Would You Go to See “Away We Go” on Broadway?

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Can you guess the original titles of these musicals? Alex Wood asks in Theater Mania, revealing some of the names originally considered for plays that went on to become Broadway hits.  “Oklahoma”, for example, was going to be named either “Away We Go!” or “Many a New Day”. “Mame” was supposed to be called “The Great Confession”, while “West Side Story” was going to hit the theatres as “America”. Recent blockbuster “Hamilton” was conceived as “The Founding Fathers”.

“Whether you are writing a creative piece or drafting a professional document, the words you choose have a significant impact on how your message is received,” Elite Editing stresses, advising content writers to “keep titles short and sweet to maximize readability”. In fact, the authors add, studies have shown that shorter titles receive more clicks and shares on social media.  While it’s important to engage your audience with creative and clever titles, remember that brevity is key.

Focus on one main benefit or point when crafting your title, the authors emphasize. A headline too gimmicky or vague might miss the message, so the trick is to strike a balance between engaging and informative.  For SEO-conscious headlines, use relevant, high-traffic words related to the subject, they add.

In our content marketing at Say It For You, we know that keywords and phrases help search engines make the match with what your business or practice has to offer. But, once you’ve been “found”, you have to “get read”, so the engagement value becomes an important factor. Still, no clever title can substitute for well-written, relevant content that provides valuable information to readers.

Would you have gone to see “Away We Go!” or “The Great Confession” on Broadway? We’ll never know.  What all content creators do know is how very important it is to engage readers “at first sight”. 

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Made-Ya-Read Trivia in Content Marketing

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I know I’m not alone in enjoying trivia. In fact, through my work in content marketing, I’ve developed the theory that readers’ curiosity is triggered when they’re presented with “idea bytes”. In fact, when it comes to blog content, I like to say, trivia is hardly a trivial matter. There are at least four ways trivia can be used to keep content fresh:

  •  defining basic terminology
  • sparking curiosity about the subject
  • putting modern-day practices and beliefs into perspective
  • explaining why the business owner or practitioner chooses to operate in a certain way

Of course, blog content needs to be about much more than trivia tidbits. The tidbit is simply the jumping-off point for the message. Almost two years ago, in the 2023 Almanac for Farmers & City Folk, I’d come across an article, spending the next couple of blog posts suggesting ways in which different types of business or professional practices might use the trivia I found in that article.  The piece happened to be about (of all things!) antlers on deer.

  • The fact that every spring male deer grow themselves a new set of antlers might be used by a company selling fire extinguishers, water filters or dried herbs, each of which should be replaced at least once a year.
  • The fact that Chinese medicine has used antlers for thousands of years to support bone health could inspire a blog for an orthopedic medical practice – or a vitamin supplement manufacturer.
  • The fact that deer use their antlers to compete with each other for mates and territory might be mentioned in a martial arts studio’s blog.
  • Since antlers fill an ecological role (once shed, they become an important source of calcium and other minerals to a variety of small animals) those facts might be used by any company to show ways in which they are environmentally aware.

Where, other than a Farmer’s Almanac, do you find trivia? Everywhere, actually – magazines, newspapers, TV, social media sites – you name it. One of my favorite sources is MentalFloss.com. Here are just a few of their recent gems and possible content uses for each:

  • Before he became president, Abraham Lincoln was a wrestling champion. (Personal trainer? Gym? Physical therapist?)
  • Frederick Bauer invented the Pringles can. When he passed away in 2008, his ashes were buried in one. (Snack food company? Funeral home?)
  • The 100 folds in a chef’s toque are said to represent 100 ways to cook an egg. (Grocery store? Cooking school? Home meal delivery service?)
  • The mobile phone throwing world championships are held in Finland. (Phone vendor? Travel company?)

No, you can’t make ’em buy. But in online marketing, it all starts with “made-ya-look” content.

