If you wish to advertise your legal business, there is one element that either makes or breaks it. It is your headline. Imagine you were a door-to-door salesman. You knock on the door and the man of the house opens it. What would you say? It does not take a genius to understand that you have about 3 seconds to say something that will get the house owner to invite you in. Say the wrong thing and you get the door slammed in your face. In business, what you say is likened to your headline in marketing.
As in the scenario above, first impression counts. If your headline is not compelling enough, your audience simply moves on to something else or switches you off. Whether you market through printed publications, audio or video means, you need an absorbing headline. Even if you are giving a live talk, the few sentences within your first 5 minutes of taking the microphone determines whether your audience listens to you for the rest of your presentation.
Alright, so we have established that your headline must be great. What are the elements of such a headline?
In a nutshell, your headline must highlight the greatest benefit that your business offers to a client or present a reason for your reader (or viewer/listener) to continue reading (or paying attention to you). If your headline presents both your greatest benefit and a compelling reason to continue reading, you have got yourself a winner. Here are some proven things you could say in your headline:
An announcement about your legal business and the benefits it gives to your potential clients. Use words like, Announcing, Introducing or New.
Offer something surprising, unusual or unexpected like something free. Free is a good 4-letter word in marketing.
Offer legal information of value in your headline especially information that is not commonly known or is generally misunderstood. Use words like, How to, Discover, Advices or the question words, what, why, ?which etc.
Allude to something interactive that your potential client can participate in like a survey, fun quiz or test. This is especially impactful if the interactive exercise helps the participator to discover something about himself and his needs.
State your fee if you can make it attractive or intriguing. Offering something of huge value for a trivial sum of money (like $1) always catches attention. If your offer is expensive, mention the installment amount. $100 a month for 50 months always appears less threatening than $5,000.
Make your headline provoke curiosity such as a one-word headline.
With these ideas, your Guerrilla mind can be primed to think of more creative ways to craft killer headlines.
