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Subheads have two basic purposes:
How People Read Online See, most of your readers, especially on the web, quickly scan copy to see if there's anything that they're really looking for. The results or benefits that they want. The information that they've tried to find for hours. So you should break down your sales letter into sections and give each section a subhead. That makes it more easily soaked in. It also makes it more confrontable. Think about how you are. Would you rather read pages and pages of pure text? Or would you rather have that broken down into sections that are labeled so you know what you're reading better? So you know what you've read and what you haven't if you come back to it? The Thought Behind Subheads You'll have two main types of people reading your copy online.
The strongly interested prospects will read every word. And they'll love that your copy or information has been broken down into sections. Those interested in the result or benefits, but not really looking to spend any money, will usually just scan the info to see if it's the type of benefit or result that they're looking for, the type of information. Then they'll read your subheads. So your subheads are really mini-headlines in that sense.
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So what you want to do is give the fast scanner what she's looking for. Benefits.
Results. The strongly interested reader will like it, too.
How to Create Your Subheads When you sit down to write the subheads for your various sections, have them tell a little story all on their own. They should help to contribute to selling your product or service. They would tell of main benefits and the offer. "Learn how to Keep all of your Condiment dispensers Perfectly Clean" That's an example I just made up, but all by itself it tells a little story that could enhance the content of the sales letter and make the scanners immediately know what's in it for them. More on Why & How Another reason that you'll want to use ample and descriptive subheads is because when the quick scanner readers read a subhead interests them, they'll stop and read that section of your copy. Then, if that gains their further interest, they'll read on. Maybe they'll even go back and read the rest of your letter. They won't do that if you don't use subheads. And if your subheads also tell the story all by themselves, you'll sell more. Also, with subheads being like mini-headlines, you should apply the basics of writing good headlines. They'll help. So practice writing a series of subheads for your own product or service. And make sure they're descriptive of that section and tell a little story of your letter all by themselves.
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© 2002 by Russell Burnham. All Rights Reserved. |