Take the "bland" test (and get more specific)

If you are creating a piece of marketing material, I think you need to subject it to the "bland" test. If your headline or copy is so generic, it could work for another business (or even a competitor) - ditch it. Go back to the drawing board and make it specific enough that it's actually got a real connection with your business.

And don't just take my word for it.

Roy Morgan presented a paper in Prague at the 12th Worldwide Readership Research Symposium (try saying that quickly and three times in a row!).

At any rate, they showed the difference in Return on Investment on the two ads below.



The first headline says: When they change the way they make people, we'll change the way we make bread.

The second headline says: We've put fibre in Roman Meal for 75 years because people need fibre from day one.

Which do you think worked best?

In terms of persuasion performance, if the second ad returns $100,000, the ad on the
right returns $258,000. The second ad basically kicks butt over the first (and it helps that the headline actually matches the pic)