Small Business, Big Mindset

How to Boost the Power of Your Headlines

September 14, 2021 Muscle Creative Season 2 Episode 69
Small Business, Big Mindset
How to Boost the Power of Your Headlines
Show Notes Transcript

This week, I thought we'd talk a little bit about creating headlines, subject lines, your call-to-action - you know, the stuff that gets your ideal audience to DO WHAT YOU WANT THEM TO DO.  Whether it's an opt-in page, sales page, social media post, email, blog post, etc... it's super important to have action-oriented headlines that actually work. 

Before you even start to create these glorious bits of copy, I go over the 3 things you have to have right.  If you don't have these things, you're SOL.  Once you have those things buttoned up, you can move into working on the calls-to-action for your buttons, headlines, subject lines, the whole shebang. 

Oh and here are the links to the other episodes I mention - I promised I'd add the links to the show notes, so here they are:

The 4 Critical Steps to Starting a Business (this talks about identifying your ICA - I've done an entire training on this with my Facebook group, need to do one for the podcast)
https://www.musclecreative.com/podcast-ep65

5 Qualities of Super Clickable Email Subject Lines
https://www.musclecreative.com/podcast-ep54 

Erin Geiger:

Welcome to the Small Business big mindset Podcast, where we dive into tactical strategies to grow your business. And to make an impact on this world. A huge part of success is keeping your mindset and vision on track. So this is a major part of our process. And this podcast, let's do this. Hey, Erin here, welcome to the mall Business big mindset odcast. This week, I thought we ould talk a little bit about reating headlines and subject ines, you know, like how to rite attention grabbing eadlines and subject lines, ight. So when you have an opt n page, you have that copy here that you really want to oost conversions. super mportant to have actual eadlines and subject lines to et people's attention. So a few oints that you should think bout before even creating it is hat you need to be clear and ocused on one idea that is mportant to your ICA benefits, ot process or features, right. o you want to talk to them bout the benefits of what you re talking about. You don't ant to bog them down and entire rocess or just features of omething, you want to just get cross to them what they're oing to get out of it and a uick Zippy, headline or subject ine, you want to use your ICS anguage and I use the term ICA, t's your, your ideal customer vatar could be your ideal lient. You want to know, you now how they speak what anguage resonates with them, I ave separate trainings on that. asically, you want to use the essaging that your ICA will nderstand that resonates with hem that will have them being ike going like oh my gosh, you ere in my head, you totally get hat I'm thinking what I need. ou want a headline that tells hat it is okay, so you don't ant to get too too super clever ith your headline to where eople are like I have no idea hat you're talking about. So our headline should be pretty irect and clear. But also atchy and attention grabbing. o how's that for a challenge. ut like I said, Don't get too itty or clever with it. Because ou unless you have like a ubhead or something that can ollow up, and to tell people xactly what it is that they're etting. And like I said, the ubtitle only if needed could escribe the outcome and make ure it ties in with your eadline, a testimonial can be a ice touch somewhere it within he copy of what the headline nd the subject line is talking bout. And I'll go over this in little bit. But your your, our bed copy should be ctionable. So let's actually et's just talk about the call o action button now. So you ight see it as CTA button, or all to action button. So people ill click the call to action utton, it could be like ownload now. And it could take hem to a pop up for their first ame and email address if this s going to like a lead enerating situation. And so you ould be like, enter your name nd the best email legit email mail address to get your free heat sheet or something like hat. So other sort of action erbs or you know, actionable opy to put on your button could e grab it now. Or Yes, this is xactly what I need. Or Heck, eah, give it to me, or grab our guide, get your results tart winning now, join here, ump in here, come on in, listen ere, right, so those are all ifferent different types of alls to action that you could ut on your button that isn't ust like, download your guide, ou know, it was a little bit ore, uh, beats a little bit more catchy, maybe a little bit more apt to get your subjects you know your person that you're reaching out to, to take action. Okay, so talked about the call to action button and kind of things you should look at when you are creating attention grabbing, copy, like headlines and subject lines. But so let's talk about the different types of email subject lines, right. So obviously, you want people to actually open up your emails. And I do have a separate training that dives into this as well. But I figured I'd touch on it a little bit here. So assuming you don't have deliverability issues or spam issues, then your email subjects lines or your first line of defense when when they start getting into your your customers email inboxes. So the first I kind of I train people on five different email subject line types, right. So the first one is the element of surprise. So an unexpected subject line can keep can keep catch your reader off guard. But