Headline, or No Headline: That is The Question

A customer of ours, fresh off a conference call with a fellow marketing expert, called me in a panic just before his piece went to press. The piece we were about to print had a strong headline in it, and he wanted to take a moment to revisit whether using a headline was a good idea or not.
What was it that he had just heard that had his cage so rattled about the use of headlines? It turns out the person he was just listening to spoke out strongly against the use of headlines because he felt that it made the marketing piece “look and smell like a marketing piece.”

While I have to agree with that fact, you cannot just look at one element of a marketing piece and judge it as good or bad. You must look at the entire process your piece will go through, you have to look at the entire interaction it will have the recipient in order to understand whether your strategy is effective or ineffective.

In the case of the piece we were doing for this gentleman, it was written on a yellow notepad piece of paper, and it was packaged in a real handwritten envelope. The piece itself had a strong headline drawing the reader into the main body of the faux handwritten letter.

If you do not have a headline on your piece, then your first sentence serves as your headline. You are going to be “found out” at some point that, yes, this is a marketing piece. The headline contributes to the total experience you are creating for the recipient. As for my recommendation… it depends. There are some applications where it could detract from the experience I’m trying to create, however, there are more instances when I feel that a “perfect” headline can be one of the most powerful elements of any sales letter.