25th Sep 2008
Writing headlines for a niche market
Gail asked a question on Monday about writing headlines:
Question:
My biggest copywriting issue is that our products are very niche and for a specific market, so trying to write ‘in your face’ attention grabbing headlines is something I struggle with. I know the concepts and once I start writing a body of text, it flows quite well - it’s just finding those headlines for adverts and website that floors me.
Any tips for creating attention-grabbing headlines for very niche products would be most gratefully received.
Answer
Having a niche market should make writing attention-grabbing headlines easier - although sometimes it may not feel that way.
And it definitely is more difficult if you don’t have a clear idea in your mind of the person you are writing to. Notice I said ‘person’; not audience; not prospects; not market.
Always have a single person in mind when you are developing your sales letter / web copy.
Take a look at your existing customers. Select one who has purchased what you are promoting and…
- Male or female?
- What age?
- Married or single?
- Family
- Occupation?
- Interests?
- Concerns?
- Describe that person so you can picture them in your mind.
- Why did they buy from you? What was the real benefit you delivered? Did they want to solve a problem? Or did they want to satisfy a desire? (If they bought on price dig a bit deeper for a true reason because people rarely buy just because something is cheap. They usually decide they want it and then look for a good deal).
- How do they use what you supply? Sometimes it’s not in a way you expected.
If you’re not sure about the last 2 questions I’d strongly suggest you ask your customers - preferably immediately after buying. That’s when asking them to complete a survey makes good marketing sense. Sometimes their answers can be astounding and may even give you an amazing headline you wouldn’t have thought of in a month of Sundays!
(I see you’ve got a feedback survey on your website Gail. Do you make sure people know about the survey; point them to it as soon as a sale is completed?)
Pull Headlines Out Of Your Copy
You said in your question once you start writing your text flows well (it does; I like the conversational style you’ve got on your website for the TalkSafe product). Try this.
After you’ve finished writing go through and highlight the true benefits you’ve described that answer a concern or desire your customer may have.
For example, is your prospect looking for a way of using their radio safely? If so how does the TalkSafe box reduce the likelihood of accidents.
Are they fed-up of equipment that suddenly loses the signal and starts crackling? Or maybe one that emits a massive static burst deafening them in the process? What’s the advantage of using a VXI Roadwarrior headset?
Or are they envious of the convenience mobile phone users have with the ease of wireless Bluetooth?
(I’m just guessing at what your prospects may be looking for here 
)
Then answer that problem or frustration in your headline… for example
At Last - Hands-Free Bluetooth Device Brings Mobile Radio Use Safely Into the 21st Century
Knowing the problems, challenges, frustrations and irritations your customers are complaining about or knowing what they desperately want to be able to do or experience makes finding those hit-the-nail-on-the-head headlines easier to discover.
Remember - take part in the internal conversation your prospect is having.
If they’re saying “I hate it when…” - offer a solution or if they’re saying “I wish…” - offer to grant that desire in your headline.
You might like to review a few previous posts on headlines as well Gail: ‘How do you do that?’ and Do your headlines grab your reader’s undivided attention
Hope that helps Gail,
~ Carol Bentley
P.S. My sincere thanks to everyone who took time to help me with the blog-book survey. Some of your answers have surprised me; I’m glad I followed my own advice to “Ask your customers!” now.
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Hi Carol, Gail & all
Can I add my little bit on headlines generally (actually this is not MY advice , it’s taken from a recent session from the Copywriting Gangster Course by Paul Gorman / Ed Rivis):
Firstly do at least 100 headlines, and while this can be difficult at first, it’s worth doing as you will eventually have the magic headline that’s ‘perfect’! Not only that, you can always recycle the remaining 99 or so headlines as bullet points /sub-headings in the rest of the copy.
Secondly (and this I thought was powerful stuff), use some of these 37 or so words in your headlines (now I’ll just have to do a quick copy & paste from my own examples: sorry if this comment becomes too long):
1 HERE’S … a treatment that is equivalent to a Full Service of the Human Body
2 NOW … you can have a full service of your body just like you do for your car
3 NEW … widget that automatically measures and records energy use in your house
4 ANNOUNCING… a widget that automatically measures and records energy use in your house.
5 THIS… widget automatically measures and records energy use in your house.
6 WHY… do some people feel chronically lethargic while others always feel quite ‘normal’
7 ADVICE: if you want to prevent toxic waste buildup in your body over the years.
8 HOW TO promote good health and prevent long-term disease conditions in your body with this detox treatment.
9 AT LAST, A detox treatment now available to you after years of secrecy.
10 WHO ELSE wants to have this detox treatment now available to you after years of secrecy.
11 POWERFUL detox treatment now available to you after years of secrecy.
12 WANTED: 10 health-conscious volunteers brave enough to try this detox treatment now available to you after years of secrecy.
