Promising More or Less in Business Blog Titles

In the top five on Father of Advertising David Ogilby‘s "to-do" list is "Promise a benefit".  While business blogs should resemble advertorials more than ads, blog marketers need to follow that rule religiously. A blog post can serve as a Call to Action only to the extent it promises readers a benefit in exchange for their progressing to some sort of next step. When you think about it, you’ll realize the blog post title in itself constitutes a set of implied promises:

If you click on this title…

• …it will lead you to a blog post that in fact discusses the topic mentioned in the title (nothing worse than a bait-and-switch for turning away potential fans and customers)
   
• …it will lead you to a blog post that explains how to obtain more of something desirable: More savings, more actionable knowledge, more confidence, more beauty, more health, more job security, more safety, more peer approval, more wealth.
   
• …it will lead you to a blog post that explains how to obtain less of or reduce an undesirable effect:  Less pain, less illness, less hassle, less dirt, less germs, less risk, less fear, less itching, less harassment, less debt.
   
• One popular misconception I run into as a business blogging trainer is that blog titles need to be what I would call "cutesy", meaning they have an enticing "ring" to them that arouses curiosity.

Cute is good, engaging curiosity even better.  Yet, above all, the click needs to end up (as Jerry Seinfeld’s only request is of airline pilots) where it says on the ticket! In the case of blog posts, when a reader clicks on the link on the results page, she needs to find material that is congruent with what the title promised would be there!

Leadership blogger Norm Smallwood explains that in the world of finance, value is based on a the market’s perception of whether a company is likely to keep its promises about future growth, cautioning that "a Level I (basic essential) for any company is to keep promises and deliver predictable and consistent results".

On perhaps a smaller but no less basic level, maintaining consistency – beginning with blog post titles, then to blog post content, and ultimately to delivering quality products and services to customers – is the only way for any business to become, and remain, valued in its marketplace.

It all starts with the implied promises in a blog post title (more or less…)!