Discover The Importance Of Attention Grabbing Headlines In Direct Mail Copywriting

‘Direct mail’ is defined as a delivery of advertising material to recipients of postal mail. Direct mail would thus include circulars, catalogs, compact discs, ‘pre-approved’ credit cards and other commercial merchandising materials delivered to both households and business entities. Since direct mail is after all an advertising product, like any other advertising products- its success depends on effective and precise copywriting. Certain basics of direct mail copywriting have to be remembered for writing successful copies.
First of all, identify your audience or target group and write your copy from their perspective. For this, it is important to strike a chord with your target group and know exactly what they want and why they want it. Compile this data and write your copy accordingly. Keep double checking your copy to see if you have included all those points and if your copy answers some key questions like: how will the product help your audience? Will it solve their problems? Remember, your product should make lives simpler for your audience and not complicate it. So structure your copy in a lucid and straightforward but at the same time, precise and hard-hitting manner.
The first step in writing successful copy is a strong and attention grabbing headline. Once your audience is hooked to your headline, your job is half done. Chances are, an attention grabbing headline will lead them on to read the rest of the copy. And that, precisely, is your aim: get your audience to read your message.
The best way to write a strong headline is to refer back to your goal: what benefit are you providing to your audience. Then use a number to quantify the number of ways in which your audience will benefit from your product. For example: ‘X’ Ways of Protecting Your Personal Data Files, where ‘X’ would be the number of ways of achieving the goal that you have listed.
You must have noticed that in using numbers, odd numbers grab attention quicker than even numbers! Sample this: Listerine promises to kill 99% germs and not 100%! So use an odd number to your advantage. Be sure that your headline keeps up to its promise of solving your audience’s problems. Most often catchy headlines sound good but the products fail to deliver. If it is that way, then the whole intention of writing an interesting direct mail copy would fall flat.
It always helps to be specific while writing a direct mail copy. Generalities make your ideas seem vague. On the other hand, the more specific you are, the more focused you appear to your audience and hence your credibility increases. So instead of using vague terms like: ‘award winner’, ‘under 50 cents’ or ‘manufactured before 1983’, write ‘winner of the 2001 XYZ Award’, ‘exactly 45 cents’ and ‘manufactured in 1981’.
Direct mail has become a very potent form of advertising today. But your copywriting can make or break it’s effectiveness as a tool for spreading your message.