Well I am glad you asked me that question!



The sub-heading supports the statement made within the heading with additional facts. A strong heading can be devastated just because the sub-heading is weak and this can make your ability to sell to the customer extremely difficult, if not impossible.

Sub-Headings in your sales copy allow your readers to step through your copy and to see the sales process and to see what is in it for them. Remember all sales whether online or in the traditional medium still are governed by WIIFM. That is ? What's In It For Me. If your customers can't see clearly and quickly what's in it for them, they will often simply move on from your website.

There are three key facets you should use in your sub-headings for your web copy and they are ?

1. Show the Customer how they will Benefit Using Your Product or Service

2. Identify a Problem the Customer is Having

3. Use a Combination of Identifying a problem and solving it.

Let us take a look at how to use each of these three facets in real sub-headlines:

1. Show the Customer How They Will Benefit Using Your Product or Service

For this article, let us imagine you were selling online backup solutions for people who worked from Home. I have had a look at some of the sites that are actually doing this and some of the sub-headlines are bizarre especially as some of the sub-headlines are one liners like ? backup, security, protect.

These sub-headlines mean absolutely nothing to the customer and will most likely turn them off reading your material.

So lets write a couple of simple examples that demonstrate to the customer a benefit of using our online backup solution for our first key facet:

Here's How Joe Bloggs Enterprises Was Spared Disaster during Hurricane Terry

with Our Online Backup Solutions System

Learn How One Clients Business Was Saved From Bankruptcy, By Using Our Online Backup Solution after a Ferocious Virus Attack

Who Else wants to know How Macy Push Bikes were back in business in 24 hours, After a Ferocious Store Fire, by using our Online Backup Solutions.

Each of these three sub-headlines provides a clear benefit to the reader. You will note that we are using benefits and not features. The ultimate solution would be to incorporate a benefit and a feature.

2. Identify a Problem the Customer is Having

Identifying with a problem that your customer is having will help you prove that you have a clear understanding of their needs. So looking at our example from before of our online backup solutions we could create headings like:

Do You Suffer From Weekly Power Blackouts?

Are You Constantly Losing Data From Your Computers?

Do You Worry At night your Computer Systems Couldn't Survive a Hurricane?

Could Your Business Continue After a Store Fire?

In each of these cases you are identifying a problem and asking them a question on the problem. The goal in your proceeding paragraphs would be to help them understand that you have the solution to their problem.

3. Use a Combination of Identifying a problem and solving it.

The third sub-heading type looks at what problem the customer is having and how your product or service will resolve their problem. Once again looking at the previous example we could use sub-headlines like:

Put an End to Sleepless Nights Worrying about Whether Your Tape Backups Worked at Night, With Our 24 Hour Online Backup Solution We Confirm They Did For You!

We guarantee in 24 hours Your Business Data Will Be Available in A Disaster to Ensure Your Business is Operational

In both of these examples the sub-headlines identify both the problem and how the product or service will solve the problem.

The key to effective copy is to ensure that the story you tell the customer is clear and meets their needs. Sales are all about meeting the needs of the customer, not your need for sales!