We’re exploring workshop titles in this third part of our ongoing series. In our first month we chose our topic (ice-fishing if you can believe it!) and our marketing promise which, after further development, won’t work. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Last month in part two, we identified and researched various title resources. This month we’ll choose our title which may / may not also incorporate our marketing promise. Let’s see.
Why Do We Need Our Content Idea Before We Write Our Title?
We won’t discuss our webinar’s content point-by-point in this article series, because we’re here to learn the process of using online workshops to grow our audience.
Still, we must have some idea of this fictitious workshop’s content, or we can’t title it.
Checking books and magazine articles about ice-fishing, I wasn’t inspired. So I researched online news stories and found a content idea that meets my criteria: both new or established ice-fishermen will want this information. Bingo!
My pretend workshop will be how to eliminate or survive ice-fishing dangers. That’s not my title. It’s the focus of my content. The two are similar but distinctly different.
We want our title to attract the audience we want to serve. If you remember from part one in this series, we want the title to do 5 things:
-identify our audience directly or indirectly;
-address a problem, a challenge, or a goal;
-begin with an action verb;
-include a number (maybe), and;
-is utterly clear…like glass.
Let’s get to work. Our audience is new or experienced ice-fishermen. The problem is danger or death. (They want to avoid both.) 🙂
Potential Workshop Titles and Why They’re Strong or Weak Options
Ice-Fishermen: Don’t Let This Happen to You! Spot on audience identification but way too vague on the remainder. Plus, the phrase, “…don’t let this happen to you!” is often used by sensationalists whose titles attract attention but whose content offers no value. We’ll pass.
3 Dangers of Ice-Fishing and How to Avoid Them Meh. Accurate but boring. Moving on.
How to Survive Your 2022 Ice-Fishing Trips We’re getting closer but we’re not there yet. Some might think adding the year makes their workshop timely, but not so. Instead, it ages it after December 31, 2022. It also suggests that your information is somehow related to that specific year in some special, not-yet-identified way, or perhaps that it’s only applicable for that specific year. Both are unintentionally misleading. We want to steer clear of even the appearance of trickery. Utter clarity is our goal.
Survive Ice-Fishing Dangers Looking at our list of 5 goals, the first word is a compelling action verb. Whatever is it, we want to survive it, right? 🙂 Can we improve this title?
 Survive Treacherous Ice-Fishing Dangers Ooh, treacherous dangers. Much more dramatic (read intriguing) than regular ol’ dangers and still applicable to our content. Hmmm…
 Survive These 3 Treacherous Ice-Fishing Dangers This is the strongest contender of those shown. Do you agree? It indirectly identifies our audience as those who ice-fish. Check. Does it address a problem, challenge, or goal? Yes.
It begins with an action verb as mentioned earlier. An attention getting action verb. It also includes a specific yet reasonable number. I don’t have time to read how to avoid 73 dangers. Do you? 🙂 It’s clear…like glass.
Anyone reading this title version will be very interested (in part because we’re using strong words like “survive” and “treacherous”) or not interested at all. Have you ever met anyone who was “so-so” about surviving anything treacherous? Me, neither.
So we’re set. Survive These 3 Treacherous Ice-Fishing Dangers it is. We don’t need to add “How to…” It’s implied. But we could.
By the way, I could have removed “How to…” from this article series without losing any impact.
Onward we go! See you next month when we’ll move to the next step.
Patricia Durgin is an Online Marketing Coach and Facebook Live Expert. She trains Christian writers and speakers exclusively, helping them develop their messaging, marketing funnels, conversational emails, and Facebook Live programs. Patricia hosted 505 (60-minute) Facebook Live programs from 2018-2020. That program is on indefinite hiatus. She’s also a regular faculty member at Christian writers and speakers conferences around the country.
Website: marketersonamission.com
Facebook: MarketersOnAMission
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