There is a simple and very straightforward way to engage your prospect in the conversation, or in your advertising, or your web site, or your email.
Savvy marketers have used this technique to grab the attention of casual on-lookers and passers-by when other copy and narrative tactics simply fail to produce the results that the owner expects.
Here's the simple technique: State your title or headline in terms of a thought-provoking question and include the word "you" so that it grabs the viewer and demands a response.
It's a simple and easy technique to implement and here's why it works so well:
The human brain is a marvelous machine. It is also very inquisitive and engages itself often without filters or reasons. Consciously, we may be actively engaged in a certain task or activity, but subconsciously our brain is noticing the surroundings and responding to the stimuli of the environment.
When we see a headline that asks a question and is specifically seeking a response from someone named "YOU," our brain seems to automatically want to process that information as a direct challenge to find a suitable answer to the question. Even though the individual knows that the question is generically posed to every single person that sees the ad, he tends to view the ad as a direct call to him to answer.
You and I don't think about all this. We just read a headline that asks a question and mentally come up with an answer based upon our own personal experience. We become engaged in the dialogue presented by the smart copywriter, almost without thinking. We are drawn in to the advertising and see ourselves using the product or service to our own benefit. Here's an example:
Suppose you were reading a magazine on women's health and you came across a headline that asked the question, "How would you like to buy a whole new wardrobe because you dropped from a size 12 to a size 6?"
If you're a female, I can almost guarantee that you would subconsciously begin to place yourself personally in this hypothetical situation. Your mind would automatically begin to focus on a mental image of your new sized down body and all the new clothes that would suddenly fit you that didn't before. It is almost as if the headline had mysterious power or control over your thought processes and forced you to find a response.
I would urge you to consider this idea and look for ways to develop your headlines and ad copy into one or more thought-provoking questions. They will draw your customer into the conversation and engage his mind to answer your question just as if you and he were face to face.
Testing questions in headlines and including "you" as the target of the question will bring your reader into the conversation and engage him in ways that typical "statement" headlines can't.
Try this approach the next time you're creating a headline and see for yourself the power that the brain has over the minds of your viewers.
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