Advertising gurus like David Ogilvy and others have long maintained that the headline is worth 90% of your advertising spend. It has also been written that a change of headline can produce an uplift of up to 10 times the previous level of response.

As a direct response copywriter, I believe implicitly in testing, so I decided to get my own results.

One day I posted a blog on Ecademy and titled it “Poison kills the Big Society”. Not bad, I thought … carries the message. But after a couple of days the blog had registered about 240 views and one comment.

I then changed the headline to “What has made this nation so vicious?” The viewing figure rocketed upwards to well over 1,000 with 11 additional comments.

What has made the difference?

Two things, in my opinion: first, the original headline invoked a reaction to a specific concept, The Big Society, whereas the second headline prompted an opinion that anyone could have, whether or not they knew what the Big Society meant. Secondly, it asked a question, which invited a response.

The purpose of a headline is to signal a target group and to say, in effect, “Stop! This is for you!” It should be consistent with the body copy and say enough about the story to enable people to respond without reading any further. Ogilvy said that Headlines get five times the readership of the body copy.

My second headline was more universal and invited participation. But there are other reasons why headlines work. I’d be interested to know what you think about the four headlines below – would they make you want to know more?

• They laughed when I sat down at the piano, but when I started to play! –
• Will you only discover the value of AA membership by accident?
• My 9 year old son’s reading & sums were worse than when he was 7
• Cash if you die. Cash if you don’t.

Recently I have watched a number of American How To videos on YouTube, and noticed a common trend that occurs also in American sales letters and motivational speeches. It’s a reluctance to get to the point.

One video was about improving your singing voice. That was the promise in the title. It opened with a question received from a fan who wanted to know the difference between the singing voice and the speaking voice.

The presenter talked about opera singers in the past, about vocal projection over the sound of an orchestra, about the modern use of the microphone, about the difference between theatre performances and solo singing, and the expectations of an audience.

She then compared the performances by different singers of the same song, and asked a series of rhetorical questions about each person’s vocal range, adding explanations of her own preferred key.

This took four minutes, and she had not yet started any instruction!

Another How To video was about learning to play a certain musical instrument. Half the short video was on setting the scene and describing the instruction that would be presented in a DVD set. The second half of the video was a demonstration of basic technique, followed by 2,000 words plus pictures, promoting the DVD set.

In general, there seems to be a tendency, in the Unites States, to tell you what you should be doing and why it would be a good idea. Along the way the speaker will bask in stories that illustrate what works and what does not. But the actual instruction is a long time coming. They tell you What and Why, but not How.

I’d call it the Prolix Tendency. It’s a form of self-indulgence by the presenter.

There is a better way to create constructive tension and build the listener’s desire for your solution. With the right structure, both in print and in sound, you can grab and hold the attention of your audience, so that they will follow you all the way and enjoy the journey.

Don’t make people cry, “Get on with it!”

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There are eight important ingredients in a successful presentation, indicated by my acrostic, OH AM I SAD (which you will be if you don’t do something like this).

O: Outcome or Objective.  Start with the end in view.  What do you want people to do when you have finished?  Write it down.

H: Hook.  Sometimes called the Grabber.  It’s something that you do or say to grab attention at the start, in much the same way as the Headline on a press advertisement.  It says, “Stop! Pay attention, this is for YOU!”

A:  Audience.  Make it directly relevant to the group you are addressing, taking account of their needs, interests and anxieties.  If you have a multi-cultural audience, keep the language simple and try to avoid too much use of metaphor.

M: Message.  It’s not your information that matters, but rather its significance.  Tell them what they should think about what you are saying, and how it will affect them.  Summarise your message in a single sentence that you want people to carry away and remember.  Write it down and make it the focus of your presentation.

I: Interest.  You have their attention, and you are focused on where you want to lead them.  Maintain the flow and keep their attention by relating everything to their interests.  For every fact you put across, answer the “So what?” question.

S: Structure.  It is essential to follow a structure, both to keep yourself on track and to enable your listeners to follow you.  A simple structure, such as Past, Present, Future, will be easy for them to remember and reconstruct your presentation.

A:  Action.  What did you want them to do after hearing you?  Make it clear.  Don’t expect them to work it out for themselves.

D: Delivery.  Pay attention to the way in which you deliver your presentation.  Spend time rehearsing, listen to a recording of your presentation and make sure you are not boring, then make an effort to be heard clearly. Every presentation is a performance, and no one has the right to be boring.

Follow these guidelines and you’ll be worth hearing.

What makes you a ‘must have’ in your business sector?

How effectively are you putting that across?

Send for your free e-book: The Voice of Leadership

The American Management Association states that no matter how compelling the vision or how brilliant the strategy, without leadership communication there is no execution.

Your great ideas, your grand plan, will lie dormant and may never see the light of day … without excellent communication skills. In fact, many a new idea or invention has had to await the communication skills of someone other than the originator.

Let me ask you this: Who invented the sewing machine? Although Isaac Singer gets the credit, it was actually Elias Howe who came up with the idea. Singer was just better at the execution; better at making it happen and then at telling the world about it.

You know the Post-It Note? Who invented that? Arthur Fry, who worked for 3M, saw the potential in the weak glue that was developed (by accident?) by Spencer Silver, a 3M research scientist. But Arthur Fry got the credit.

