The desire of gold is not for gold.

It is for the means of freedom and benefit.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Benefit-Driven Titles

In the mid 1930's, Napoleon Hill was ready to publish a book with the title 13 Steps to Riches.  This would fit with many successful publications today that use numbers in the title, like The Four Agreements and One-Minute Manager.  Titles with numbers like 7 Ways to ..., 5 Steps to ..., 60 Minutes to ... are all excellent lead ins for your benefit-driven title with a punch.

 

Back to our story. The night before its publication, the publisher insisted that 13 Steps to Riches instead be renamed: Use your Noodle to Win More Boodle.  Boodle must be a word from the 30's.  I (Phil) had to look it up.  It means 'bonus'.  Luckily, the book was released as Think and Grow Rich, and it went on to become a classic and sell over 20 million copies!

 

Think and Grow Rich is a title that includes the benefit - grow rich - using two 1-syllable words. 1-2 syllable words have greater impact and punch.  Think (another short word) refers to Hill's main point in the book, which can be summarized in Hill's famous quote, "What the mind of man can conceive, it can achieve."

 

A genius title can appear in many forms before you find the best one.  The key is that IT HAS TO BE BENEFIT-DRIVEN.

 

Why?  Let me explain with another story.

 

Recently, Linda McLyman, founder of Progress Associates, shared this story with me.  In the late 1980s, her husband Daniel and Linda had started the small leadership consulting company. In her words, "At that time, we thought we had great ideas for our company including the names for our seminar products. In fact, we were totally attached to our marketing ideas.

 

On one hot July summer day, my older Uncle Jim (who was highly trained in marketing), came to see us during his trip back east.  This 80-year old man was bored on his summer vacation.  He showed up at our office every day in hopes of giving us his sound marketing advice.

 

One of the things he kept telling us was that we needed to advertise our products by telling people what benefits they would gain from working with our company.  'BENEFITS NOT FEATURES' ... he would boom. At the time, we only advertised 'features' of our products.  We listened politely but in truth we ignored his advice ... for a long time.

 

A year later, when our products were not selling well, we decided to try Uncle Jim's advice.  That year, we quadrupled our sales!" 

 

*************

TRY THIS

*************

 

You should have your list of genius products and services.  If not, make your list before you go on.  If you need help, click here to review last week's GC newsletter tip.

1. Write down the most important benefit(s) for each product.  Use the list of COMMON BENEFITS in the left column, or come up with your own. Ask your friends and colleagues. 

2. Write down short (if possible 1-syllable) titles for your products and services that are benefit-driven.

Here are two of my examples:

 

Good luck! 

 

Don't forget to order the Guide to Home Based Business, which includes the brand new "Get Rich! Brand Your Niche!" chapter by me (Phil).

Until next time,

Phil and Megan

 

P.S. Linda McLyman uses an excellent genius benefit-driven tag line that reads, "One of the benefits of working with Linda McLyman is you come away feeling really good about who you are and what you are doing. We all benefit by finding our strengths."

 

 

Email us your comments at GeniusContagion@FunUnlimitedInc.com.