Sub-Heads

Sub-Heads

After you have completed the opening paragraph, which is basically a setup for the rest of the copy, what follows is simply that, the rest of the copy.

In order to make it easier to write the remainder of the copy, we use sub- heads. The reason we do this is because we want to group each section of our copy into smaller chunks. This makes it easier to read the copy and also makes it so that more people will read, if not all the copy, some of it.

This is where we come to what I call “The Skimmers.”

Like it or not, there are people who don’t read much of sales copy. They’re skimmers. The problem with skimmers is that they’ll skip over large chunks of copy until they hit sub-heads or something that breaks the copy up. That’s why we use sub-heads in copy, to break the copy up and give skimmers a place to stop.

The rule of thumb is that for every page of sales copy, you want one sub-head. The way we determine a page of sales copy is by opening up the sales page in your browser and hitting the page down key. That’s one page of sales copy. So, for every page down there should be one sub-head.

Ideally this would be great if we can do it, but sometimes it’s just not possible because of the amount of copy that is required for each section. So there are other ways to break up the copy, and we’ll be getting to them later on.

Usually, you shouldn’t have trouble including one sub-head for every 1-3 pages of sales copy. That should be good enough to keep the skimmers from bypassing most of your copy.

But sub-heads serve another purpose other than to just keep skimmers from bypassing your copy. Sub-heads are used to emphasize parts of the copy that we want the reader to pay attention to.

There are a number of ways to do this. Again, we go back to the same principals that we use for our main headline and opening paragraph. The only difference is that with sub-heads, we are presenting a “story” to the reader that is going to follow a logical sequence of events.

Let’s take a fictional example so that you can see, visually, what I am talking about.

In our fictional example, we’re going to use the acne cure sales page.

Our headline is going to be this…

“Cure Your Acne NATURALLY In 3 Days…GUARANTEED” Our opening paragraph is going to be this…

If I could show you a way to naturally cure your acne in just 3 days, would that

be worth 5 minutes of your time?

Now, here are our sub-heads. We’re going to present our story in a sequence from start to finish, using sub-heads to highlight each step of the way.

Sub-head 1

My Acne Was Ruining My Life!

What follows is the story of how our acne was ruining our life. We talk about the dates we didn’t get, the kids laughing at us behind our backs, and so on. This shouldn’t take more than a page or two.

Sub-head 2

A Miracle Fell Into My Lap!

This is where you start talking about how you discovered this acne cream and after just three applications; your acne was gone for good. You tell about how easy it was and how there was no pain or side effects or anything like that.

Sub-head 3

I Met My Future Wife

This is where you tell how your life changed because of this; how you started dating and how eventually you met the woman who you’d eventually marry.

Do you see the natural progression of these sub-heads? Each one walks through the story from beginning to end. You start with the problem, work your way to finding the cure and then finally end up with how your whole life was changed.

Granted, most sales copy isn’t going to be this simple, but this is the basic structure. The story may be more complicated and thus the progression of events may be longer, but as long as you start at the beginning and work your way through to the end, you’ll be fine.

So, how do we do this?

There is only one way, and I don’t know anybody else who teaches this method, which is why I believe it is so effective.

If you want to know what it is, just go back up and look at the example I just gave.

Sub-head 1

My Acne Was Ruining My Life!

What follows is the story of how our acne was ruining our life. We talk about the dates we didn’t get, the kids laughing at us behind our backs, and so on. This shouldn’t take more than a page or two.

Sub-head 2

A Miracle Fell Into My Lap!

This is where you start talking about how you discovered this acne cream and after just three applications; your acne was gone for good. You tell about how easy it was and how there was no pain or side effects or anything like that.

Sub-head 3

I Met My Future Wife

This is where you tell how your life changed because of this; how you started dating and how eventually you met the woman who you’d eventually marry.

I call it the “Storyboard Approach”

I came up with this idea from doing playwriting. I wrote scripts for the University of Miami many years ago for a college soap opera that they were doing. In order to do each script, I first had to come up with a storyboard. In other words, I summarized what was going to happen in the episode before I wrote it. This made it easier to write.

Here’s an example from one of the episodes.

Teaser Section

Scene 1 – Chad confronts Melanie about her affair with Vincent.

Scene 2 – Alison begs Mandy to cover for her after finding the drugs in her

room

Scene 3 – Vincent confides to Luther that he loves Melanie

Act 1

Scene 1 – Melanie and Chad fight about Vincent. Melanie denies affair. Scene 2 – Alison and Mandy argue over drugs. No resolution yet.

Scene 3 – Luther tells Vincent that he’s looking for trouble with Melanie. Act II

Scene 1 – Melanie and Chad continue fight after Chad doesn’t believe her.

Scene 2 – Alison and Mandy continue fighting.

Scene 3 – Vincent tells Luther he’s made up his mind. Going after Melanie.

End Teaser

Scene 1 – Chad leaves Melanie. Says they’re through.

Scene 2 – Mandy tells Alison she’s going to the dean to turn her in.

Scene 3 – Luther tells Vincent if he goes after Melanie he’ll be forced to tell her about he and Alison.

This was a very tense time during the show. This is where we first learn of Alison and Vincent. Now it’s starting to make sense with the drugs, since Vincent is a known drug dealer.

When writing sales copy, if you follow this same formula, similar to what I did with the acne example, you should have no trouble writing ad copy that not only flows, but is long enough to keep the reader’s attention and close the deal.

The only way to do this, of course, is to know your market and know your product. You first have to know what the market’s problem is and then you have to know what your product does and what the end results will be.

When you think about it, that’s really all your sales copy is; one long story from beginning to end. So if you map out your sub-heads before you even begin writing, you’ll have a much easier time of it.

The next thing we’re going to talk about is proof and credibility.