“What do Dr. Oz, Dr. Zeus and climbing Mount Everest have in common?”

Before I reveal the answer here’s a question I want you to answer first.  Why did you open this email? What compelled you to click and read further? Did you feel like you had to because you needed to know the answer on what these three seemingly unrelated items have in common? The brain is a powerful and complex tool and you’ve just experienced one of its many greatest mysteries.

When the brain is faced with a question it works overtime to find an answer. It’s an involuntary, spontaneous reaction. It instantly goes to work in search of an answer. I know many of you have experienced this effect when you couldn’t remember the name of a movie and then suddenly, hours or even days later you remember it. What you are experiencing is the profound effect questions have on the subconscious of the brain. The brain will just keep working away at the question until it comes up with an answer. Whether the answer is right or wrong doesn’t matter, the brain won’t rest until it finds a resolution.

Is the question still burning in your brain about what Dr. Oz, Dr. Zeus and climbing Mount Everest has in common? Your brain will have to stew a little longer before I tell you.

If you blog, email or create newsletters for your personal training business you always include a title in the subject line. The more effective those titles are the greater the likelihood that people will read your content. I’m sure you spend a lot of time creating your information so getting people to read it is important. Attention-grabbing headlines are even more significant to your readers then the body of your emails, blog or newsletters. Asking a question in your headline will cause the brain to start the thinking process. It’s like having a brain itch which won’t be satisfied until the question has been answered. This is why people will click on your email to read further. They can’t help themselves. They have to scratch the itch.

Here’s an exercise I want you to do right now to see if we can get your brain to itch. Go to your inbox and scan the subjects. I know you receive a ton of email every day. You probably sort through them like this;

• You open emails from people you know first.
• Then you open emails from potential customers.
• Finally you open emails that catch your interest or attention.

Now go to your inbox and look at all the subject headings particularly the ones that ask a question. Notice which ones cause your brain to itch and which don’t. Be conscious of which ones you can’t wait to open to find out the answer to the question. Also notice in the body of the content when the question gets answered. If it’s in the first paragraph and the brain is satisfied you might not read the whole article. This is a good clue as to where you should and should not be placing the answer to the question. Avoid putting it at the beginning of your article.

According to David Ogilvy, founder of the Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency and author of Confessions of an Advertising Man (rev. ed., Atheneum ,1988) and Ogilvy on Advertising (Wiley, 1983), “On average five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy. Unless your headline sells your services in a meaningful way 90% of your time will be wasted because people won’t even bother to read your email or newsletter. Isn’t that incredible? All that time and effort wasted because people don’t find your headlines interesting enough to click and read further.

Here’s a plan for you to follow when writing headlines.

Step 1. Write a lot of headlines. Thirty to fifty and then decide which one you are going to use.

Step 2. Leave it for a day or two and then come back to it. See your headlines with fresh eyes. Ask others to take a look at your headlines and give you feedback on which ones grab their attention. Send the headlines to yourself in an email and notice which ones you would have clicked on.

Step 3. Never be satisfied. Always look for ways to keep improving on the headline. Tweak it constantly keeping your objective in mind and your target audience. Be especially sensitive to how the headline helps to sell your service.

BONUS: When you receive a good headline in your inbox, create a separate folder and keep those headlines handy. You can always make them your own by changing some of the wording as long as they are relevant to your target audience.

Now back to the headline that started this whole article. What do you think Dr. Oz, Dr. Zeus and climbing Mount Everest have in common? If you guessed that it was a question that caused your brain to itch you would be right. Keep in mind that the headline of your article should relate to the content. Otherwise people will feel duped and not read any further communications from you. If you go for shock value without substance you will lose your audience. Hopefully I’ve made my point on how powerful an attention-grabbing, brain itching, headline can be.

Here’s your home work assignment should you choose to do it. Send me your headlines and I will critique their effectiveness. You can send me up to ten headlines preferably in one email and I will let you know which ones I would have opened.

Just to relieve your brains tension and just in case you didn’t catch it. Dr. Oz, Dr. Zeus and climbing Mount Everest don’t really have anything in common. I just used this as an example on how to catch people’s attention so your brain can rest easy now. Send me your homework.

Donna Hutchinson

Owner On The Edge Fitness

Author of the “HowtoGuide- Starting a Personal Training Business”. Business and marketing coach for fitness industry professionals. To buy your copy now www.edgefit.ca

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For a F.R.E.E. report on 25 words to avoid using on you website, send a blank email to edgefit@shaw.ca and write in the subject line “send me your F.R.E.E. report on the 25 words to avoid using when writing web copy.”