Carol Bentley

May I ask a favour?

Following the adage ‘Actions speak louder than words’ I’ve taken up Rich Shefren’s challenge to produce a 66 seconds video, whilst saying something worthwhile about his powerfully informative report The Attention Age Doctrine 2.

And it was a real challenge - especially as my normal mode of communication is long, explanatory and valuable information-packed letters, adverts or articles!!

But it was done - and within the designated time-scale. So here’s the favour I’m asking…

I need your support

Will you gift me 10 minutes of your valuable time to visit this video site, play the clip and then vote?

The clip is only 66 seconds long and voting is done through Digg and Sphinn (there are instructions on how to vote).  So, I think it may take you about 10 minutes. You have to play the clip for your vote to count.

Then - and this is where the power of what the report talks about comes into action - please ask your friends and business colleagues if they would do the same.

Now why should you or they bother, except as a favour to me and you? Because they too can download the free report I’m describing in the clip and gain valuable marketing insights. Plus - there are some brilliant prizes for voters to gain too.

Why do I want to get a good result? Because it will show the power of peer recommendation, which is something we all need to embrace more in business, and I can share the experience with you and explore how it fits with copywriting. And I’d quite like to walk away with the accolade of getting a hit!

Thank you for your support and for ’spreading the word’. I’ll let you know how it progresses in future postings on this blog.

~ Carol Bentley

Having a good headline is not enough. It has to be a compelling ‘grab-them-by-the-throat’ attention holding headline if you are going to get the undivided attention of your prospect.

Let’s face it - whether we are talking letter, advert or presentation headlines - your reader is unlikely to be concentrating absolutely 100% on what he (or she) is reading - unless it strikes a resounding chord with him. Unless you get him to say “How the heck did you know that?” when you ask the question that’s been bugging him for ages. Or “This solution is so what I want - it’s almost uncanny!” then your chances of keeping his interest may slip away.

It’s a challenge we all have no matter what our line of business or how we go about our marketing.

Is there an easy way to come up with the most effective headline? Not really - there are techniques; there are attention words that help to make your headline stand out; but it still takes practice, experience and skill to find the one that pulls no punches, hits the mark dead on and delivers the best measurable results.

Having said that, let me give you a few pointers to get you started…

Get Your Creative Juices Flowing

One of the biggest mistakes I see people making is writing one or two headlines and thinking “That’s it!”

It rarely is.

When you start crafting your headlines you are only just getting warmed up - your creative performance is still in first gear. As you write more - allowing each headline to act as a catalyst for the next - they begin to flow, like sliding into the higher gears in a performance car.

That’s why I encourage people to write as many headlines as possible before deciding which ones to test. Personally I aim to write at least 100, if not more.

Study Successful Headlines

Find successful headlines. How can you recognise a successful headline? Look for these attributes:

1. It’s a headline for a direct response advert or sales letter. You can tell if it’s a direct response marketing campaign because there is a reference code. You are asked to quote it or it is printed on the response form or in the advert.
2. You see the same headline frequently. If it is used in a direct response campaign, which means it is measurable and is being monitored, it is unlikely to be continually used if it isn’t proving to be successful.

Study the headline.

Is it specific? (Being specific makes your headline more believable)

Does it contain the promise of a result or benefit that appeals? (People are only interested in results; ‘What’s In It For Me?’)
Does it intrigue without being obscure? (Curiosity can hold your reader’s attention provided your first paragraph is strong).

What is it appealing to; envy; greed; pride or status; generosity; well-being or health; peace of mind or something else? (You need to know what appeals to your target market - and you may have to test different appeals to see which is the stronger motivator).

Is it short or long? (Your headline should be long enough to put your message across).

Is it using any of the attention words that magnetically draw your eye and catch your attention? (See the list of words following the headline examples below).

Example Headlines

How many of these common gardening mistakes are causing you to work harder than you really have to?

Introducing the plain paper copier that’s so low in price you can’t afford not to own it

Here are 9 reasons why you should claim your ‘The Dangers of Handling Asbestos’ report today

Now You Can Get a Business Loan - Even if Your Bank Has Turned You Down

Who Else Wants To Lose 10lbs In 28 Days?

Your Investment in Pinesuites Development Could Be Worth Up To £12,960 per Year in Income

Five Familiar Skin Troubles - Which Do You Want to Overcome?

Vinegar… Nature’s Secret Weapon

I’ve shown the attention words used in these headlines in bold.

