Test Your Headlines For Maximum Profits

Professional copywriters do not simply write or select one
headline and then hope for the best. They create a number of
different headlines; often times as many as a hundred before
selecting the headline they think will perform the best.

But they don't stop there! Professional copywriters know
that their choice will often not be the choice of the public
and therefore they test their headlines in the market place.

Believe it or not, even professional copywriters find that
half or more of their ads, sales letters, or campaigns fail
to become winners. But, by testing, they are able to cut
their losses early and maximize their successes.

The method of testing most commonly used is known as split
testing. With headlines, split testing involves the exposing
of two different alternating headlines to prospects. This
can be done both online and offline, but online is much
easier and the testing process is quicker.

Here is the way headline split testing works online. Visitor
A comes to your website and sees headline #1 while visitor B
comes to your website and sees headline # 2. When visitor C
comes to your website, headline # 1 is shown again and the
alternating process continues for the length of the test.

After a number of actions have been recorded for each
headline, such as clicking through to the order page, the
results are compared to determine which headline resulted in
the largest number of desired responses (the click through
to the order page, in this example).

The larger the number of total responses recorded, the
greater the accuracy of the test to determine the headline
winner. Once a winner is chosen, that headline becomes the
new control. A control is the current best performing item
being tested, in this case, a headline.

Now that a control has been established, a new headline is
tested against the control to see if the response can be
improved. This process continues on until a given headline
has been the control for a large number of tests.

Initially the two headlines that are being tested can be
quite different. What you are looking for in the early test
is what general kind of headline seems to work for the
target market. Once a general kind of headline appears to be
a winner over competing types of headlines, then you begin
to tweak and split variations of the winning headline
itself.

Let's take a look at an example.

This headline example comes from Jimmy D. Brown, a very
successful Internet marketer. The following two headlines
were split tested to determine a winner.

Headline # 1: "The Power of Viral eBooks"
Headline # 2: "How to Create Automated Profit Generators"

The Result? Headline # 2 out pulled headline # 1 by multiple
times.

Now to simplify this process, let's assume for the sake of
this example that Headline # 2 proved to be the winner, not
only of this test, but a number of follow on test against a
number of other headlines. So, you have determined the type
of headline that seems to work well for your particular
target market. Now, it is time to tweak the headline by
split testing variations of this particular headline.

When you split test variations of a headline, you want to
only change one thing at a time. Perhaps you will change
only one word in the headline, or the color of the headline,
or the using of quote marks around the headline, etc. But
you only test one item at a time. Each item you test is
called a variable; it is the thing that varies between the
headlines in the test.

Everything in the headline can make a difference in the
headline response rate. Things that make a difference in
response are called response modifiers. In addition to the
items mentioned above, other response modifiers in a
headline might include the font used, the size of the font,
the capitalization of the first letters of each word, etc.
Everything in your headline can and should be tested.

For an example of how a very minor change can make a
difference in your headline response, take a look at these
two headlines:

Headline # 1: "Put Music In Your Life"
Headline # 2: "Puts Music In Your Life"

The only difference between the headlines is the addition of
the letter "s" to the first word. Again the second headline
greatly out pulled the first headline. Some copywriters
assume that this is because the first headline implies some
work on the part of the reader, while the second headline
implies that something or someone else does the work. But
the reason is not important, only the results matter.

Each tweak of your headline that results in a new control
improves the desired response rate of your headline leading
to a maximization of profits, if your headline involves the
selling of a product or service.

You can never know for sure why one headline out pulls
another, but while you can guess, the reason is not
important. What is important is the results, no matter what
the reason.

Jim and Audri Lanford of www.netrageous.com, now
www.scambusters.org, once made a change of color to a sub
headline on one of their online sales pages and orders
almost dropped to zero. When they changed the headline color
back, their normal order rate returned. They guessed that
this was because the color change may have caused the
headline to look more like hype, but as noted above, the
reason is not important. What are important are the results.

Are you testing your headlines? If not, you should be. Every
little positive change continues to increase your profits
and it all adds up in the end. While some changes may only
increase your desired response by a fraction of one percent,
some people have seen changes of as much as 1,500% with a
single headline change while the rest of their copy remained
the same.

How would you like to see either a single or cumulative
improvement over time of 1,500% in your desired response
rate? I thought so! Then go forth and test, test, and test
some more!

About the Author:
George Dodge is owner of the
http://www.Headline-Creator-Pro.com website where you can
download software that saves you time and effort by allowing
you to quickly and easily create headlines with push button
ease.  While there be sure to subscribe to his Weekly
Headline Tips - you'll be glad you did.