in a good way to the critical component to remember here is that it should come off as organic. It's not just for shock and awe. It could be something from a personal experience and professional situation a dream a distant memory. It could just stop your reader in their tracks and elevate your email above others that they're getting in their inbox. The second one is intrigue. So have you went to a party. And while circling the room, you hear something so fascinating and almost stops you in your tracks, you almost bump into the server with a tray full of champagne. It's so interesting, you wonder how you can kind of shimmy your way into the conversation to hear more. So that is intrigue. So the same is true in subject lines, it's so mesmerizing, that you have to know what happens next, you have zero choice, you must open that email. So that would be an intriguing subject line. The third type is drop some knowledge, right, so you can leverage the subject line to raise awareness, make an impact, educate, drop some knowledge. So you could include a statistic, a lesser known fact or mentioned an action or situation going on in the world. The fourth is that you're in their head, but not in a creepy way. You want your reader to feel like you were speaking directly to them only to them as if no one else is on your email list. There's a sense of intimacy and emails. So I always am compared to being at a party it's a kind of like what the social media vibe is like, but grabbing a cup of coffee with a friend that's email. So to take this further, you can personalize the subject line with their first name. The fifth one is gives all the fields so this can be a variety of things, it can be tugging at the heartstrings, it can be a sense of empowerment, it can also inspire shock or outrage you into action. Most of the time, this type of subject line appeals to your heart more than your head, it can be something that motivates you to reach your goal or propel you into action to right a wrong it plays on human emotion to make the connection Okay, so those are the five and they do a more in depth training on those with examples and, and everything and another podcast episode, I'll put a link to that in the show notes. So the five are the element of surprise, intrigue, dropped some knowledge you're in their head, and gives all the fields, a couple of tips here, um, do not use title case, it will read as a promotional newsletter, and it will turn people off. And I should do a separate training on to staying out of the spam folder, but just don't use spammy words like free rage promotion, etc. And also create your own subject line bank, okay, I have a training on this, it's actually a PDF download. I'll also put a link to this in the show notes. But if you do a brain dump, you can kind of think of relationships, memories, look at the photos in the photo bank on your phone, everyday happenings, kids are a treasure trove of stuff, jot down anything that comes to mind, it can be in phrase form. And these thoughts can be morphed into email subject lines, right? Another way to think about headlines, who kind of went over your your call to action button, some subject line things to think about? And for headlines you can kind of orchestrated as it constructed as like, who you're helping, and what are you helping them to do? Right? So are you helping small business owners to grow their business? Are you helping single moms find their next best friend, right? Or you can construct it as like, you know, you know, for busy dog lovers who need a dog day care, right? So it's for this person who want this or for this person who's tired of XYZ action, and so they're going to do this, right? Or you could say, you know, free download for business owners who need to get a hold of their finances right. So it's like your offer and then you know, the action that the community that you're targeting should do. So it's kind of like if you see a trend here, then it a headline could could target your ICA what situation they're in and the action and or the outcome that you want them to take. Right? So and it could be actions that you want them to avoid actions and an outcome that you know, you know that they want, right? So if you kind of combine those into a headline you're gonna grab their attention because they're speaking directly to them. You're outlining a problem and a solution and these can be this can be done very quickly in a short headline and if you need any help on this, like you can always email me at hello at Muscle Creative calm, you can send me headlines be like what do you think about this, this is my audience is what I'm trying to get across and I'd be more than happy to help you achieve what you want to with that. So again, super quick training on creating headlines and subject lines including call to action button as well and a few tips on how to orchestrate this before you even figure out you know you started typing your next amazing content. So hope this is helpful and we will see you next week. Thanks for tuning in to the Small Business big mindset podcast. To keep the fun going check out our Facebook group start and scaling online business For even more free trainings and resources from fellow entrepreneurs. If you haven't already, head on over to Muscle Creative calm and Please subscribe and join our email list for weekly updates. And if you've enjoyed this podcast episode, check us out on your favorite podcast platform to follow us and give us a review. As always be authentic bring an insane amount of value and keep crushing it