HOW TO CREATE TITLES THAT GRAB YOUR READERS BY THE THROAT! Part I

In academia as well as the trade marketplace, subject lines in e-mails and titles of newsletters, blogs, journal articles, books, and conference presentations are typically business-as-usual, gag-in-the-throat boring, albeit scholarly, pretentious, and possibly difficult to understand. Of course, there are occasional exceptions, and those outliers are welcome breaths of fresh words.

STOPABILITY
There are so many electronic and paper communications; so little time. How do you stand out from the rest of the pack in an already super-overcrowded field, such as hundreds of e-mails to scan or 10–30 other concurrent conference presentations in the same time slot as yours? Instead of gagging, we need to be grabbing or throttling our readers’ throats with a title that stops them in their tracks. Your criterion for an effective title should be STOPABILITY. Create a stop for the pause that entices your readers to read. E-mail-wise, you have about a nanosecond to stop them before they hit DELETE.

How do you create a sizzling title for any professional message or document that may still be boring? At least, your reader may start reading before deleting.

EIGHT STRATEGIES FOR SIZZLING TITLES
Here are 8 strategies to consider from the world of marketing and advertising with my academic spin. Your title should convey the following:

1. Tell me what you can do for me. How can your title convey that your content will help me be a better teacher, researcher, business leader, manager, conference presenter, faculty developer, writer, or mousetrap? As a student, does your title suggest how you are going to help me finish my dissertation, present a paper, or get a job?

2. Tell me something I don’t already know. Adopt the cynical mindset of some of your colleagues and make sure your title doesn’t connote you’re recycling same ole same ole. The title should suggest what unique, new, meaningful contribution you are providing?

3. Keep it simple, succinct, and precise. We’ve all heard of the KISS model (Keep It Simple Stupid). This is the KISSPCS version (pronounced “Kisspicks”) if you retain the Stupid part. Apply it to your title. Carefully choose every word so that it precisely captures your message. Be terse and clear with your language. Whack unnecessary words.

OOPS! I’ve blogged past my word limit. I’m so embarrassed and ashamed of myself. What was I thinking? Please forgive me. The list of strategies will be continued tomorrow. Can you guess the other ways you can make your titles sizzle? Maybe you use techniques I haven’t tried. Please let me know your ideas.

COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC