Do Quotation Marks in Headlines Work?
13. Jul, 2009 
4 Comments
I always remember Ted Nicholas, a legend in direct marketing, saying that you should use quotation marks in your headlines.
A strong believer in testing the various components of a sales letter, Nicholas found that the use of quotation marks, consistently resulted in a significant increase in response.
Just for fun, I wondered how prevalent this tactic was on the internet. And if the same translated on-line…
I just had a look at the sales letters of five top internet marketing gurus.
Guys who sell millions of dollars worth of product each year.
And here’s the thing…
FOUR OUT OF FIVE HAD THEIR HEADLINE IN QUOTATION MARKS.
Which is pretty…THOUGHT PROVOKING.
Now you’re probably thinking that someone had given them a testimonial and these were grabs from that.
The interesting thing is…
No credit was given for those “allegedly spoken” words.
They sat there all alone…
In quotation marks.
Giving the impression that they had actually been spoken.
Food for thought if you’re looking to increase your response.
Neil Mattingley
I would appreciate more visual materials, to make your blog more attractive, but your writing style really compensates it. But there is always place for improvement
Thanks for the feedback Younge.
Will take the pictures idea onboard.
Neil
I didn’t understand the concluding part of your article, could you please explain it more?
Thanks for the prompt. What I meant was that the effect of the quotation marks is to add legitimacy to the headline. Subconciously, readers view the quotation marks surrounding the message in the headline as more credible; even through that message may or may not not have actually been spoken. Hope this helps.