Successful marketers understand that all ad-copy, whether it is part of your website, emails, or sales letter, starts with a compelling headline. That simple, little headline at the top of your page is absolutely vital to your success, for its job is to reach out and grab your reader’s attention and keep them reading.

Well, there’s good news and bad news. Here’s the bad news: you only have three seconds to grab your reader’s attention. If your headline isn’t exciting, intriguing and interesting, your reader will stop reading and soon forget about you.

But, here’s the good news: I am going to share with you seven “headline templates” that have proven to work time and time again, producing eye-popping results.

Here they are, in no certain order:

1) The “How-to” Headline
“How To Stop Smoking In 7 Days”

2) The Testimonial Headline
“I Was Able To Tap Into Pam’s Marketing System and Double My Profits Overnight!” – John Brown, Lansing, MI

3) The Headline That Offers a Benefit
Find Out The Secrets of Throwing Away Your List Of Tired Old Leads and Instead Have Prospects Chasing You!”

4) The Question Headline
“Do You Toss and Turn All Night Long?”

5) The Headline That Provides a Solution
“Your dandruff will disappear after one shampoo”

6) The Personalized Headline
“Mary, How Would YOU Like To Lose 5 Pounds This Week?”

7) The Headline That Offers A Guarantee
“I Guarantee That You Will Make An Extra $500 Or I Will Personally Write You a Check For Double Your Money Back!”

Another simple trick is to use “power words” in your headlines. These words create an emotional connection with your readers and dramatically increase the success of your headline. Caution: only use these power words if you are looking for BIG results!

• Amazing
• Announcing
• Advice To
• At Last
• Bargains
• Breakthrough
• Discover
• Do You
• Enormous
• Facts
• Finally
• Free
• Great News
• Guaranteed
• Here
• How Much
• Inside Secrets Of…
• Innovative
• Love
• Only
• Proven
• Sale
• This
• Which
• Yes

 So, the next time you sit down to write a headline for your landing page, online newsletter or blog, take the time to create a dazzling headline that instantly captures your reader’s attention.

Many years ago, poultry farmers would gather their eggs, place them in baskets and put them on wagons to bring them to the market. Of course, the poultry farmers didn’t need to be reminded that if all their eggs happened to be in one basket, and that basket fell off the wagon, financial tragedy would occur.

The very same rules apply in today’s world of marketing. Too often small business owners rely on just one or two marketing methods to sustain their businesses.  They are then surprised when their business remains stagnant or, even worse, loses money.

However, shoestring business owners implicitly understand that in order to obtain the best results, they must arm themselves with an abundance of marketing tools. Here are seven reasons why it is absolutely essential for small business owners to utilize several different options in regards to marketing their businesses.

1.  Massive Visibility In today’s world, it is vitally important that you launch a marketing campaign where your prospects see you over and over again.  Research suggests that most prospects need to encounter your marketing message between seven and twelve times before they even notice you!  Therefore, engage in a variety of marketing platforms, engage and interact with your prospects and get noticed.

2. Suspended Accounts  Obviously when you are engaged in social media marketing, you are completely dependent on the rules and regulations of those particular networks. Many social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn shut down accounts if they sense any “spam-like” activity. Even if you aren’t spamming, the social media platforms may have a different opinion. It’s important that you never invest all of your marketing efforts in just one or two social media accounts in the off-chance that your account is suspended.

3. Marketing Method Ceases To Work  If there’s one rule you can count on, it’s that marketing methods go through cycles. They may bring in impressive results for a number of months and then suddenly become weak and ineffective.  Some marketing methods, seemingly overnight, cease to work at all. Obviously, if one of your marketing methods comes to a screeching halt, you want to have many more marketing tools, already in place, that are working hard for you and your business.

4. Reach Different Audiences  As a small business owner, it’s important to reach a diverse population.  If you repeatedly use the same marketing platform, you will always reach the same type of prospect. However, as you broaden your marketing efforts, you will soon discover that prospects on YouTube are often quite different than prospects on MySpace which are different than prospects who find you through your weekly Radio Show.

5. Establish Your Expertise  As you immerse yourself in different marketing activities, you are immediately viewed as an expert in your industry. Your prospects will follow your advice on your blog, learn about a proven strategy through your articles and read about a new product or service that your company has introduced through your press release. 

6. Quicker Growth  It’s no surprise that small business owners who engage in at least five to fifteen marketing platforms realize much more impressive results than small business owners who utilize less than five. If you arm yourself with an abundance of effective marketing tools you can quickly and efficiently double or even triple your business profits.

7. Better Prospect Involvement  Your prospects are able to network with you in diverse ways when you use an assortment of marketing tools. They can interact with you on Facebook and Twitter, watch and comment on your instructional videos on YouTube, read your ezine and listen to your Podcasts. This allows your prospects to develop a relationship with you on many different levels.

As the marketplace continues to become more competitive, noisy and crowded, the shoestring marketer has no choice but to develop an abundance of marketing tools and techniques. However, as you begin to implement a mixture of marketing methods, your small business will quickly realize results that you never thought possible!