The Market Your Message Show
The Market Your Message Show
Ch 7: Crafting Aspirational Headlines to Transform Your Personal Brand
Crafting Aspirational Headlines to Transform Your Personal Brand
To see more books in this series go to: PlatformGrowthBooks.com
In today's episode of the Market Your Message show, host Jonathan Milligan delves into Chapter 7, 'Your Aspirational Headline,' from his book series, Your Message Matters. This chapter focuses on the power of aspirational headlines and provides a detailed guide on crafting compelling headlines that resonate with your audience's deepest desires. Using the story of DeBeers and other practical examples, Jonathan outlines five key steps: defining your ideal prospect, understanding their motivations, focusing on their transformation, promising value, and keeping the headline concise. Listeners are encouraged to brainstorm 20 aspirational headlines and refine them to boost conversions effectively.
00:00 Introduction to Market Your Message
00:43 Chapter 7: Your Aspirational Headline
01:46 The Power of an Aspirational Headline
02:06 Steps to Crafting an Aspirational Headline
03:31 Define Your Ideal Prospect
05:20 Understand Their Motivations
07:23 Focus on Their Transformation
09:09 Promise Value
10:41 Be Concise
12:22 Common Mistakes to Avoid
12:59 Day Seven Exercise
13:57 Key Takeaways
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Hello and welcome to the Market Your Message show. I'm your host, Jonathan Milligan, an author of the Your Message Matters book series. We are currently going through book number two in the series called Launch Your Platform, a 21 day launch plan to build your personal brand and share your story online as a writer, coach or speaker. And as a special thanks to you, my podcast listeners, I'm releasing the audio book. One chapter at a time. If you'd like to grab any of the books in the series, just go to platformgrowthbooks. com. Okay. Let's jump in to today's reading.
Chapter seven. Day seven. Your aspirational headline. DeBeers faced a crisis as a young company. A massive surplus of diamonds. But little consumer demand. At the time most Americans saw diamonds as a luxury. Only the ultra wealthy could afford to beers, hired an ad agency to shift that narrative dramatically. Rather than focused on the diamonds themselves. They targeted, people's deeper, emotional desire for romance. This birth, the aspirational 1937 slogan. A diamond is forever. By linking diamonds with everlasting love and commitment. The campaign resonated widely. Over the next decade, us diamond sells exploded by 55%. As suitors. Bought into the idealized promise. This story reveals the immense power of an aspirational headline. It can shift emotions and capture imaginations. The right words can rapidly transform even seemingly stable industries. They tap into the audience's inner most desires in promise to fulfill long-held dreams. In this chapter, we'll break down the key steps you need to take to write such a compelling aspirational headline. Just as a diamond is forever sparked growth for de beers. The right headline can set your business apart. And fuel its success. We'll be using a proven story-based framework created by Donald Miller from StoryBrand. I'll also be sharing a few tweaks along the way to optimize this for personal brands. Let's get started. Day seven. Aspirational headline. To create a headline that converts visitors into leads. Focus on crafting an aspirational headline. Aspirational headlines, speak to the goals and dreams of your ideal prospects. They understand what your audience really wants to achieve or become by using your product or service. Some examples. Become a travel pro with our training. Turn your passion into a business. Join the ranks of elite runners. Find your dream home here. These headlines promised to help people achieve an aspirational identity or outcome. Let's examine the key steps for writing your own aspirational headline. Number one. Define your ideal prospect first. Getting crystal clear on who your ideal customer is, should be the very first step in crafting your headline. As legendary sales trainer, Zig Ziglar said. You can't hit a target that you don't have. Before you can create a headline that speaks to your audience's deepest desires. You need to understand who that audience is fully. Imagine you run a gym and want to attract more members. If you don't define your target market first, your headline could end up appealing to no one. Generic claims like get fit here or best gym in town. Don't speak to any specific motivation. Instead. Define your ideal member persona first. For example. Let's say you conclude your best perspective. Members are busy moms in their thirties and forties who want to lose baby weight and get back in shape. Now you can craft a more target aspirational headline, like bounce back after baby at. Insert your gym name. This taps directly into their transformational goal. The more detailed you can get on your ideal prospects, goals, passions, and struggles. The better as legendary copywriter. David Ogilvy said, the more you know about your audience, the more likely you are to create advertising that is effective. Do the work upfront to understand your ideal customers? That understanding will pay off. It will help when you write an aspirational headline, tailored to them. Number two. Understand their motivations. Once you have a clear picture of your ideal prospect, the next step is getting inside their head. What deep down motivations drive their behavior. What outcomes are they really seeking? What problems do they desperately want someone to solve? This takes empathy and an investigative mindset. As an e-commerce company that only focuses on low prices might miss that their customers also care about fast shipping. I dig deeper to discover the core motivations for using online services. Getting into this investigative blind set is like being a detective at a crime scene, looking for clues. You need together, all the available data on a what makes