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Self-Help Titles Teach Variety

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Browsing the shelves at Barnes & Noble, I came across an entire three-shelf section of self help books. The variety of titles was astounding, perfect examples of how a single topic can be approached in a plethora of ways:. Here are just a few of the titles:

  • Already Enough
  • Wild Calm
  • Yay All Day
  • Wander the Stars
  • Slow Down, Take a Nap
  • What’s Behind the Blue Door
  • You Meet You
  • Always Change a Losing Game
  • The Other Significant Others
  • Atomic Habits

When it comes to content marketing, all the titles show above could be classified as “Huhs?”, meaning that each needs a subtitle to make clear what the book is actually about. “Oh!” titles, we teach at Say It For You, are self-explanatory, and from an SEO (search engine optimization) standpoint, make a direct connection to the query readers type into their search bar.

For either straightforward or “Huh?-Oh!” titles of blog posts, one way to engage readers is using the sound of the words themselves, repeating vowel sounds (assonance) or consonant sounds (alliteration), so that searchers use their sense of hearing along with the visual.

Just as titles “grabbed” me as a bookstore browser, it’s important to have “ringing” in blog post titles, we teach. Titles matter in two ways:

  1. For search – keywords and phrases help search engines make the match between online searchers’ needs and what your business or professional practice has to offer.
  2. For engagement – after you’ve been “found”, you’ve gotta “get read”! (Of course, no clever title can substitute for well-written, relevant content that provides valuable information to the readers.)

But when blog content writers try being too clever, too general, or too cliched, that’s not good, either, Authormedia points out in “Top 5 Blog Title Mistakes Authors Make” The overriding criterion is whether you can deliver on your headline promise in the body of the post.

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Can They “Hear” the Titles of Your Blog Posts?

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When readers scan the title of your blog post, their decision to click may well depend on what they “hear” as much as what they see.  That’s because similar consonants or similar vowel sounds presented in sequence tend to encourage our brains to engage with printed content.

When, back in 1813, London author John Harris published his book, Peter Piper’s Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation, he was aiming to teach young pupils proper speech habits. Modern-day marketers have a different motive in mind, having caught on to the fact that “Alliteration and assonance support the soundtrack for our words,” as Margie Lawson so well describes the effect in the Writers in the Storm blog.

When you blog, I like to say, you’re verbalizing the positive aspects of your business or practice in a way that people can understand and hopefully, remember. Educational research verified that “phenomic awareness” represents a sophisticated stage in the development of reading skills. In the same manner, as content writers, at Say It For You, we are always on the prowl for novel ways to present information to online readers, often relying on “memory hooks”, which I like to call “sticky words”.

Apparently, the authors and advertisers trying to appeal to “high-end”, sophisticated audiences understand the power of “sticky words” as well. Just this week, skimming through recent issues of three finance-related magazines, I discovered dozens of examples of both alliteration and assonance:

Forbes:

Alliteration:

  • Soy Sauce Scientist (Peggy Chang, co-founder of Panda Express)
  • Bond Ballers (Marc Lasry and sister Sonia Gadnder, co-founders of Avenue Capital Group’s heavy investment in bonds)
  • From Shoveling to Swinging (story about the Dominican Republic)
  • Prosperity in Peril (editorial) 

Assonance:

  • Zuck Grows Up (cover story about Mark Zuckerberg)
  • Collaboration for Transformation (story about the Democratic Republic of Congo)
  • Dr. Irving’s Climate Ambition (story about co-founder and director of Carbon Projects)

Kiplinger:

Alliteration:

  • Tipping Tactics
  • Make These Money Moves Now
  • Rough Seas for Small Stocks

Assonance:

  • Thumbs Up (on annuities)
  • Miles of Smiles (saving money on gas)

Investopedia Retirement Guide:

 Alliteration:

  • How to Hire an Advisor
  • For Their Future
  • Retirement Risks You Should Know

 

Now you…

Content writers, as you encounter different forms of written content – ads, magazine articles, flyers, newspapers . whatever….take notice of the way similar consonants or similar vowel sounds presented in a sequence, catch your attention, so that you’re both seeing and, in a real sense, “hearing” that content.

Can readers “hear” the titles of your blog posts?

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