Powerful Headline Writing Techniques for Your Sales Proposals

Adrian Rosca

If you can write sales proposals effectively with ease and clarity, you can be described as being skillful in its right. Thus, as you write sales proposals, one thing must be embedded in your mind, the heading, headline or topic.

Writing the best headlines for your sales proposals will ultimately make it more interesting, and those who you present to are inclined to become attentive as you’ve already caught their eye with a catchy title. In addition, there’re some specifics you need to consider aside from having a descriptive headline to make your sales proposal copy more interesting:

• Ensure that each section has an introductory sentence. Make it brief and punchy, telling the most important information or gives particular facts in that section
• Use short paragraphs. Just like any reading content, this isn’t a novel, therefore don’t strain your audience.
• Use subheadings to break up chunks of texts that cannot be filled with three paragraphs.
• To simplify lists, use bullet points.
• Use lots of pictures and diagrams to keep the audience or reader engaged. Our brains process images faster than words, therefore, incorporate diagrams, pictures, and charts as you write sales proposals.

Sales Proposals With the Best Titles: A Guide From Published Works and Blogs

When writing the best titles for your sales proposals, use accurate and descriptive headlines . A headline should have between five to ten words at most if a reader is going to read just five honest and descriptive words of your catchy title, then they would know what you are talking about, and this will determine if he/she will go on reading the text or just scroll through.

In essence, before writing sales proposals, ensure you take a moment to choose the best possible title as they determine whether your proposal will pass or fail.

In the choice of the right heading for your sales proposal, you have the opportunity to establish an instant connection with your intended readers and moreover, tick their interest as they will understand why they should buy or download, and how they will benefit from what you’re selling. However, if you choose the wrong title, your proposal is in for a rocky road.

I have written this post to review key characteristics in writing successful titles critically; you can also look into this Title Evaluation Scorecard that can be downloaded and guide you in writing the best heading for your proposal.

Albeit, the tips below work well for published articles i.e. books, journals, newspapers, and magazines since they incorporate their sales through attracting readers with titles, the same principle, however, can be applied not only when you write sales proposals but also when you are marketing content as well.

Ensure Your Title Promises the Desired Benefit

Choose a title that describes what you are proposing precisely including the ensuing benefits. The best headings offer assurance in solving a problem or help in achieving the desired goal.

Here are some great examples of catchy titles that promise:

• Web Design Tools & Techniques – describes what the book is about.
• Be a Programmer: A Guide to Basic C# Programming – explains the benefits accrued from the book.

As you write sales proposals, put these ideas into practice and create a heading that promises, also note the shortness of the titles.

Create Titles That Suggest Specificity and Urgency

Certain specifics, like numeric, do add credibility and urgency to your headlines. Numbers have been shown to provide a structure for information. For instance headlines like "7 Habits of Highly Successive Individuals", sounds more compelling that "Habits of Highly Successive Individuals". Therefore as you write sales proposals, headings try to make it suggest specificity and urgency.

Moreover, numbers play a psychological role in being an achievable task, like a series of easy-to-read text. Titles like “5 ways to make him stay”, already show that the number is a small number and can be accomplished in matters of minutes.

Target Your Intended Readers in Your Title

As you write sales proposals, ensure you target your intended target whenever possible. As your readers go through your proposal, it makes them more receptive as they feel it was written with them in mind. Titles like "7 Marketing Tips for Web Developers" are more appealing as they already indicate a specific target, web developers. You can also target your intended market by naming their characteristics, make it more obvious to your readers.

Additionally, another trick is to approach your market by reverse psychology, i.e. describing who they aren’t, for instance, "Non-Programmers Programming Guide".

Differentiate Your Headline From Other Competing Titles

This tip sets you apart from others; it’s basically, why should the target be interested in your, it’s your selling point.

Additionally, you can position your heading by stressing your approach, for instance, "Treating Hair Loss Naturally", this is a title that offers an emphasis on the ‘naturally’ part, since various titles on how to treat hair loss exist.

Engage Your Reader’s Curiosity, or Even Better, Use Metaphors

Incorporating literature tools in your headings as you write sales proposals, can pick your reader’s interests. Here are some examples;

• Metaphors in titles make it easier to comprehend and remember. It gives your readers a mental picture or points of comparison on the subject in question.
• Alliteration, also known as rhymed consonants. Alliterations make titles easy to remember, title example “Forward to the Future.” This title as you can tell is hard to forget.
• Curiosity, aroused by contradictory terms, can set your content apart. It can also be used as a strategy against the competition. Example, "The Wealthy Newsvendor", the contradiction between "wealth" and "newsvendor" compels people to discover the correlation between the two.

As you write sales proposals, try to incorporate literature tools to capture your reader’s interests.

Your Title Needs to Communicate in a Conversational Tone

In as much as titles do offer promises in one word, they also need to be in a tone that the reader can relate to. Titles shouldn’t be too simple or obvious; you should choose the right verbs. Verbs have an important role to play in the reading abilities of your readers, how they’ll approach your proposal is dependent on:

• Action verbs: Also termed as Imperative verbs, titles with imperative verbs begin with a silent “you.” They tend to communicate towards a conversational way that is action-oriented.
• Using gerunds: a gerund or "ing", is a form of action verb that communicates ongoing processes. Using gerunds in titles give out a feeling of relation with the readers.

Your Headings Should be Clear and Concise

Concise titles that speak volumes of the content have the ability to impact more to your readers. Titles like "Tipping the Financial Scales" speaks volume regarding finances and a reader can tell that the content is all about finances.

Having few words also need to be made clear, check the font and bold size. Few words in a heading that are clear and concise grab more attention than wordy titles.

Reinforce Your Headings With Subtitles That Provides Additional Information

As mentioned earlier, subtitles need to be included as you write sales proposals. Subtitles break texts, making it easier to read. Subtitles offer additional information, reinforcing the heading as you read through the text.

Remember to combine short headings with longer subtitles, which confer more details to the already short heading.

Combine all the Various Techniques to Write the Perfect Headline for Your Sales Proposal

Keeping your title short and concise is a single approach, you can combine metaphors with detailed subtitles, or incorporate numbers with benefit oriented titles. You can also use target oriented titles with SEO components, or even have Verbs with Specificity and Urgency headings as you write sales proposals.

All these combinations will work to your advantage; the key would be making it more sensible. Best sellers have two or more techniques incorporated in their titles for maximum impact. Quite often metaphor-based or alliterative titles are combined with more detailed subtitles that are unique.