There are a lot of copywriting rules, guidelines and tips to be found, but one huge on is to avoid negative talk, particularly in your headlines. People automatically focus on the negative and if that´s what you´re starting your story off with . . . you can bet that is where their head will be as they read the remainder of your copy.

Imagine if someone comes to your website and you have a headline above your subscription form that reads “I hate Spam”. Sure, you might include something else below that to qualify it, but now you´ve got people thinking about how lousy spam is . . . right before you ask them to sign up for more email! Not a good plan.

Read over your headlines carefully to make sure that you aren´t including negativity. Negative copywriting does have it´s place, but that place is not at the beginning of the page! Avoid starting your readers off with negative thoughts. Instead put something positive there and then, if you need to include a story about the negative consequences that your product overcomes, go for it. You will already have people thinking about the positive and they will be waiting for the solution to be presented.

Copywriting should always get people into the right mindset to do what you want them to do, be that sign up for newsletter or buy a product. Starting them off with negative thinking is definitely not good! So, be careful with your copywriting and keep it positive for better results.

Caroline Melberg
Melberg Marketing
Blue Chip Marketing Tips
Small Business Mavericks

Tags: Copywriting, positive headlines

This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 8:45 pm and is filed under Copywriting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.