Attention Words

Using specifics, identifying a benefit or result your reader can expect or a problem they have that you can solve makes your headline more attractive. Include one or more attention words increases the attraction because certain words are proven to draw the eye - just like a magnet.

Here’s 15 you can use:

You / Your
Amazing
These
Proof
How / How to
Here’s
Find Out
Announcing
Breakthrough
Free
Who Else?
Last Chance
Advice
Easy
Secret

The Secret of How To Make Writing 30 Headlines Easy

When I said to aim at writing 100 headlines to give you the best chance of finding the winner, did you think “No Way!” or something similar? It seems like an insurmountable task - doesn’t it?

Try this:

Grab a pen and paper

Look at the first word/phrase in the list above

Write a descriptive headline about your product or service; the result you can deliver or the problem you can solve, using that word. Follow the headline advice I’ve given you earlier in this post.

Now write a second one, using the same attention word.

Move onto the second word and do the same again; two sentences using the attention word.

Continue down the list - by the time you’ve used each word you have 30 headlines. They won’t all be fantastic - some may even be ridiculous, but the point is your creative juices are starting to flow and…

You’ve written almost 1 third of 100 headlines.

Think you could repeat the exercise another 2 times? Do it and you’ve written 90 headlines! Not bad going eh?

Now you’ve got your headlines start working on your letter or advert. And remember the advice I gave you on 7 November in the post Here’s 8 elements for a powerful sales letter (did you notice the attention words and specifics in that post headline?)

~Carol Bentley

P.S.   You’ll get an opportunity to put some of this advice I’ve been sharing into effect tomorrow.  Keep a look out for the post entitled How persuasive are you?

technorati tags: headlines sales letters copywriting

Although my posts are made on weekdays only I know that some people like to catch up on blogs over the weekend - including quite a few of my visitors judging by the traffic stats.

So I just wanted you to know that the website may be down for a while on Sunday 9th December whilst an upgrade is installed and tested. One of the problems I’ve been having is being able to show the comments you make against my posts - I’m hoping this upgrade will resolve the problem.

If you cannot reach the blog on Sunday please accept my apologies. We should be back to normal - well better than normal fingers crossed on Monday.

Thanks for your understanding and patience.

~ Carol Bentley

This post is completely off-topic, but I felt it was so important I decided to add in an extra post so you don’t get caught by this telephone credit card scam.

It came to me from the Federation of Small Businesses (UK), of which I am a member. It was and experience reported to them by a local member. It is a very worrying telephone scam designed to get confidential information from you about your credit card. It may even be happening in other countries.

Here are the details - please pass this to your friends and colleagues:

“This one is pretty slick since they provide YOU with all the information, except the one piece they want. The callers do not ask for your card number; they already have it.

One of our employees was called on Wednesday from someone purporting to represent VISA, and I was called on Thursday from MasterCard.

The scam works like this:

Person calling says, “This is (name), and I’m calling from the Security and Fraud Department at VISA. My badge number is 12460.

Your card has been flagged for an unusual purchase pattern, and I’m calling to verify. This would be on your VISA card which was issued by (name of bank) did you purchase an Anti-Telemarketing Device for £497.99 from a Marketing company based in London?”

When you say “No”, the caller continues with, “Then we will be issuing a credit to your account. This is a company we have been watching and the charges range from £297 to £497, just under the £500 purchase pattern that flags most cards. Before your next statement, the credit will be sent to (gives you your address), is that correct?”

You say “yes”. The caller continues - “I will be starting a fraud investigation. If you have any questions, you should call the 0800 number listed on the back of your card (0800-VISA) and ask for Security.

You will need to refer to this Control Number. The caller then gives you a 6 digit number. “Do you need me to read it again?”

Here’s the IMPORTANT part on how the scam works the caller then says,

“I need to verify you are in possession of your card.”

He’ll ask you to “turn your card over and look for some numbers.” There are 7 numbers; the first 4 are part of your card number, the next 3 are the security numbers that verify you are the possessor of the card.

These are the numbers you sometimes use to make Internet purchases to prove you have the card. The caller will ask you to read the 3 numbers to him. After you tell the caller the 3 numbers, he’ll say, “That is correct,

I just needed to verify that the card has not been lost or stolen, and that you still have your card. Do you have any other questions?” After you say, “No,” the caller then thanks you and states, “Don’t hesitate to call back if you do”, and hangs up.

