Headlines Sell in All Forms of Marketing
By Martin R. Baird

Did you ever watch the movie “Glengarry Glen Ross”? It’s not an easy movie to sit through, but during Mr. Baldwin’s “sales coaching,” he mentions a couple of interesting things. One is ABC – Always Be Closing. The other is AIDA. – Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.
 
Much of the movie is about sales and selling and not always the best parts of either, but it does explore some of the real critical elements of marketing.
 
In 2009, I’ve vowed to keep it simple and get back to the basics that work in any economy. So for marketing, that means start with the headline. I know some of you are thinking that you don’t do direct mail or buy advertisements, so why learn about headlines? The reason is that the headline is the most important part of ALL marketing. It could be on your PowerPoint presentation, your seminar invitation or your Web site. Simply put – headlines sell!
 
When you think about headlines, ponder that wonderful AIDA. The best headlines – best being defined as getting peoples’ attention -- follow those four simple words to the letter. I often ask a group I’m speaking to which of the four is most important and I want you to have complete clarity that the answer is Attention. A headline that doesn’t grab the reader’s attention is was a huge waste of time, energy and money.
 
In order to write great headlines, you need to get into the head of your clients. What are they thinking, feeling and fearing? What keeps them up at night? The more you think like them, the better the headline will be. Please be warned and don’t take this the wrong way, but clients don’t think like you. They don’t think about assets, Ibbotson charts or any of the other fun terms you like to throw around at cocktail parties. Clients only care about what is important to them.
 
To be truly great, your headline must focus on clients and cut through the marketing clutter. Almost 20 years ago, it was commonly accepted that the average American was exposed to thousands of marketing messages daily. That was before the Internet, e-mail and 24/7 media attacks. Today, we are all professional marketing removers. We filter out so much marketing it’s astounding.
 
Your headline must get past the filter and address another important word in AIDA – Interest. It must create interest if it’s going to be effective. In the old days, marketers talked about “features tell” and “benefits sell.” That still holds true. Telling clients about features isn’t good enough. Your great headline needs to focus like a laser beam on the benefits to your clients and prospects. It needs to hammer home the benefits in such a way that it gets them to stop what they’re doing so they can find out more about your message.
 
This is no easy task. The average American takes three seconds to decide if he or she will read or look at something. What will you say in that brief window of opportunity that gets them thinking, “I must read this. If I don’t, I’ll miss out.” But take heart. Remember that if you think from your client’s perspective and start with benefits, you already are doing better than most who take a shot at marketing
 
Put serious effort into the headline. I’ve asked hundreds of advisors about their marketing and I have yet to hear one tell me he spends days or even weeks writing headlines. Most advisors just slap the headline on after they have written the rest of the material.
 
For our clients, we often write between 100 and 200 headlines for a single project. This is not an exaggeration. We know that it often takes a wide variety of ideas and thoughts before it all comes together in one great headline. After crafting the first bunch of headlines, we let them rest for a couple of days and then start searching for the ones that stop us in our tracks. This process could involve combining some as well as deleting many and even adding new ones. We may find some that really work or we may start over from scratch. I always crack up when people think we can just push out great headlines at a moment’s notice. I wish it was that simple.
 
Then we take it to the next level. Once we get down to the five or 10 headlines that we love, we start testing. I don’t have the space here to go into testing in detail, but it is critical. Great marketers do single-variable testing to find out exactly what generates the response they need to make their efforts a success. After testing, we have our own best effort – for now. W are always revising for better results.
 
The good news is you can use this wonderful headline in a variety of places and in many different ways. It can be used in your PowerPoint slide show as well as when you are just talking to clients. The time you invest can have amazing results.
 
One last “Glengarry Glen Ross” thought: headlines are for closers! The headline opens the door and gets readers’ interest. Now it’s up to you to turn them into clients.

 
If you could have an investment go from a 5 percent return to 10 percent, would you be happy? Writing a strong headline can easily double or even triple your marketing results. Here’s a different way of looking at it. The cost of an ad with a showstopper headline didn’t go up, but the response did, making it a better investment.


Martin R. Baird is chief executive officer of Robinson & Associates, Inc., a consulting company that helps financial professionals measure and manage the quality of client service and improvements to their internal operations to enhance business performance and increase revenues. He is a highly regarded speaker in the areas of marketing and client retention and development. Baird is author of “The 7 Deadly Sins of Advisor Marketing,” a book that offers easy-to-implement marketing ideas for financial professionals. He may be reached at 206-774-8856 or mbaird@raresults.com.