Copywriting Tips – Graphical Headers Or Not

Well, here’s an interesting debate that will probably go on forever. When creating your sales page, do you use graphical headers or do you go with simple text headers? If you think there is any agreement on this topic among copywriters, forget it. This is probably one of the hottest debates going on in the copywriting world. Well, instead of trying to give you my opinion, which is really meaningless, I’m going to present both sides of the argument and let you decide for yourself who is right…if anyone.
Let’s go with the side of the argument that says to stay away from graphical headers, and mind you, this is actually a conditional argument. Why conditional? I’ll explain. See, most beginning copywriters who think that you need to graphical header to get the prospect’s attention end up creating headers that are really poor in quality. They look terrible. Forget about the copy in the header itself. The artwork is so bad that it detracts from the sales copy and makes the prospect leave the site before they ever get past it. This is the main reason that some copywriters say to keep away from graphical headers…they just look awful.
Now, if you are a crack artist or know of somebody who can make you a really professional header, I’m not saying that this is better than having a text header, but at least it won’t detract from your sales copy. That is the very least you want to do…get the prospect to go past your header and read your opening paragraph.
Those who are pro graphical headers say that they DO make the sales page look more professional and more attractive. In some niches, especially entertainment, this is true. There is no argument there. Glitz is a big thing in entertainment, so if you have a plain text header in an entertainment related niche, you may not do as well as you would with a professionally made graphical header.
The bottom line is this. If you’re going to use a graphical header, you want to make sure that it is professional looking. At least you don’t have to worry about driving prospects away. As a matter of fact, if you’re in an entertainment niche, you’ll probably want to use one. However, you are always safer going with a plain text header because you don’t have to worry about a cheesy graphic turning your prospects away.
Still haven’t figured out which way you’re going to go?
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