Every one of us is exposed to over 3,000 different messages every day. Each one of these is competing for a small slice of our attention.

For your marketing to be effective, it needs to break through this clutter and grab peoples attention.

Whether your marketing is through direct mail, bus benches, ads in the phone books, newspaper or elsewhere, you can get better results with better headlines.

The job of a headline is to sell the rest of your ad. It's like having a guy in a gorilla suit on the sidewalk in front of your retail store. It gets people's attention and drags them into your business. (Not that you want a guy in a gorilla suit promoting your business but you get the idea.)

Tips to creating better headlines:

Use words your audience will understand
Keep it short, simple and direct
Make it active
Make it relevant to your product, service or business
Communicate benefits
Make an offer or a declaration
Use a startling statistic or a testimonial
Speak to your audience
Get help or feedback from others
Try different headlines

Advertising is more art than science. You never know what people will respond to until you try. So, try different headlines. Tweak, test and fine-tune constantly.

Experiment. Be creative!