You actually say very little, and they never ask for or tell you the Card number. But after we were called on Wednesday, we called back within 20 minutes to ask a question. Are we glad we did! The REAL VISA Security Department told us it was a scam and in the last 15 minutes a new purchase of £497.99 was charged to our card.

Long story - short - we made a real fraud report and closed the VISA account. VISA is reissuing us a new number. What the scammers want is the 3-digit PIN number on the back of the card. Don’t give it to them. Instead, tell them you’ll call VISA or MasterCard directly for verification of their conversation. The real VISA told us that they will never ask for anything on the card as they already know the information since they issued the card! If you give the scammers your 3 Digit PIN Number, you think you’re receiving a credit. However, by the time you get your statement you’ll see charges for purchases you didn’t make, and by then it’s almost too late and/or more difficult to actually file a fraud report.

What makes this more remarkable is that on Thursday, I got a call from a “Jason Richardson of MasterCard” with a word-for-word repeat of the VISA scam. This time I didn’t let him finish. I hung up! We filed a police report, as instructed by VISA. The police said they are taking several of these reports daily! They also urged us to tell everybody we know that this scam is happening.”

You can read more about this type of scam at Urban Legends.

Have you received any calls like this?

As I said at the beginning - please pass it on. Thanks.

~ Carol Bentley

technorati tags: scams credit card fraud business tips

Tomorrow is my blog anniversary. It will be one whole calendar month since I started this blog. And I want to say ‘Thank You’ for being a regular visitor (you are a regular, aren’t you?)

And I’m going to do that with two special gifts which are only available for this weekend - during my ‘anniversary’. So if you are reading this post after 10.00 a.m. on 26 November 2007 then I’m sorry - but you missed it!

Look out for tomorrow’s post announcement, when I’ll reveal what my anniversary gifts to you are and how to get them.

If you’re not already subscribed to get my blog notices it might be a good idea to request them now using the top right panel.

~ Carol Bentley

Just a quick fun post for the weekend.. although it might send you crazy trying to figure out what’s going on ;).

I found this post which displays a spinning girl

The direction the girl is spinning in is supposed to show which is the dominant hemisphere in your brain. I only saw one direction. When I got my husband to look he saw her going in the opposite direction and then, after about 15 seconds, she reversed direction!!

Someone in the comments said it was a flash display - but the blog author said it was a GIF graphic image. And it is. I copied the image onto my desktop and popped it into an Outlook email to see if she stopped spinning (hadn’t got a GIF viewer to hand). She didn’t - it’s definitely a GIF image.

I’ve turned comments on for this post so you can share what you experienced…

Have fun with it… oh, and if you’re curious, yes my creative side showed dominant - but when I looked again she had reversed direction which means I rely on realism and words… and you’d expect that from a copywriter wouldn’t you?

~ Carol

Keeping in touch with people is important. But so is making sure you’re not annoying them with an excessive overload of information. And although Internet experts say that daily blogging is a good thing, I’m not so sure.

Do you think a daily post on this blog is too much? If you like getting these snippets daily let me know using the blog question contact form. (Why not send your most burning copywriting or marketing question at the same time?)

If I don’t get a deluge of messages saying “Keep going - I love what you send” I’ll temper my posts and do just 2 or 3 per week, with an occasional flurry if something important crops up.

Lookout for my post announcements on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.

Oh, by the way tomorrow’s post is ‘The 8 Elements of a powerful letter‘.  It should be up just after 11 a.m.

~ Carol

I’ve been threatening to set up a copywriting blog for what seems like for ever and a day but never quite got around to it.

I think one of the things that discouraged me was knowing how to get a good, professional looking blogging layout set up. But now, thanks to my good friend Ed Rivis who created an easy to follow DVD on the simplest way to set up your own blog, I’ve done it. And here’s the proof!

So what can you expect to see here? Well, in spite of the website address being copywriting4B2B.com, the insights I plan to share apply as equally to ‘business to consumer’ markets.

Bookmark this page, or sign up for blog announcements, if you want to know about writing sales letters and other marketing materials; marketing strategies and ideas; business promotion tools; business networking - in fact anything I come across that I find helps me in my business - because then there’s a fair chance it could help you too.

And if there are any specific copywriting or marketing questions you’d like to ask, that you think would be interesting for my other blog visitors, you can use this form to send it in. Your question and my answer might appear on this blog at a later date.

~ Carol