13 WHICH of these web page designs do you want to use for your business?
14 AMAZING new laser treament that corrects your eyesight in 3 minutes
15 YOU / YOUR : Here’s how you can improve of health and general well-being with this 15 minute detox treatment.
16 INCREDIBLE: Incredible new treatment that is guaranteed to make you feel healthier within 7 days.
17 BREAK-THROUGH: Break-through treatment is guaranteed to make you feel healthier within 7 days
18 SUDDENLY multiply your income by using this little-known but fail-safe strategy
19 INTRODUCING new detox treatment that will help you take charge of your health again.
20 IMPROVE your health with this simple 15 minute detox treatment.
21 SENSATIONAL low prices to the South of France
22 REMARKABLE new alternative therapy that flushes out toxins and boosts your immune system.
23 REVOLUTIONARY new petrol engine gives 73 miles to the gallon.
24 STARTLING - new discovery that converts base metal to gold.
25 MIRACLE - treatment that will make you feel 10 years younger, guaranteed
26 MAGIC new widget that monitors and saves electricity usage automatically.
27 OFFER: Here’s an offer for 2 widgets for the price of one.
28 QUICK: If you’re quick, you can take advantage of this £300 treatment for £30
29 EASY: It’s easy to reduce your cholesterol with this radical but safe detox treatment.
30 CHALLENGE: Health-improvement Challenge: 30 volunteers needed to try out this guaranteed detox treatment, or their money back!
31 COMPARE: this detox treatment with any other on the market
32 BARGAIN: 50% of RRP on this widget plus free delivery
33 HURRY: to book one of the last 7 spaces left for this detox treatment
34 CAUTION: Don’t let this diet make you too thin!
35 REDUCE : your cholesterol with this detox therapy
36 GREATEST - money-making secret known to man
37 FREE - Free booklet / report with advice on buying your new home.
Hope that helps (as you probably noticed, you can even combine some of the words in the same headline)
Shuaib
PS: You will notice a lot of the above headlines mention a treatment/ therapy - just to enlighten, I am trying to be the marketing arm for a friend who is a cupping (aka hijama)* therapist. We may be launching a blog on it soon if anyone is interested!
* Do a Google search if you don’t know what that is, but like a said, hopefully we will have a blog on it soon (Sorry Carol, I was genuinely trying to share some actual headline attempts, didn’t mean to advertise this on your blog, honest!)
Hi Shuaib,
thank you for sharing. Ed and I are good friends (as you can tell by the fact I mention his blog quite frequently: Ed Rivis in my posts) and I’ve known Paul since 2003 (actually he was the instigator of my first book!)
And don’t worry about advertising, you’ve given a great demonstration of how to use the Attention words (there’s 79 in my first book: ‘I Want To Buy…’) to create powerful headlines.
When I tell people to write 100 headlines I often get an astonished “You must be joking!” which is why I wrote a hubpage explaining why and how to write so many. There’s a link to the hubpage in my post ‘Apparently I’m Nuts‘, which was published on 3 March and will be in the new book.
And you’ve reminded me of a few other posts including ‘How do you do that’ in which I describe how I brainstorm headlines. Gail might find those useful so I’ll add them to the answer above.
~ Carol
Hi Carol,
Thank you for your answer and fantastic advice. I will certainly go back thru some of your previous posts to glean a few more of your gems!
Also thanks to Shuaib for the input. I’ve known Paul Gorman for a couple of years now and its thanks to him that I’ve got my company as far as I have. I attended his LAP 3 seminar plus another more private one a few months later. I do use Paul’s advice and one of his books is my bible. I also met Ed Rivis at Lap 3, and have been in contact with him since as well.
I guess the main problem I was having was taking all those fantastic principles and applying them to my products because they are so niche. Also, I think you can sometimes become too blinkered about your own products and you can’t always see the bigger picture of how you can educate people about the benefits of them.
Carol, I think your idea of actually asking my customers why they bought my product is a good one and will give that a try as soon as possible. I’ll also go back thru stuff I’ve written and see what headlines I can make out of them.
Thank you again Carol.
Best regards
Gail
Hi Gail,
glad to help. I know what you mean about sometimes being too close to write. It happens to copywriters too!
I think it applies to many different aspects of business - when you are ‘outside the problem’ it is a lot easier to see a possible solution.
Good luck with both your headlines and any other endeavour you take on.
Carol