The key component for writing any ad to attract motivated sellers is to begin with a killer headline. This headline has to answer the big question “what’s in it for me”? Using a really great headline can mean the difference between your success or failure at attracting motivated sellers using ads. Your headline is the very first thing a prospect sees when looking at your ad, or while scanning a page of ads, so it must deliver a clear and understandable message that makes your seller want to know more.
On the average five times more people will read just the headline as opposed to the copy, so your headline has to draw the reader in and make them want to read more. No matter how good your ad copy is, if you don’t have a headline that draws their attention immediately, you’ll quickly lose their interest. Your headline has to grab their attention and say, “Hey, I’m talking to you!!” It doesn’t matter how good you are at helping sellers if the sellers don’t know it.
For example, a headline we see a lot in real estate investor ads is “We Buy Houses”. This headline has been used for ages, but you have to admit, it’s not benefit driven and it’s become rather cliché if you ask me. Additionally, it’s all about you, the investor, instead of the prospect whose attention you are trying to get. Your headline should not speak in generalities; it needs to be very specific. I personally use a different headline in my ads. In fact, in a classified ad, it becomes the whole ad. It is:
“Sell your house for a fair price, on the date of your choice, without doing any repairs”
That’s it, that’s the whole headline and in some cases, the whole ad. It tells the reader exactly what they want to know which is “What can you do for me?” This headline is all about the seller and lets them know exactly what you can do for them. My headline sends a very specific message to my reader; that they can sell their home for a fair price, on the date they choose, without having to do any fix up to the property. This ad addresses every concern a seller may have. My headline stands out like a beacon among all the other ads that surround it because it sends a distinct message to potential sellers. It makes them want to read the rest of “the story”, which significantly increases the response rate to the ad.
Getting the seller to read the rest of your ad and respond to it is the whole purpose behind a great headline. When writing headlines for your ads, you need to test new headlines to see which ones bring the best response. Sit down with a piece of paper and write several headlines, the more you think and write, the clearer your intent will become and the more practice you will get at writing grabber headlines. When writing a headline, make sure you use capital letters and lower case letters instead of using all capitals. It makes it much easier for your prospect to read and understand your headline. Using quotation marks has also been tested and found to significantly increase readership as well. I always say that you should do that which your competition will not to get ahead in your business and creating killer ads is one main way for you to do just that.
The most critical impact your headline needs to have is to make the reader want to continue reading, whether it’s an ad, an article or an advertorial. Each sentence should make the reader want to read the next one and so on. Keeping your reader’s attention and conveying your message in a way they can understand and respond to in every advertising piece you create is the key ingredient to finding all the motivated sellers you will need for your real estate business. Just learning this one concept for attracting motivated sellers can make you rich.
For more information about Kathy Kennebrook’s real estate products go to marketingmagiclady.com