How to Write Great Headlines, So Prospects Don’t Forget You

Renewal dates only come around once a year, but insurance problems can creep up on your prospect at any point.

That’s why you need to become a marketer to support your prospecting activities and be there when they have a problem, not just when they are renewing.

Ries and Trout wrote a book called Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.

Make your emails simple and compelling, so you can get your prospects to do what you really want: to click on the link in your email and either watch your video or download your PDF.

They explained it like this: Every prospect has a file cabinet in their head. When they are looking for something, they go to that file cabinet and generally pull out the first three folders. If you are positioned as one of those first three, then when they have a problem, they’ll call you. If not, you have been forgotten.

That is called positioning … and you want to be positioned as the No. 1 alternative for insurance if you aren’t their current agent.

Masterminds

For me, it started in a more serious way about six years ago. I was in a mastermind group with some of the best marketers on the planet. As I heard them talk about their “shock-n-awe” packages, direct mail campaigns, email funnels and more, I started paying attention. More importantly, when I saw their growth numbers I had to try and figure out what they were doing.

You see, for the longest time, I hated marketing. And, every time I tried to hire a consultant to help me market, they wanted to start with re-doing my website, updating brochures, touching up my logo, refreshing my business cards, etc. All I could see was money pouring out the door and no new prospects.

However, the people in this mastermind group were “direct response” marketers. That was a new term for me, even though it’s a very old science.

Direct response is different from branding or image marketing, in that it has a call to action. Its intent is to get a prospect to engage with you and take an action.

But, before you can get them to engage with you, you need to get their attention, hence the first focus of this article, get them to open your email.

Open the Email

Here is something you can do right now: Open up your browser and type in National Enquirer, then click the images tab.

You’ll see some of the world’s best headlines supported with an image:

• Inside Tom’s House of Horrors!
• Hillary Framed Trump!
• Stevie Wonder Can See Again!
• Megyn Kelly, What She’s Hiding!
• Ted Cruz Dad Tied to JFK Murder Plot!

Or walk into a book store at the airport and the first thing you’ll see is this: “Get Six-Pack Abs in 30 Days”.

I know what you’re thinking; all of that is corny, hokey, not professional. And, you may be right. But, it gets stuff opened and, if people don’t open your email, or your letters, they never hear your message.

Great Headlines

How do you write great headlines? Here’s what I do.

I got on the email list of a bunch of great marketers and every time I get an email from them, I save it to a folder labeled “Results.” When it’s time for me to write marketing emails, I just go through them one by one and start to edit them.

Here are a few examples, I will label them as O for original, the R for my rewrite.

O: Ready for two days that will transform your company?

R: Ready for two ideas that will drop your x-mod?

R: Ready for two ideas that will drop your claims cost?

O: How We Productize our services — The full process.

R: How we control your mod — The full process.

O: Online training that people actually like.

R: Safety training that people actually like.

You get the point, just take their headline, change a few of the words and now you improve your chances that someone will open your email.

Here are three tips to try the next time you write an email:

1. Use very short simple sentences.
2. Use third grade language.
3. Promise three steps to solve a problem.

Your email should be very, very simple.

If you write long emails, you’ll lose them.

Make your emails simple and compelling, so you can get your prospects to do what you really want: to click on the link in your email and either watch your video or download your PDF. That is their call to action.

If you have the right system set up, you can see who is engaging with your content, your videos and PDF. Those are your hottest prospects.

You want your prospects to engage. One of the best ways to get them to engage is to give them something of great value.

As mentioned, it could be a downloadable PDF, maybe an infographic, a check list, or it could be an educational video you loaded up on YouTube.

The Bottom Line

Your prospects will forget you if you aren’t in front of them with a powerful message when they are ready to hear it. And, since we never know when they are ready to hear it, you’ve got to be consistent throughout the year with your powerful messaging.