Copywriter Questions the 'Question' Headline...continued

Let's look at some question headlines that produced big results.

The most famous question headline is "Are You Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired?"

A quick Google search shows that other direct response copywriters certainly 'admire' this headline and you'll find variations of the formula...selling everything from bowling alleys to pizza joints.

"Are you sick and tired of pizza that's always late?"

"Are you sick and tired of bowlers who have shiny shirts that are too shiny?"

A quick look through Denny Hatch's seminal tome Million Dollar Mailings shows a relative paucity of question headlines.

A few I noted:

"Wet Bed?"

(A product that helps children with this problem.)

"Got some free time? A week? A month? A summer?"

(To get college students to volunteer for a summer internship with an environmental group.)

"Should you be reading the most influential periodical in print?"

(Subscription to Foreign Affairs magazine.)

The general lack of question headlines in a book that's full of successful mailings tells us something extremely important: most serious copywriters avoid question headlines.

In Herschell Gordon Lewis's book, Open Me Now, which is about writing copy for envelopes, he states, "questions are always reader-involving" and I agree but I would still maintain that the reader has to know the answer to the question. It's like a lawyer interviewing a witness: a competent lawyer is always going to know the answer the witness is going to provide.

"So, Mister Jones. Did you see the defendant throw a brick through the windscreen of the Rolls Royce?"

"Yes."

"And is that the person you saw throwing the brick?"

"Yes."

Question headlines can complement and augment a strong USP. For example, a golf course I worked with in the New York City area provided a guaranteed four hour round even on a Saturday morning...when most courses in that vicinity are more funereal than the drinks trolley in coach on a 747.

So...

"Do you want to enjoy 18 holes in four hours--even on a Saturday?"

YES...OF COURSE I DO!!!!

In the Lewis book, there's an example of a mailer for a children's product with the headline...

"Is your child ready for Muzzy?" There's a picture of a bear-like animal.

I don't know how well it worked...perhaps the question is so bizarre that parents are almost forced to open the envelope. It turns out that Muzzy is a language learning program. But take look at this page from the website and there's a question the reader may not be able to answer--used as a subhead.

There are so many other headline formulas that I tend to avoid question headlines and subheads. But when I use a question headline, I like to stick with the proven technique of posing a question to which the reader knows the answer--without being too obvious.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I specialize in providing copy and content for the direct marketing environment for clients around the world. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here for a direct response copywriting quote.

Copywriter Questions the 'Question' Headline

Question headlines have always been popular in direct response copy. In this blog I want to introduce the 'classic' question headlines and also discuss a MAJOR key to the successful question headline.

You've probably faced these question headlines.

• The 'who else...?'

"Who else wants six pack abs?"

• The 'are you...?'

"Are you looking for a vaccuum cleaner so powerful it can hold up a bowling ball?"

In general, I'm not a big fan of the question headline. There are too many question headlines out there. I'm especially non-fond of the 'who else' as I think the writer tends to shoot his or her bolt rather too quickly.

Remember, a headline is supposed to draw the reader into the copy.

The 'Are you?' headline can also stop the reader, rather than encouraging the reader to keep reading. The key is to include a degree of suspense. Instead of...

"Are you looking for new dentures?"

I would write..."If you have dentures, are you looking for a way to eat anything, anytime--with total comfort and confidence?"

Any type of question can be a headline.

The most important part of a question headline: THE READER MUST ABSOLUTELY KNOW THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION

And it's the same with questions you pose in the body copy. Asking a question to which the reader doesn't know the answer is a rookie mistake. And yes--I've made the mistake. But no more!

Next time you read some copy, look at the question headlines and sub-heads. Are they beckoning you into the copy?

In the next blog, I'll swipe some excellent examples of question headlines.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I specialize in providing copy and content for the direct marketing environment for clients around the world. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here for a direct response copywriting quote.

Direct Response Copywriting and The Yellow Pages

THUNK! The Yellow Pages just arrived at my home. The big book has been on a diet and is definitely thinner and smaller thanks to Google and other interlopers.

For this direct response copywriter, The Yellow Pages presents an interesting look into the current state of small business advertising.

Some notes and thoughts.

• You can tell which sectors 'get' direct response marketing: air conditioning; car dealers; bail bondsmen; dentists (most); garage door people; insurance agents.
• You can tell which sectors don't get it: accounting; legal; drug addiction; computer repair; contractors.
• There are some great USPs: ‘One Hour Air Conditioning and Heating.’ ‘Money for Scrap Metal.’
• Some dismal USPs: ‘Better Call Bob.’ ‘Knowledge, Skill, Experience, and Results.’ ‘We Make the Law Work for You!’ ‘Your friendly scrap metal recycler.’
• Some companies take the step of making their ad white so they set black type on a white background. Some companies go for 'au naturel' yellow or use black and funky colors as the background. The latter two options reduce readability by about 30%. Crazy.
• I’m glad I don’t have to design the book. Or proof it.
• The AT&T ‘house’ ads that fill in the spaces they couldn’t fill are dull and generic—just what you’d expect from behemoth.
• Every ad could do with a bit more white space—and, dare I say it, a bit less copy: more benefits over a bazillion mostly meaningless bullets.
• A client, a cosmetic dentist, doesn't use The Yellow Pages and he very closely measures response.

