Choosing a Title That Resonates

"Hey, everyone."

Stuart: Welcome to another episode of the book More Show. It's Stuart Bell here and today I want to share something a little different. I want to share with you the

Guest: video that we recorded for the second

Stuart: mindset in our book Blueprint School Card. And that's picking a or choosing a title that resonates with. So, you know, we get questions about titles probably more than any other individual subject. And it stands to reason because that's the thing that stops people in their track and really gets them to have that. I want that thought in order for them to get a copy of the book or join their email list. So it's the most important part of the whole project because it's that first kind of gatekeeper stage. So in this video, we're going to run through the five book title formulas that really help you create something that compels people to stop and take a moment to request a copy. It's the option to build the list that really makes a difference in whether this whole project is valuable or as valuable as it can be. Because after all, what we're trying to

Guest: do is not sell copies of books.

Stuart: What we're trying to do is build your list and establish you as an expert in the field and really get you into conversations with people who are predisposed to work with you in the future.

Guest: So this is a great episode.

Stuart: If you're listening just on audio, recommend

Guest: going across to the website to see

Stuart: the video because there's some slides that are supporting this and that's@90minutebooks.com podcast117. So head over there and I will

Guest: see you on the other side. Hey, everyone, welcome back. We are going to dive into Mindset two, picking a title that resonates. Now, Mindset one was all about picking that target audience. And the first element of that was the job of work, understanding what we want the book to do. So that helps inform the title. Because what we want to do is get people to stop when they see the title and it triggers within them. And I want that response so you can think of the title as the headline of an ad or the headline of an article. It's the thing that stops them in the track, its results and outcomes focused so that people, when they're thinking about a challenge that they've got, when they're searching for it, when they're in an environment where your message can resonate with them. So we've matched up the message that we're trying to put out there with the problem that they've got. Then the title of your book is the thing that stops people in their tracks and says ah, I want that. So let's dive into this exercise, this overview. The idea of the title being a headline is a much better way of thinking about your book title than perhaps a traditional book. We've been doing this now for a number of years. We've as I said that the welcome video, we've helped over 800 books get created. So as you can imagine, we've seen a lot of title options and people coming with various ideas about what they want their title to be. There was a spate a couple of years ago if people want insure obscure one word titles that can best describe as people try to be clever, it kind of mirrored something that was happening in the traditional publishing world. So I think that's where people were getting the idea from. But the problem is that it doesn't do what it says in the tin. If someone sees that book title going past, it doesn't make people stop in their tracks and say I want that because they don't understand what it is. The problem I think comes down to people not thinking about a 90 minute book, a book for a specific purpose, in the same way as they would a traditional book. A traditional book is usually there for entertainment. People are in bookshops, they're browsing shelves, they're looking on Amazon and browsing the shelves there. They're seeing celebrity names or neighbors that they recognize and a clever short title that might kind of engender I wonder what that is response is very different from I want that. And for us we're talking about creating a book that moves people towards an outcome, that has a specific job of work. What we want is the I want that response, not necessarily the I wonder what that is because that's to we're not looking to entertain people in with the best will in the world. We're looking for it to be informative and move people forward and help people to take the next step, not to entertain them. If we're looking to create a traditional book, a storybook, then this framework isn't necessarily the best fit, although obviously you can use elements of it to inform it. But our focus is a job of work moving people forward. So what we want is the title to be more like the banner headline in and out. So Google Ads, Facebook ads, blog post headlines, newspaper headlines. We want it to be short and obvious, we want it to be clear. As I said before, we want it to do what it says on the tin, which is a throwback to an old commercial in the uk. But we want it to be based on that job of work that we've defined in Mindset one and resonate with the audience that we defined in Mindset one. So thinking about it in that way makes much more sense. It's much easier to think about it as a headline than as something that that's clever and will get people talking. Because people aren't going to be talking about your book because you're not a New York Times bestseller. That's not what we're trying to do here. What you want is them to say, I want that outcome. So that response that we're trying to trigger in people is the recognition we're trying to match the language that they've got, the problems that they're having, the thing that they're trying to resolve with the thing that you're offering. Attention is short, and depending on where you're advertising, it's quite possible that you're going to be running Facebook ads or ads in places that aren't based on intention search. So let's look at that for a second. Intentional search are things like Google, where people are looking, searching for a specific

