised.
If you take these two ways of looking at headlines, it helps explain why the headlines in the video won.
Take the headline “You are master and commander of a billion documents”. None of the headlines really offered any proof, but of the three, this one did the best job of dramatizing what this product will do for you. It placed you in the picture.
The headline “We can help lower your payments by 50%” lost to the headline, “Lower your payments by up to 50 %”. As Flint says, don’t start with your company or what you can do for the customer. Make it all about the customer (I’m paraphrasing, forgive me Flint). The headline that lost started with what the company can do (We can help).
The headline, “Protect your family with affordable term-life insurance” lost to “Receive a No-Obligation Quote or a FREE Life Insurance Guide”. Of course a lot depends on where the customer is in the buyer’s journey, but the first headline sounds like the company is getting ready to ask for a sale, whereas the second headline tells you exactly what you’ll receive when you click the button - information. A much easier ask than asking for a sale. Plus, it states it’s no obligation and Free, thereby relieving anxiety.
The winner of the Forex training headline also states exactly what the customer will get and stresses it’s Free, no risk, no obligation. (Being specific ads believability).
The headline, “Say yes when a client asks you to review 5 million separate documents”,
dramatizes what having the product will do for you - you’ll be landing more clients.
The headline that added, “And Smile” to the previous headline? Eugene Schwartz in Breakthrough Advertising said that sometimes you have to underpromise if your claim is too big, and first lay the groundwork so the customer will eventually accept your claim (paraphrasing again). I think adding ‘And smile’ to the previous headline is one of those times when the company should have underpromised. It’s hard to imagine anyone smiling at the prospect of reviewing 5 million documents. Stating a claim like that without any proof to back it up probably hurt the believability of the headline and resulted in no responses.
That’s my two cents.
Thanks for all your great training Flint! Looking forward to your next videos.
Challenge:
Control: "Get Your Two-Park Bonus Ticket to Universal Orlando Resorts."
Variants: "Get Your FREE Two-Park Bonus Ticket to Universal Orlando Resorts." - "Get Your Two-Park Bonus Ticket (Today Only) to Universal Orlando Resorts." - "Get Your Two-Park Bonus Ticket to Universal Orlando Resorts and Experience the Worlds You Know and Love."
These are solid. I released the winning headline in session 11 today. Be sure and ck out the new challenge... I want to see how you improve it.