Business Plan Appeal ? Five Rules For Writing Attention Grabbing Headlines

The success of a business plan stands or falls on its ability to get potential investors to take a moment to read it. Nothing works better for doing this than well-written headlines designed to interrupt and engage investors. Here are five fundamental rules for writing and incorporating headlines into your business plan.

More important than anything else, try to get investors' self-interests into every headline you write. Make your headlines suggest to investors that there is something about your business plan or venture they want. This rule seems so obvious. Yet, absent omitting headlines entirely, it is the rule most often violated. Replace overused one word headings like "Company", "Products", "Market", Financials" with headlines that appeal to investors' self-interests like making money, protecting their investment, or building trust.

Be sure to get news worthy information like new products, new uses for old products, or technological breakthroughs into your headlines whenever possible.

Avoid "curiosity" headlines. Marketing and advertising professionals have proven through testing and experience that the effectiveness of the average curiosity headline is, at best, doubtful. For every curiosity headline that succeeds in getting an investor to read further, a dozen will fail. Instead, combine curiosity with news or self-interest to create a single, more compelling headline capable of drawing investors into your plan.

Take a positive angle with your headlines. Avoid headlines that paint gloomy or negative pictures of your business venture or markets. For example, if you are targeting a market with millions of suffers, emphasize in your headlines how the business venture can benefit them.

Demonstrate through your headlines that here is a business plan that will generate results and is backed by evidence. Let your headlines educate investors about the opportunity, risks, and the available options.

Of course it goes without saying that in using any of these rules be sure to make your headline believable. In most cases, "too good to be true" headlines will not draw experienced investors into your plan.

Mike Elia is a chief financial officer and an advisor to venture capitalists and leverage buyout specialists. His business plan ebook "Business Plan Secrets Revealed" shows how to make your business the most appealing investment choice to venture capitalist, bankers, and other business investors. For his free business plan guide visit http://www.business-plan-secrets-revealed.com/free-business-plan-guide.html

RELATED ARTICLES

The First UK Man To Become a Human Billboard an Interview
Advertising on humans using tattoos is rapidly kind of freak niche that is definitely growing. It all started about two years ago (to the best of my knowledge) when a guy ran an ad on eBay offer his forehead as a billboard. He basically put up an eBay auction offering to wear a temporary tattoo on his forehead to advertise for whoever was the winning bidder. Well, a year or so later this is starting to become a phenomena and is rapidly growing. I got a chance to interview a man from the UK who currently has an auction up and he is getting a permanent tattoo ad. This is kind of taking the whole body advertising to a new level.

Add More Pizzazz To Your Ad For More Profits
I recently completed a Marketing Makeover for an Adthat wasn't generating results for the owner of a Piano Tuning Business.

Good Design Makes Good Sense
Organized your pencils and pens lately? Sorted your clothes into a logical system in your drawers? Then you already understand the basic elements of good design: it's practical, it's systematic, and it makes life easier.

Change, or Reinforce?
Do you know about the distinction - and it's a useful one - between communication that tries to reinforce and communication that tries to get change?

5 Reasons Why Headlines Are Crucial To Your Website?s Success
Without a powerful headline, your message stands little chance of being noticed in an increasingly competitive marketplace. If your headline doesn't capture attention and pull prospects into your sales copy, than your marketing effort is a total waste of energy and resources.

Get Better Results from Your Advertising with a Disruptor
When you spend money on an advertisement you want to get the best return possible. To do that you need to get people to STOP and LOOK at your ad.

15 Tips for Better Yellow Page Ads
Yellow Pages advertising is one of the mostpopular forms of advertising in the country today.Almost every home in America (96.9%) and businesshas at least one copy of "the book".

If You Want To Get More Customers, Heres 10 Powerful Stories To Improve Your Ads
Remember, as a child lying in bed and listening to stories. Remember how engaged you were. Remember how you never got bored of them and always wanted to learn more.

Direct Mail = Your Money, From Printer to Mailbox to Trash!
I did a quick, very unscientific survey of 25 of my friends. I asked them to put the mail that they do not open or read in a specific trash bag. At the end of one week they gave it to me to be weighed. Guess how much the bag weighed? Remember, most mail is a fraction of an ounce. 63.4.....not ounces....lbs! Something is wrong with this picture! That's like 2 1/2 pounds per person per week! Holy Cow! Also this was a March survey, what if it had been done in November?

Advertising Your Holistic Business
The most basic answer is the same answer as to the question, how does advertising work? Advertising works through repetition, and Holistic Hometown offers you that repetition.

Avoid The Big Advertising Mistakes
Is your advertising copy getting the results you want? If not, look at your current marketing to see if you're making one of the major copywriting mistakes:

How To Write Eye-Grabbing Headlines That Catapult Your Prospects Into Your Ads
If you're interested in improving the selling results of your ads, tweaking your headlines is a great place to start. Because your headlines influence the sales results of your ad more than any other element.

Brochures - The Ultimate Sales Tool
"How brochures can help you stand out from the competition, close the deal, and even build repeat business."

Graphical LED Display
Graphical LED Displays utilize high-resolution graphics and video to transmit the information. You will find them sited in world's great cosmopolitan cities. These impressive electronic signs towering over the streets displays graphic and video to broadcast important information or to advertise themselves.

Grab Your Share of Untold Amounts of Advertising Dollars
If you advertise in any way, the following information could show you how to find and utilize untold advertising dollars you may not be aware of.

The Key To Marketing New Ideas!
Imagine tossing a pebble into a crystal clear pond on a still day, & watching the ripples make their way to the shore. A tiny cause has a massive effect.

Books, Bibles and Fast-Talkers
Every community has 'em. Fast talkers who rollinto town with a clever idea to sell to people inbusiness.

Crazy Ads? Maybe Youre Just Out of The Demo!
My father called me to complain, again. He's 82 and he's angry. "Son, I know you're in advertising and all that", he usually starts off, "but the ads I see today I wouldn't give you two cents for. They're stupid and they don't even tell you what they're selling!"

Sex in Advertising: Does it Sell?
We're surrounded by advertisements that desperately compete for our attention. Everywhere we look, we find ourselves inevitably drawn to images of scantily clad attractive men and women that are supposed to somehow inspire us to purchase products they endorse. Sure, this attention-getting strategy is popular. But, is it effective?

Whats The Frequency?
The more things change, some say, the more things stay the same. When it comes to marketing, I tend to agree. Consider the following list of how advertising frequency equates to advertising effectiveness. Thomas Smith wrote this in 1885:

home | site map | www.1001topwords.com