The American, John J. Loud, invented the ballpoint pen as long ago as 1888, but he couldn’t get the ink to flow properly. 50 years later the Hungarian, Laszlo Biro, used printing ink, and in 1943 produced the first ballpoint pens for the RAF. And then Biro became the generic term for ballpoint pens.

Ever heard of the Dynabook? Developed back in 1968, it pre-dated webpads and the iPad. But it did not have the benefit of Steve Jobs’s marketing genius.

So how does this relate to you?

If you are in a leadership role you have things to say: ideas, values and strategies that represent your purpose. You need your people to buy into them.

Sometimes it takes an external eye or ear to give you feedback, guide your thinking, sharpen your message and the way you put it across. It’s what I do.

Throughout history there have been remarkable leaders who have moved their followers to heroic efforts, to defy the odds against them, to make magic where lesser leaders would have merely presided over the same old same old.

The Voice of Leadership is a short e-book that takes a look at the powerful speeches of:

• Abraham Lincoln,
• Jack Kennedy,
• Barack Obama,
• Martin Luther King
• Winston Churchill and others.

It provides a checklist of the principles of leadership and it offers some easily-remembered tips on sounding like a leader.

In fact, it’s more than that. It will probably stimulate your own ideas on leadership. But you can read it and decide for yourself.

I wrote it. And who am I? Currently UK Business Speaker of the Year and past winner of a cluster of public speaking titles, including UK champion a record seven times, Anglo-Irish champion three times, and second in the World Championship of Public Speaking.

In addition, I have written eight business books on communication skills. The latest is just out. The FT Guide to Making Business Presentations. Expect to see it in Amazon and leading book stores later this month. Why not write a review?

The Voice of Leadership is my gift to you. You may send for it without paying a penny or committing yourself in any way. Just send an email to phillip@pkpcommunicators.com“>phillip@pkpcommunicators.com with Voice of Leadership in the subject line.

Why am I offering you this e-book as a gift? Because I believe it is always better to demonstrate than to claim. If you like my ideas in The Voice of Leadership you may consider inviting me to discuss how I could make a difference to your own leadership and communication style.

Later this month I’ll be making available a six-module online training programme. It will simplify the process of improving your business presentation skills. Let me know if you wish to be informed when the programme is ready. You’ll be able to take any one module or all six.

You’ll find it here: http://www.pkpcommunicators.com when it’s ready.

But now, send for your free copy of The Voice of Leadership with an email to: phillip@pkpcommunicators.com“>phillip@pkpcommunicators.com.

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What is Creativity?

It is the ability to solve a problem, see something that others do not see, represent a commonplace thing or notion in a new or novel way.

It is the ability to spot an ‘angle’ – some unexpected or beneficial attribute that has the potential to produce a desirable outcome. It does not have to be completely original, except in the way it applies to the current situation.

Here are some pointers to awaken your own creativity. It can give you the edge in business.

The Art of Problem Definition

Technical people are often self-limiting: they believe that the facts speak for themselves. This is known as the ‘engineer’s mentality’.

Engineers, however, need to be creative. They need to look for new solutions, and use their training to solve riddles and substantiate their findings.

Marvin Minsky, co-founder of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, believes creative thinking involves two components: courage and critical thinking.

Burt Swersey, lecturer in mechanical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic, teaches students a methodology for creative product development, including these steps:

1. Define the problem. Get past the obvious, and find answers that are valid all the time.

2. State the objectives. Don’t limit yourself by considering only what seems possible. Be visual, create flow charts.

3. Generate multiple alternatives. What other means are there of achieving the same result?

4. Evaluate alternatives. Create models and determine how each meets customer needs.

5. Build. Turn theory into practice.

A good starting place is to sit with another person somewhere other than your usual desk, (a) to get free of your ‘usual’ mind set, and (b) to get someone else’s perspective on the issue. Choose a topic that excites you, or a problem you need to solve.

Next, write the topic at the top of a sheet of paper and brainstorm the matter together, writing down all the ideas that you can think of in relation to that topic. No editing (i.e. reject nothing at this stage), as that can interrupt the creative flow. See what emerges.

Practise brainstorming regularly. It will open up your creativity.

Make a point, tell a story; tell a story, make a point. That’s an easy enough mantra to follow in speeches and presentations, but what kind of story should you tell?

The three factors that work in story telling are:
1. They illustrate the point and are easy to understand and remember
2. We are all conditioned, from childhood, to like stories
3. They can connect with your listeners’ backgrounds

The first two are fairly obvious, but the third one often surprises people when I raise it during my training courses. Backgrounds?

Let’s take an extreme example, just to make the point. Suppose you are pitching to the owner of a small business. Did you stop to consider why he started that business? One such small business owner told me, only the other day, “I started this business because no one would give me a job.”

Another (geeky) micro business owner told me his technical expertise is such that he is always in demand, and he doesn’t have to market himself.

For people like them, you may want to avoid stories about gregarious situations and talk, instead, about self sufficiency and the virtues of independence. Talk about the injustice of bureaucracy and the triumph of the ‘small’ over the ‘large’.

At the same time, be aware of your own background story, and avoid pleading your own position. Remember, the main purpose of the story is to advance your business case, not to entertain or to beat the drum of self interest.

Think about how movies can touch your own emotions. That’s the power of story telling.Go ye and do likewise.

Phillip

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