Heyyyyy Reader,

You know what a hero banner is, right?

If not, it's usually the first thing you see when you land on a site.

Usually has a headline, maybe some extra text, a button or two, maybe an image. Some fancy ones might throw some extra crap in there too like logos or stats or whatever.

But that heading is usually the first thing you see.

And, almost always, that heading is shit (gasp!)

The hero's job

The hero banner has a few jobs. The most obvious is letting visitors know they're in the right place.

That means you let them know:

1. What you do (your service)
2. Who you do it for (your audience)
3. What you want them to do (your call to action)

Simple, right?

But let's kick it up a notch.

Do you know how many websites there are? I don't and I don't feel like googling to find out.

Shit now I do, ughhhhhh one sec.

I looked it up and there are approximately 1.34 billion websites out there, with around 1.25 million new websites created DAILY.

Why does that matter?

COMPETITION.

Your site isn't the only choice they have. They've probably got at least 5 competitor sites open (alongside the other 93 tabs they've had open for the past 3 years).

So the other job your hero has is to GET THEIR ATTENTION.

Missing opportunities

This about this for a sec: your headline is usually the first bit of info your website gives a visitor. That means it's your first chance to say something that makes them pay attention.

Now I don't know about you, but I'm thinking "welcome to

Like yeah of course your site is meant to let people know they're in the right place.

But even though it's your website, your visitors don't really care about YOU. What your visitors care about, is themselves. You only factor in as far as how you help them.

So, let's make the first thing they read something they might care about.

Hatching a hero

If you spend any time on linkedin, or learning about copywriting or video production, you'd have heard about "the hook."

It's that first part of your writing or video, and it's job is to "hook" the reader/viewer to get their attention so they hopefully keep consuming your content.

For your website, it helps to treat your hero's headline as that hook. We want to grab their attention, so maybe they read some more. If they read some more, maybe that'll make them care enough to keep reading. And if they keep reading, maybe they buy our stuff.

To do that, there's three different directions I'd consider taking a headline to start with.

1. Focus on the problem or desired outcome

Why are they on your site? They either have a problem they want solved, or some sort of outcome they want to achieve. If your headline speaks to that clearly, there's a solid chance they'll think something like "yes please" and keep reading.

Lame example: websites that gets you more enquiries

2. Focus on who it's for

If you have a specific type of client you're targeting, make that clear on the headline. If that's what they do, they say "hey that's me" and boom they keep reading.

Lame example: websites for charities

3. Focus on your angle

If you've got an angle that's a bit unique, that's definitely worth pushing. Remember, they've got all these other tabs open, so if you're not regurgitating the same crap, they say "oh, that's different" and then keep reading.

Lame example: websites in one week

4. WTF Nick you said 3

Yeah but also, the best headlines combine these 3 things and I realised I should probably mention that also. So now we have 4.

Lame example: affordable websites for charities that help get them more donations (oooh extra lame)

The problem with being "clear"

When I do this as an exercise with anyone, they end up with a bunch of clear headlines (awesome). But those headlines are either boring (not awesome) or the same crap every one of their competitors say (also not awesome).

And when you sound like everyone else, then there's no reason for your potential clients to give a shit about anything beyond whether you can do the job and how much you'd do it for.

There's a few ways you could try fix this problem, but unless you have chloroform and a lot of spare time, I think the easiest way to solve it is to inject some personality into what you do.

Personality makes you stand out, because it's different. Plus it makes the right people give a shit about you which is a sweet bonus, cause then they're more likely to read and therefore buy.

Bejazzle that headline

This is where writing this email starts to get tough(er).

How do I explain how to put personality into a headline? I don't know, but I'm gonna try.

In all of those lame examples I had above, the headline was kinda broad. For example, "websites that get you more enquiries" is so common and broad, it's an immediate yawn. "Websites for Charities" or "websites in X days" are the same deal.

It's like... so what?

If we want to give it a bit more personality, we need to dig a bit deeper onto each of those things.

If they don't have enough enquiries -> how does that manifest? What happens? How would THEY describe it? What does it look like if they DO have enough leads? What don't they want happening? What's happening (specifically) that they hate?

If they're a charity -> what problems do charities have (that the service fixes)? How does that manifest? What happens? (ie. same questions you just read above)

If they want a website quickly -> why do they want that? Why does it matter? What does it mean if it's ready in a set amount of time? Why is this better than the alternatives?

So the process is just asking more questions and taking more time to understand it.

And then you end up with something like "websites that stop leads from ghosting" or "websites that get you more donations" or "your business, online by Friday" (just... a lot better than those because I spent less than a minute coming up with all 3).

And then, for each headline you come up with, ask yourself these questions:

1. Is this something they give a shit about?
2. Is it in their words?
3. Will it make them say "that's me" or "I want that?"
4. Is this something they'd stop scrolling to read?
5. Would a competitor struggle to copy this?
6. Does this show any personality?

If you can tick off all (or most) of those, you're gonna be doing better than 99.999999999% of the other websites that exist.

Cowabunga,
Nick Gulic