The Yellow Pages is all about the NOW and the biggest lesson we can learn is the CTA. It’s always to call—rarely to visit a website. If I were designing and writing a Yellow Pages ad, I’d find out what works and use that model. 

A lot of companies would increase their response by writing and designing ads that followed more of a direct response model.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I specialize in providing copy and content for the direct marketing environment for clients around the world. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here for a direct response copywriting quote.

Why bother with direct response copywriting? Why bother hiring a direct response copywriter?

It's only a very general estimate but I believe that 96% of print and web copy is fluff. There's a bit less fluff copy on TV and radio.

How do I define 'fluff' copy?

FLUFF COPY IS COPY NOT WRITTEN TO

PRODUCE A MEASURABLE RESPONSE.

I'm not saying that fluff copy is bad, or grammatically poor, or poorly written. Quite the contrary. I read fluff copy that's elegant and crisp. But it's explanatory. The only result I can sense is for the reader to think, "OH! How nice! That company/product/service is GREAT!"

Some examples of fluff.

Agency in Philadelphia.

If you can tell me what the "Primacy of a Brand" represents then I'm all ears.

Tourist organization in Charlotte.

YAWN--so what?

Business consultant in Seattle.

Looks great. Reads well. But there's not even a call to action.

Our brothers and sisters in the world of branding, who worship fluff and give each other prizes for the best fluff, are generally terrified of direct response. Why?

Here's the official answer: they fear that consumers will equate a product or service with an infomercial or junk mail culture.

The real reason is quite different: branding agencies want to charge massive fees for pretty ads and 'award-winning creative' WITHOUT the pressure of having to show actual results and ROI.

Look...if the company hiring the agency is happy with that type of relationship, so be it.

Which begs the questions:

• Why bother with direct response copywriting?
• Why bother hiring a direct response copywriter?

There's an easy answer to both questions: RESULTS.

If you want to benefit from techniques PROVEN to maximize response, then you need to hire a direct response copywriter.

A serious direct response copywriter will:

• Write response driven copy to...GET A RESPONSE!
• Provide some strategic direction...if necessary.
• Write successfully across different media and platforms.
• Provide complementary content to steer readers toward transactional pages.
• Rewrite if the response is poor.
• Make sure you have all the vital direct marketing elements in place (offer, guarantee, etc.).
• Constantly strive for better results.
• Have only one goal...help the client increase revenue.
• Write derisory blogs about fluff!

You Don't Have to Be Obnoxious

Here's the truth about direct response copywriting--the truth the merchants of branding don't want you to know...you CAN maintain your brand integrity AND use direct response copywriting techniques. The perfect example is GoDaddy.com: their TV ads drive you to their website.

The website has an offer. There's some direct response copy on the site and the goal of this copy is to UPSELL. The $12.99 sale becomes a $100 sale in just a few quick clicks. The company is successful enough to spend millions on advertising and sponsor a race car. And it's not obnoxious.

I Love All of You in Branding. Really!

One of the core characteristics of my brothers and sisters in direct response: a desire to bash all of you in branding and 'image' advertising. It's a type of reverse snobbery, perhaps, and I won't indulge myself. If you're an agency type and you're afraid of direct response copywriters and their lust for response, don't be. As a direct response copywriter, I want to help you create tangible results for your clients--results your clients will love. And when you show your client a positive ROI, they will continue to hire you.

If you're in marketing and you're new to direct marketing, the choice is extremely simple:

Do you want a copywriter who will help you get tangible results (aka MONEY)?

OR

Do you want a copywriter who will produce 'fluff' that will make everyone look good and perhaps win a couple of awards?

Perhaps you can enlighten me as to why advertising agencies, marketing gurus, and consultants shun direct marketing and populate their websites and brochures with 'fluff' and 'brancentric' gibberish in lieu of direct response copy--copy written to generate leads and revenue. Leave a comment below!

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I specialize in providing copy and content for the direct marketing environment for clients around the world. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here for a direct response copywriting quote.

Copywriter on Content. Part 6. Content and Sales Tactics.

One of my clients emphatically states: EVERY WEB PAGE IS A SALES PAGE. And I agree. Even the pages that don't look like sales pages…these MUST be sales pages.

Here’s where the marriage between content and sales strategy is so vital. People buy for two reasons.

1. Solve a problem.
2. Emotional reasons backed by logic.

These two are often related.

Try to organize all your content around one of these two—depending on your marketing strategy. For example, if you solve a problem like tires being too expensive, show plenty of case studies where you help people save money on tires. And then you can show people buying other tires—tires that are more expensive but ‘make sense’ to the buyer based on logic.

And spread this content around…in the blog…social media…your email or printed newsletter. And, of course, the case studies on your website.

Here’s where a direct response copywriter becomes important. A direct response copywriter wakes up in the morning thinking, ‘sell…sell…sell…’ So, when you hire a direct response copywriter to create content, the content will be oriented around sales—either direct or generating a lead.

That’s because every page is a sales page…at least in my world.

Even when writing content, I'm using a standard copywriting technique like AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action). And there's always a call to action, always a next step. The Holy Grail of content is not awards or nice comments...but ACTION!

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I specialize in providing copy and content for the direct marketing environment for clients around the world. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here for a direct response copywriting quote.