It is unlikely that people will read your ads or emails to find out whether your product interests them. In most cases, they decide based on your headline or subject line. It is the purpose of the headline or subject line to pique the interest of the reader so that they are willing to explore further.

Using catchy imagery or videos might also grab their attention, but for now let's stick with headlines and subject lines.

It's OK If Your Ads Are Ignored

The biggest difference between a salesman and an advertisement is personal contact. It is wasteful for a salesperson to spend time on prospects who he will never be able to interest. In contrast, advertisements are only read by those who are interested. 

You will be able to attract certain people only, and for certain reasons, in an advertisement. Those people are the only ones you should care about. Create a headline that only hails those people.

Advertisements have headlines similar to news items. There is no one who reads the entire newspaper. There are people who are interested in financial news, politics, sports, etc. In any newspaper, there are numerous pages that people may never even glance at. 

Nevertheless, people go directly to the pages they want to read. The way they do it is by reading headlines. Misleading headlines are not liked by anyone. A headline either conceals or reveals an interest.

Headlines Should Keep Away Irrelevant Audience

Women's cosmetic brands, for example, will not attract men. Similarly, a headline advertising a men's moisturizer will not appeal to women.

Fundamentally, if you think about it - the greatest return on investment from an advertisement will only come if it attracts the right audience, isn’t it?

It is possible to get different results when you use different headlines for the same advertisement. It is for this reason that certain headlines attract more attention than others.

This is also the reason why A/B testing evolved.

Headlines Help Validate Your Core Value Proposition

Ask the founder of the company what the product's top 3 benefits are?

The answer is confidently given, X, Y, and Z. 

You ask - why X, Y, and Z?

A convincing argument is offered.

It's all good, but don't stop there. 

A common scenario like this provides a lot of opportunity for experimentation. 

Let's say you have a product with four different benefits. You'll discover that certain headlines attract more audiences than others when you test different headlines and subject lines.

You might also uncover that you get way higher response to benefit #4 instead of benefit #1 that the company internally believes. 

In this case, either the headline does not work or the internal assumption of the company is incorrect.

The only way to discover these insights is to experiment with headlines and subject lines.

Most marketers make the mistake of only focusing on top performing benefit, and abandoning the rest.

Ultimately, all benefits work, but in different proportions. The advertisement or cold email about benefit #4 might attract 30% of your audience, but all others will help you get the rest.

A Few Examples

It reminds me of an example I read in an old marketing book. 

On a soap, for example, the headline "Keep Clean" might attract only a very small percentage of the target audience. The same applies to "No Animal Fat". Possibly not many people are concerned about it.

"It Floats" is an intriguing headline. 

Beauty or skincare headlines might attract many times as many people.

People might not care much about an advertisement that says "The Only Hybrid Engine Motorcycle In The World".

Nevertheless, if the advertisement says - "The Sportiest Motorcycle In The World", many people might be interested.

I am sure you get the point. 

It’s the exact same way it works for Cold Email Subject Lines. 

I sold patient communication software to a privately owned physician office. Using the subject line "Re: Your Practice" worked the best.

It is contextual, but also intriguing.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, that's all for today. But I leave you with this witty headline -

One more thing, I'm planning a giveaway for everyone who subscribes to my newsletter. I'll be giving away T-shirts for free. Please reply back to me with your size and address, and I will send it to you free of charge. There is only one condition - you must be a US resident. I am sorry to other subscribers, but I need to figure out shipping costs.