Читать книгу Business Writing for the Web - Dan Furman - Страница 8

The headline here is “Professional writing that’s compelling, easy to read, and drives business.” I’m going to test this one later this summer.

Do you want to know why I’m testing that headline? It’s because I feel that most people who come to my site are looking for (gasp) professional writing that’s compelling, easy to read, and drives business (or something like that). Again, I’m of the opinion that your headline must address the main reason people came.

Now some fans of hype might disagree. They might say, “Yeah, but Dan, why not sell them what they REALLY want, which is higher sales?” I tend to disagree with that line of thinking for a site like mine. A headline of, “Let Dan increase your sales with his effective web copy” does not work well for my site (or many professional service-type sites). It MIGHT work well for a site that is specifically targeted to increasing web sales; if I had a small website where the theme was “higher sales for your website,” yes, that might work. But my site is a professional writing site. I may at some point make a small offshoot site for increasing sales, and I might explore (and test) other headlines then.

Now I want to stay on this thought for a second longer, because the hype person (we’ll call him Mr. Hype for short) might still want argue with me on this (good luck with that. It’s MY book, so I’m definitely getting the last word). He might point out that the only reason one needs professional writing is to drive higher sales / more money, and my headline should address that.

And you know what? He’s "kinda/sorta" got me on this one. Yes, that is what people really want. I have to admit that. People hire me to write because I’m profitable to them.

So here’s my retort: Why stop there? Since we’re psychoanalyzing my web visitors, let’s dig deeper, shall we? What do we all REALLY want? Why do we get dressed? Why do we shower (well, some of us, anyway)? Why go to work? Why put up with idiot bosses? Let’s address these wants in my new headline to make Mr. Hype happy.