Mar
30
This week sees the first days of British Summertime.
This weekend saw the Sunday newspapers full of adverts for hotel breaks.
Lots of hotels chose to spend lots of money to reach out to the readers of these newspapers.
Were they successful? Good question.
Were the adverts any good? 90% of them were hopeless.
Why? Because whoever created the adverts had completely failed to understand what a headline is and what it's for.
A headline is not a headline when...
This weekend saw the Sunday newspapers full of adverts for hotel breaks.
Lots of hotels chose to spend lots of money to reach out to the readers of these newspapers.
Were they successful? Good question.
Were the adverts any good? 90% of them were hopeless.
Why? Because whoever created the adverts had completely failed to understand what a headline is and what it's for.
A headline is not a headline when...
...it is the name of your hotel.
Headlines have a very important job to do. They are supposed to make the reader stop scanning the page and start reading about your offer.
(Your offer is supposed to tell the reader about "what they will get" - we'll look at this in another article, but suffice to say, 90% of the advertisers didn't do that either.)
Simply quoting the name of your hotel doesn't cut the mustard. It will not do the job. Most people will not stop scanning the page just because they've read your hotel name.
A headline is NOT your hotel name. Nor is it your price (per person per night, charges for anything useful not included).
So. Now you know what a headline isn't. Let's take a look at what it's supposed to be:
Headlines are short, punchy statements. before you spend another penny on advertising, check your headlines against this list:
Does your headline stop readers dead in their tracks?
Does your headline read like an interesting editorial, instead of an advert?
Does your headline point to a benefit that's important to your target audience?
Does your headline call out to the target audience?
Does your headline cause the reader to read below the headline?
Is this the best possible headline for your objective?
Is this the best possible headline for your target audience?
Is this the best possible headline for your offer?
Does the headline do one or more of the following:
- Appeal to emotions?
- Arouse curiosity?
- Make an announcement?
- Ask a question?
- Begin with the words, how to?
I would suggest that your hotel name does none of the above. Yes, your business is brilliant; yes you spend a lot of time and money making sure everything is perfect; yes, you use only the best local produce. But if you're not making the same efforts with your advertising all that investment is wasted.
Let's face it - it isn't hard to stand out from the crowd. On the evidence of this weekend, at least 90% of your competitors aren't doing it right either.
Headlines have a very important job to do. They are supposed to make the reader stop scanning the page and start reading about your offer.
(Your offer is supposed to tell the reader about "what they will get" - we'll look at this in another article, but suffice to say, 90% of the advertisers didn't do that either.)
Simply quoting the name of your hotel doesn't cut the mustard. It will not do the job. Most people will not stop scanning the page just because they've read your hotel name.
A headline is NOT your hotel name. Nor is it your price (per person per night, charges for anything useful not included).
So. Now you know what a headline isn't. Let's take a look at what it's supposed to be:
Headlines are short, punchy statements. before you spend another penny on advertising, check your headlines against this list:
Does your headline stop readers dead in their tracks?
Does your headline read like an interesting editorial, instead of an advert?
Does your headline point to a benefit that's important to your target audience?
Does your headline call out to the target audience?
Does your headline cause the reader to read below the headline?
Is this the best possible headline for your objective?
Is this the best possible headline for your target audience?
Is this the best possible headline for your offer?
Does the headline do one or more of the following:
- Appeal to emotions?
- Arouse curiosity?
- Make an announcement?
- Ask a question?
- Begin with the words, how to?
I would suggest that your hotel name does none of the above. Yes, your business is brilliant; yes you spend a lot of time and money making sure everything is perfect; yes, you use only the best local produce. But if you're not making the same efforts with your advertising all that investment is wasted.
Let's face it - it isn't hard to stand out from the crowd. On the evidence of this weekend, at least 90% of your competitors aren't doing it right either.
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