Losing buyers due to poor headlines?

Creating a compelling headline requires more thought than using the street address as your property marketing headline. In fact, using the street address as the headline is one of the biggest mistakes real estate professionals make. It’s also ineffective. Unless the address is the most important thing about the home (1600 Pennsylvania Ave. for instance), use the street address elsewhere in your copy and begin to tell the home’s unique story in your headline. For instance, which headline is more likely to generate interest?

“7432 Johnson Drive”
or
“Just featured in Architectural Digest...yet only $750,000.”

Will a reader be more likely to want to know more about,

“1030 Edgewood”
or
“Small house, small price, BIG yard!”

Don’t be afraid of long headlines or long copy. If it’s good copy, it will be more effective than short copy. Yes, really. Advertising research backs this up, especially if you are writing about a product – like a property listing - that not everyone is familiar with. We’ve been taught in real estate to keep copy short, when in fact, we’d be creating more effective marketing pieces if we’d work to tell a compelling story about the home with plenty of descriptive copy. Here’s a combination headline and sub-headline that illustrates these principles. 

Your offer to buy must come with this promise:

• I will appreciate the sweeping lake views, 
• I will open the master bedroom wall and sleep under the stars, 
• I promise not to gloat too much over the $445,000 price reduction!

This is likely to be more effective at attracting a buyer than, “1657 Hill Crest Lane.”

As you write your copy, do break long copy into short paragraphs and use some bold paragraph headings to help tell the story and create visual interest. Also, be sure there is plenty of white space between the lines. You can even use long copy online, if you format it so that it is reader friendly. Obviously your MLS descriptions have to be short. But don’t use MLS blurbs elsewhere, instead use good selling copy.

You should be getting the idea. In summary, headlines should begin to tell the story of your listing and should create curiosity. One advertising text book says that your headline should capture the reader and make them want to read the subhead and the subhead should pull the reader in to read the body copy.

Think about it this way: every home has a story and it’s your job to tell it in a compelling way. The headline is how you grab the reader’s attention by sharing something important about your listing. And once you’ve captured attention, don’t be afraid to use enough copy to weave your home’s story. After all, stories sell.

Comments

[RealtyCandy]

This is a huge issue that I see on a lot of sites. As we get content from clients, we really encourage them to take some time to write an intriguing headline. Something that will cut through all of the noise clients get, and grab their attention.

We have to really work on the marketing end of the real estate transaction if we are going to get our clients to notice us.

At http://realtycandy.com we have worked with some clients who are great at marketing and writing catchy headlines, but we have also seen some who miss out on this opportunity to distinguish themselves from the "rest of the agents".

[REdescription.com]

This is really great food for thought... how often is the opportunity of the headline almost completely ignored. I'll have to work on this aspect of writing descriptions for agents.

[Tracy Oats]

This is a great article. One of the things I’ve learned from writing brochures for luxury apartment buildings is the power of headlines. Strong headlines and sub-heading entice readers to read the details in the mini-paragraphs below them. Also, I make sure the headlines can be read as their own story - if someone only reads the headlines, they still get the most important selling points about the property.

This approach is equally applicable to writing marketing copy for individual listings. Bottom line, prospective homebuyers love information, but they are turned off by huge chunks of text. They want an engaging, easy-to-read story that lets them imagine themselves in the property, they don’t want to feel like they are doing homework.