TITLES

Triumphant Titles

by Simon Hall Creative Warehouse

people.

They’re all important and busy, and it’s unlikely your presentation is the only one they’re seeing. Their time is precious so they scan through the eager hopefuls, and what if…

It’s all very standard, boring, average and ordinary, but… One of the pitch titles really stands out.

Before you’ve even begun, you’ve won their interest and raised their expectations. Which are small advantages, it’s true, but still well worth having.

Top Titles

Let’s look at the titles of a Magnificent Seven (note the great title reference!) books, blogs, academic research papers and news headlines to help us craft a killer of the kind.

By the way, in the media headlines serve as the titles for stories and usually have the most senior people in the newsroom working on them. Which is another indicator of their importance.

•Dancing With Your Cat (book) •12 Weird Tips to Hit the Top (blog) •Safety Meeting Ends in Accident (news) •Is This the Rail Price? Is This Just Fantasy? Caught up in Land Buys. No Escape from Bureaucracy!

Abasic mistake bedevils all important areas of communications, from pitching for investment, to writing a report, to giving a talk. I see it time and again and to be frank, it drives me mad. Because it’s so easy to deal with and can also be fun to get right.

I’m talking titles. Which is why we’ve used this photo for the article, and not just as a blatant plug for my books… honestly!

A title is often the last thing to be thought about, when it should be one of the first. And why is that? Imagine you’re sending out an investor deck, or pitching for funding in front of a group of business

(news) •Do Woodpeckers Get Headaches? (academic paper) •The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and Other Clinical Tales (book) •Creative, Compelling and Comprehensive Communication (pitch)

Yep, you guessed it. The last one is a title I sometimes use when I’m pitching for work for my company, Creative Warehouse. But moving on from yet more shameless plugs, what can we learn from those seven? Apart from the obvious fact that I like strange titles?

I think of the trick to titles as the three Is. That’s the letter I three times, in case you were wondering, given how odd it looks. But run with me, these are useful insights.

Interest

This is probably the most important element of a good title. You’ve got to grab the interest of the reader in an instant.

See how all our examples, above, do just that?

Whether it’s through irony, asking questions, or just being plain fascinating, your title needs to be a big, proud banner saying, Good stuff coming, stand by. But you can’t just make up anything to try to attract interest, which is where our next letter I comes in.

Inform

Your title has to say something about your subject. The seven I’ve featured do that as well, from dancing cats to headbanging woodpeckers. Incidentally, if you were wondering about the rail price one it’s from Northern Ireland about a troubled new infrastructure scheme. And if you’re struggling to place why it works, sing Bohemian Rhapsody to yourself.

Intrigue

The final box your title should tick is to intrigue me into making me want to find out more. Again, all our seven examples do that, however strangely.

Who doesn’t want to know about how to hit the top, or mistaking their partner for a hat?

Concluding With A Cuegle

If only for its strangeness I bet that title got your attention. See what I mean about their importance?

If you didn’t know, in legend, a cuegle is a creature with three eyes. It also has three arms (without hands), five rows of teeth, and a horn.

Quite a scary beast, in other words.

Our three Is are happily more handsome and helpful. Put them into action and you should have a triumph of a title that does the trick nicely, whatever you’re communicating about. Author - Simon Hall Director at Creative Warehouse

About the Author; Simon Hall runs his own business communications agency, Creative Warehouse, and is a journalist, author, business coach and university tutor.

He teaches communications, media and business skills at the University of Cambridge, for government departments and agencies, and private business. Simon has eight novels published, all in the thriller genre, and a non-fiction book on business communication, with follow ups on public speaking and presentations, writing blogs, appearing in the media, and business storytelling due out in 2021 and 22.

Previously, Simon was a broadcaster for twenty years, mostly as a BBC Television, Radio and Online News Correspondent, specialising in business and economics, home affairs, and the environment.

He has also contributed articles and short stories to a range of newspapers and magazines, written plays, screenplays, radio comedy, and even a pantomime.

For more on Simon and Creative Warehouse see www.thetvdetective.com