Some of us have a penchant for naming everything (as for me, even my ceiling fan has a name) and some of us only name things out of necessity (ever met the guy who named his dog “Dog”? I’m related to him). But if you want to publish anything, such as a blog post to support a content marketing plan, you have got to give it a name—that is, a title.
Titling versus naming is not so different, at least in how you approach the task. In finding a good name for a child, many parents consider family history, important people in their own lives, the way the names sound and how creative the entire combination is. These naming criteria are basically the same points to consider when crafting a title for your blog:
1) Appropriateness
Your title ought to fit your blog. Naming a blog about finance after a famous song or hot cultural topic can be effectively creative—unless you can’t tie your reference to the actual subject of your post. An appropriate title describes your content, telling your reader what they are about to read.
2) Meaning
This second criteria ties in with appropriateness, but there is an important division. Does your blog reach a conclusion that has impact on your reader? Say you are an orthodontist talking about braces. Braces can help create a better environment for teeth to grow in, but the meaning for your readers won’t be in the braces themselves—it will be in the end result of a healthier mouth. The meaning of your post is in the conclusion, the impact on some aspect of the reader’s life.
3) Sound
The title of your blog should be in line with the tone and voice (the personality) of your blog. The main question you want to ask yourself is do your titles reflect your brand in the same way your blog does? If your titles and your posts sound like they have been written by two different people, or perhaps by one person in two completely different moods, then you likely have a ‘sound’ problem.
4) Creativity
Also intertwined with its predecessors, creativity is about crafting titles that are attractive to readers. Any title, from book to movie to event poster, has the goal of capturing the audience’s interest. Inventiveness, wordplay, and variety combined help create titles that viewers want to click on to read further.
5) Keywords
One of the goals of blogging is to build organic SEO. Just like the last name of a person shows what family they belong to, keywords show the topic you want to be found on in a search. If you are writing about plants and landscaping, most of your titles should include words that go along with those subjects. If you title your posts after famous poems, and you are not talking about poetry, it may be creative, but ineffective. Keywords help your potential customers find you.
Good titles don’t always strike gold in all five of these components, and that is fine (with the exception of keywords; those are important to have all the time). It all depends on your content marketing goals and who you want to reach. If you need help with your blogging endeavors, Fresh Figs Marketing is here to guide you through the process. We have the writing skills and digital marketing experience to create quality blogs that help you spread your message and provide value to your customers. Contact us here, or call (317) 910-6252.
