How "creative" should you be?

Today, I'm going to give you a master strategy for writing B2B headlines that work.

I learned these strategies in B2B master David Ariya's program Secrets of Writing High-Performance Business-to-Business Copy.

When writing Business-to-Consumer copy, you can choose from many different types of headlines. But in B2B copywriting, two general types of headlines prevail.
 These are teaser headlines and benefit headlines.


 The idea behind teaser headlines is to tease the prospect into reading the rest of the copy.

They rely on a play on words, joke, puzzle, some type of curiosity, or another bit of "creativity" to grab attention.

Copywriters who take this route bet the prospect will be so intrigued by his cleverness, he won't be able to resist reading the rest the letter.

Here are three examples of teaser headlines from Ariya's program:

 1. Line of Sight (An ad for a logistics firm)
   2   Bring on the Pulsing Zombies (An ad for a high-tech product)
   3  Good to Know You (An ad for an executive search firm) Do these headlines mean anything to you? Not likely.
There's no attempt to appeal to the business buyer's challenges, needs, and interests. The headlines just tease … and nothing more.

They're meaningless. To really understand what they're trying to get at, you have to read the rest of the copy.

And when you rely on the reader finishing the rest of the copy, your headline fails.

Do teaser headlines work? Sometimes. But "sometimes" isn't good enough in copywriting.
    
                    Are you willing to bet long odds on success?

  David Ariya ,   a well-known and very successful copywriter in the software industry, about teaser headlines …

    "Teaser headlines suffer from a fatal flaw. They're essentially a bet. And a bad one at that. The writer bets the reader will check out the body copy simply because the headline is so darned intriguing. Sadly, this is bet is often lost."

 Do you want to bet the success of your promotion — and career — on such low odds?

Ariya urges you to avoid teaser headlines for B2B. Instead, focus on benefit headlines

Grab attention by offering something useful.

 Benefit headline express or imply a benefit to the reader. It's telling the reader that if you read the copy, you can save money, save time, improve productivity, and so on.

Take a look at Steve's examples:

1.    Save $400 per subscriber with a multi-user subscription to WHS Online.
 2.   Double your folding carton production uptime.
 3.   Now you can get at least ONE MORE HOUR of productive time each day than Day-Timer® or other planning systems can give you … GUARANTEED.

Each of these B2B headlines expresses a clear and specific benefit. Even if you know nothing about the business, you still get a strong sense of how it will help.

None is "award-winning" creative. But you're not trying to win awards with B2B headlines.

You're trying to win sales. And that's exactly what well-crafted benefit headlines do in B2B.
 Tomorrow, I will speak to you directly about how not to scare potential clients away. Until then, tell us what you're thinking. Comment here.

Yours for a successful copywriting career,
 
   ROTIMI OSHO