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Advertising is all around us. From billboards to your social media feed we are submerged in a sea of marketing. You see it absolutely everywhere.
Because of this, people are somewhat numb to the constant flashing of promotionals. Which is great for our individual sanities but makes for complications if you are a business owner trying to market your product or service.
While focusing on getting your message out there we have to bring a very tactical mindset to the framework of what’s to be published. We all have a developed sense of being able to take one look at a few words and determine if we should pay any more attention to the rest.
So being very effective at grabbing attention within the first 3-5 words is key. Anything beyond that might as well not exist. Those first few words must be judged relevant by the reader.
If you’ve spent any time on Facebook you’ll see every 4th post or so is some flashing promotion, sale or general marketing. How good you are at ignoring that material is how good your target audience is at ignoring those ads.
Knowing how to cut through the clutter and grab your audience’s attention is the most important part if you want them to see you as a solution.
They may be looking for exactly what you’re offering but have no chance becoming aware of it if your marketing looks like the same clutter they’re used to ignoring.
The lifeblood of your business relies on your product or service being delivered so being tossed in the abyss of ignored and irrelevant is the last place you want your offer to end up.
Missed matches between businesses and customers have caused untold amounts of precious marketing budgets to waste away. Simply because the audience’s attention was never grabbed and held.
This is why the headline of your advertisement is so important. It needs to grab attention and hold it long enough so the reader gets an idea of the problem you solve.
From there your perfect audience will see you and your message will be heard.
Here’s a good gauge to know whether your headline is strong enough. If your entire ad was just the headline and then a way for the reader to respond, would there be enough relevant information to prompt the reader to get in touch?
I’ll give you an example of a weak headline I saw not too long ago. It read, “Meet Miguel, our lead carpenter.”
That gives us no relevant information to do anything with. Unless you already know Miguel, the lead carpenter, that headline is completely irrelevant to anyone.
The only real idea you can get from it is this must be a carpentry business. That’s it. Besides that there’s no usable content in those 5 words.
An ad must first identify with its audience before the body of it even stands a chance of being viewed. Make your headline as possibly relevant to those in need of your business’s solutions and your ad will reach its audience every single time.
There’s so many ways to make great headlines that pierce through the noise and it’s very doable for every business that’s marketing, including yours. If you’d like to know how we could help you with this in your business, get in touch with us today.
And if you’re thinking about how to get more customers for less dollars then take a look at our Meta guide.