Stuart: thing

Guest: that's not necessarily the same or not at all the same as ads that pass by in social streams. So like Facebook or LinkedIn or Twitter or forums or chat areas, chat spaces, communities that you're in. What you need to do is interrupt their pattern and match with the thought that they're having rather than answer a specific question that they're searching for. Now, obviously, depending on where you're running ads, both of them are served by the idea of a headline title as opposed to a I wonder what that is title. But you're really trying to trigger that response and match it with the language, capture the attention of people who are passing by enough for it to be a feedstopper that we sometimes refer to as. That idea of being a feedstopper is served by using the language that we identified in Mindset Number one. The other thing that we want to do is focus on benefits, not features. This is a marketing terminology or a frame of mind that you'll probably heard of before describing the outcome and what people will get from something. The kind of experiential language, as opposed to just numbers or features or a list of. A list of inside mechanisms rather than outside mechanisms is going to resonate with people more. So one obvious example these days is Apple's marketing. Many people are aware of Apple's marketing campaigns and how it's very much Emotional and feelings based and experiential, as opposed to an old PC manufacturer where they're just listing the features of the graphics card or the size of the memory or the number of ports that it's got. That type of emotional engagement is what we're looking to do because we're looking for that Feedstopper response. The other way of thinking about it is solutions are better than problems. So if you what we're trying to do is lead people to the outcome. We're trying to remind people that there is a solution to their problem. So focusing the title on the end result, the positive beneficial outcome, the the benefits they get rather than the features is much better than focusing on the pain and the problems. Now there is an element of marketing that says that fear is more of a fear of missing out or fear of losing something is more of a driver than a potential outcome. But I don't necessarily believe that. For a start, depending on what you're marketing, what your market is, that's definitely, that definitely could be more of the case. So it's worth thinking about. But generally speaking from a experiential and positivity and outcome and moving forward perspective, people much more likely to engage with that light at the end of the tunnel rather than a fear based approach of you'll have a very bad outcome unless you read this. So obviously it's not one size fits all answer. There is some elements of it, that's true, but as a general approach, much better to focus on that positive outcome and the success that they'll get the end result of the thing that they're looking for rather than the nuts and bolts of the detail of the pain that they're trying to avoid. Because we're trying to help people move forward at the end of the day. The Feedstopper test I've touched on already, but really is this idea of a lot of the advertising and a lot of the places that you're going to put your book. When you think about all of the opportunities you've got to share the message, it's not necessarily in the intentional search Google space where someone's searching for an answer. It's much more likely to be in the soft reference type area of someone's Facebook feed, something, an article or something in LinkedIn referral campaigns of passing this information to someone else, all of these things. It's not that the person, the recipient is looking for the answer necessarily, but the language that they use when they're in an area where they are talking about their problem or they know that they've got a problem to fix. We're really trying to interrupt that which then also by virtue of the fact that we're using positive language and we're describing it, it does what it says on the tin. If they are intentionally searching for something and they do find the book that we've written, then it answers that question as well. So coming to it from a interrupt perspective rather than a search perspective is the more beneficial way of doing it. Okay, so we're going to dive now into the five book title types that we're typically talking about. So again, over all of our experience, we've identified five types that really resonate with people. And it's a great way of thinking about categorizing your book into one of these five types. The first one is the kind of name it and claim it idea. Now this is very much defined as a kind of a manifesto book. It's introducing the idea and it's allowing you to own the category. So some of the examples, some of the popular examples, we've picked some here that you've probably heard of before. So Dave Ramsey's financial piece, financial piece, names it and claims it in that term, like the four hour work Week, those terms. And claim that bit of the industry. Claim that bit, that framework for themselves. The same with the 90 minute book. That's a terminology that didn't exist before. It's something that we've claimed and own for this particular approach that we've got. So you might have the same, you might want to have a framework and methodology that you can build a lot of the rest of the funnel around that names it and claims it. The second one that we talk about is the just do it. So this is more instructional. It gives people an idea of the benefit of the outcome of a solution which is just very specific. Do this. So think and grow rich, Stop your divorce, double your dating. These are all very much just do it titles because you're instructing someone in the outcome that they'll get if they read the book and take the advice that's in it. So the third is then a how to. So this is super obvious both in terms of the definition and the words that are on the title. So these are very much solutions, focused ones. It's