your ideal prospect tick? Useful sources include customer surveys, focus groups, and social media monitoring. Talking directly to existing customers is also helpful. As innovation guru, Stephen Shapiro explains. Customers don't always know what they want. Get out of the office and watch people use your products in real world settings. Go where your ideal prospects are and observe firsthand what frustrations they face and what goals they pursue. This real world observation. Can uncover powerful motivations. You can leverage in your headline. If you don't have an audience yet. Ask about their goals, passions and struggles on social media. You could do this on your personal profile or in one of many targeted Facebook groups. Gather more clues on what your prospects truly care about. Then you can craft a headline that taps into those core motivations and promises to fulfill their deepest desires. Do your detective work upfront? And you will create a headline that instantly connects with your ideal customers. Number three. Focus on their transformation. Once you understand your targets motivations. You can zero in on the transformation they're seeking. This is how you shift the focus from features to benefits in your headline. Think of a software company that helps law firms manage their client records. They could tell features like cloud-based storage or automated workflows. But those won't stick in the minds of attorneys seeking to become more organized and efficient. Instead focus the headline on their desired transformation use. Regain control of your firm with our client management system. This paints a before and after story of the change, your product enables. To highlight the transformation. Get descriptive. For a personal trainer. That may mean promising to take you from flab to fit. A cleaning service could say. We turn MSCI homes into spotless havens. These headlines create a vivid contrast between where prospects are now versus where your business promises to take them. As copywriting legend, John Caples advised. Paint a vivid word picture of the situation. As it will be. When your offer has fulfilled its promise. This imagery is what makes aspirational headlines so compelling. They give prospects a glimpse of the future. Your business offers. Keep this transformational focus front and center when crafting your headline. Number four. Promise value. Your aspirational headline also needs to make a promise to your prospects. It's not enough to simply describe their hopes and dreams. You need to position your business as the guide. They need to achieve their goals. Consider the iconic milk processor education programs got milk campaign. That ran from 1993 to 2014. Well catchy their initial headline. I didn't communicate concrete value. It was aspirational. But vague. So in 1995, they introduced the tagline. Milk. It does a body. Good. This promised a clear benefit. Drinking milk improves your health. It gave people a compelling reason to buy milk that aligned with their goals. The promise of value, cemented milks place. In the cultural consciousness. The campaign helped boost milk cells by over 20% in just the first year. Your headline needs to make a similarly direct promise that your business can deliver real value to prospects. Whether that's saving them time, improving their health. Or achieving a dream, boil down the core benefits you provide. This concrete value is what convinces visitors to explore further. Number five. Be concise. Now that you've brainstormed ideas. And chosen a compelling aspirational headline. The final step. Is to make it shorter. Long wordy headlines, fail to make impact. Consider the Amsterdam chamber of commerce lengthy 1914 slogan. Amsterdam from a navigational perspective, the most important city of the Netherlands located at the intersection of the north sea canal and the Amstel river. While descriptive. Only the most patient visitors would make it to the end. In 1936, they revamped it. To the simple phrase. Amsterdam has it. This boil down Amsterdam's essence in two, three concise memorable words. Follow their lead and tighten your headline substantially. Challenge yourself to convey the core essence in 10 words or less. This requires brutal editing. Eliminate any fluff. Or unnecessary words. As renowned advertiser, David Ogilvy said. Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read. Strive for simplicity and brevity in your headline. Tight riding requires hard work. But the effort pays off. A concise focus headline. He has far more impact. So keep polishing and trimming until your headline pops. Common mistakes. Here are some common mistakes to avoid when crafting your aspirational headline. Using industry jargon. Speak plain language, your prospects understand. Being too generic. Focus on their specific needs and goals versus generic claims. Making it all about you. Keep the focus on their transformation. Being boring. Injecting motion, excitement and benefit. Into your headline. Promising too much. Make claims that you can realistically deliver on. Day seven exercise. Brainstorm 20 aspirational headlines. Set a timer for 10 minutes in brainstorm at least 20 aspirational headlines for your homepage. Let the ideas flow without self editing at first. Make sure they focus on your prospect's transformation. Promise tangible value. Tap into their goals and motivations. If you're struggling, use an AI tool like chat GPT. Give the tool as much info as you can. And use the points mentioned earlier and ask it to produce 20 aspirational headlines for you. Circle the top three to five headlines. The narrow down to your favorite. Test it on your home page and track how it impacts conversions. Continue to refine until you have a headline that truly resonates with your audience and compels them to take action. Day seven key takeaways. No, your idle prospect deeply. Focus on their desires and goals. Promise to fulfill their aspirations. Keep it concise and benefit driven. Speak directly to your audience. Revise and refine for maximum impact.