What’s in a Name When You’re Blogging For Business?

“A good title makes all the difference in the world,” says Nolan Wilson of benchmarkemail.com. Wilson cautions blog content writers to

• include keywords
• be short and to the point
• use power words
• deliver on your promise in the body of the post

Since one area I always emphasize in corporate blogging training sessions is post titles, I was fascinated to read in Mental Floss: the Book about the struggles movie makers go through in finding the right title for each film.

• Back to the Future was almost re-named Spaceman from Pluto, on the grounds that no movie with the word “future’ in it had ever succeeded at the box office. Fortunately, the “keyword” was left in the title, which then was able to “deliver on the promise” in a big way.

Keywords can be very important to the success of a business blog, especially when used in the title and in the opening paragraph of the post.  In the title, the keyword phrases help signal – to both “spiders’ and readers that this post promises to deliver information on the information typed into the search bar.

• Woody Allen originally chose the name Anhedonia for his film (Anhedonia is the scientific term for the inability to experience pleasure).  United Artists insisted the term was unmarketable, and the name was changed to Annie Hall.

 Of course there are no keyword phrases here.  The point, though, is that a good blogger, as Erik Deckers points out, must be able to put your business message into simple language customers can understand.

• 3000 was the original name of the Julia Roberts movie about a prostitute (referencing the amount of money she was paid).  Disney wanted to lighten up the script and changed the name to Pretty Woman.

Disney was protecting its own brand, I believe. When we freelance bloggers work with business owners, we need to arrive at the right tone and the right emphasis for the blogs. Whether the business owner him or herself is doing the writing, or whether they're collaborating with a professional blogger partner like me, the content needs to be consistent with that business’ brand.