Welcome to Part 5 of this series “Scientific Advertising In The 21st Century” taking a look at lessons for copywriters and marketers from the classic book by Claude Hopkins.
In this chapter, Hopkins talks about headlines. Now, there will be few copywriters who are unaware of the importance of headlines. But in this chapter, you won’t find any templates or even examples of successful headlines.
Instead, Hopkins talks about the purpose of headlines and the mindset of the all-important customer.
Here’s what he says at the start of the chapter…
“The advertisement is read only by interested people who, by their own volition, study what we have to say.
The purpose of a headline is to pick out people you can interest. You wish to talk to someone in a crowd. So the first thing you say is, ‘Hey there, Bill Jones’ to get the right person’s attention.”
Think about that point for a moment. If your ad is placed in a medium for a general audience, only a fraction will be interested in what you have to say. And it’s essential to get through to those specific people.
If you’re advertising in a more targeted medium (or to a house list) then you have a little more leeway. But even in those situations, it’s vital to attract the attention of those people you are specifically interested in.
Hopkins goes on to make the following points…
1. People pick out what they wish to read by headlines and they don’t want those headlines to be misleading.
In the same way people don’t usually read all of a newspaper or magazine (only the sections that interest them), people don’t read every ad (only the ones that interest them).
As an aside, this is why obscure, even “witty”, headlines rarely produce a good response (even if the writer thinks they are terribly clever and sophisticated). In the first place, few readers will bother to read further. Even if they do, in most cases they will not be the right audience for the ad.
2. People don’t read ads for amusement.
They read ads which appear to offer something of interest to them.
3. People are busy.
Remember, Hopkins wrote “Scientific Advertising” in 1923 when people were exposed to much less advertising. Even then, getting attention was a problem. Imagine how much worse the problem is today when people are bombarded with thousands of advertising messages every day.
4. People will not be bored (by advertising).
So, once again, the headline must catch attention and promise something interesting.
Unfortunately, all too many ad writers seem to get carried away with the idea of being “entertaining” and forget what they are trying to achieve. That’s a discussion for another time, however.
Not surprisingly, Hopkins talks about the importance of testing headlines because…
“The appeals we like best will rarely prove best, because we do not know enough people to average up their desires. So we learn on each line by experiment.”
In other words, one of the qualities of the scientific advertiser and copywriter is a certain humility! Don’t guess, work on objective results.
Hopkins concludes the chapter with this advice…
“Don’t think that those millions will read your ads to find out if your product interests. They will decide by a glance – by your headline or your pictures. Address the people you seek and them only.”
Today, in the clutter of the information age, that advice is even more valuable than ever before.