how to do a certain thing. So this is for the mindset of people who their problem they're challenged is a name, a named thing, something that they would recognize. So how to win friends and influence people, how to get listings, how to be the best barefoot skier on your lake. All of those things resonate with those people who already understand that language. So the book that you're thinking of might well fit into that category if it's very specific language that you're trying to fix. This example is probably more of a narrow outcome than some of the broader. Certainly the name and claim and manifesto book is pretty broad, whereas this is trying to much more narrowly fix their problem. So number four, this is a great one. If you have access to the data that allows you to do this because it's very timely and specific, it's very neutrally charged. You're presenting data to people, it's not opinion. Obviously you might add opinion to it, but it's very much when people are in an information gathering stage, this seems like independent information. It will help them move forward. So some of the Examples here, the 2021 Social Security Guide, 2021 Guide to US Hockey Scholarships. 2021 Guide to Windhaven Lakefront House Prices. All of these books are these particular ones. These are all ones that we've worked with people on to dial in that particular access to information that they've got presenting it in a way that the audience is going to resonate because they understand what it is and they'll get value from it because it's seen as presenting kind of charge neutral independent information with then a close and a call to action of a next step to take. So people, if you have got access to this information and you can package it in a certain way, then people resonate with this because it really moves their journey forward. This is much more of a. This very obviously works sits in as a slightly more on a conversion tool. If you think back to Mindset one, we were talking about where the types of books, the job of work, this type of book can work work very well as a conversion tool because you're not introducing a new idea, they're aware of it already, but you're moving them forward, presenting data to them, which is kind of self evidently moving them towards your call to action. So the fifth is Question Magnets. Now these are a great opportunity to write something if you don't necessarily have your own framework so you're not trying to name it and claim it. If you don't have a lot of access to proprietary data, if the industry that you're working on isn't really a data driven area. So you're not providing a guide to people, you're not correlating and bringing together a lot of information in an easy to consume way. But this is Answering questions that they might have things that are pressing on their mind in the area that you're trying to help them. So what to expect when you're expecting hugely successful book for anyone in the maternity space? That question is on everyone's mind. How much is enough? Another fantastic question that's on the mind of everyone that's thinking about retirement, whether they're approaching retirement or whether they're in the early stages, stages of planning. That question is something that's going to be. It's going to be a very early question in people's minds as they're thinking about doing something. Not necessarily early in the overall process, but early in thinking about doing something. What to do after dental school. Another fantastic example of something that is very specifically on people's minds. It's not data driven, particularly. You're not trying to dominate a whole category. But as someone who's trying to engage with people who are coming out of dental school, this title perfectly resonates with that entire audience. So those are five question. Sorry, those are five title types that we talk about. And as you think about your own title, just see if it fits into one of those categories because if you can tweak it slightly so that it better serves that audience, knowing again what the job of work is, who the people is that you're trying to engage with and what the next step is to. These are much. This gives you a great opportunity to dial it in and not run the risk of going down the traditional publishing route of trying to put a clever title up that might stop someone on a bookshelf in order for them to pick up and read the back of the book. Because that's not the framework that we're working in here. So we're going to wrap up there. There are more resources that you can head over to dive into this particular mindset a little bit more. So if you want more reading on the subject, Then head over the 5booktitlesformula.com the URL at the top there, because we've got a whole book, a field guide that we wrote about these five book title types, which goes into a little bit more detail than we've got time to do here. And then also Dean did a book titles workshop which is up on the resources section of the website. So head over to 90minutebooks.com and follow the workshops link where we've got a book titles workshop where Dean goes into some of these book title types and a little bit more. And then there's a whole, whole Q and A session that followed where he was answering questions from people on the call. So, again, if this is something that you're struggling with or you want to kind of get more, think about it a little bit more, then definitely follow along with those two resources. And there's lots of opportunity then to dial in your idea within the framework of the five titles. As always, if you want to ask us some questions, then head over to nineminutebooks.com we've got some additional resources there. There's our contact details on there as well. You can drop me an email. Always happy to answer questions as much as I can. And if you want to jump on a strategy, call. Again, happy to do that as much as time allows. So give a call to the office or drop me an email and we can schedule the time. Okay. So with that, I will see you in Mindset.