STP 61 How to Craft Irresistible Course Titles
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[00:00:12] James Marland: Hello. Thanks for joining me. This is James from course creation studio. This is the show where we empower. Mission-driven helpers to launch life-changing online courses. We are in season three here of the scaling therapy practice. We're going to go through at least 50 questions about online course creation. Today, the question is, what do you call it?
[00:00:37] James Marland: What do you name your online course? And I have a resource that I'd be willing to send to you. called your title goes here. How to create the perfect title for your course content. Just email me, James, at course creation studio.com and say and ask for, putting the subject, buying your title goes here, handout, and I will send that to you. So, What do you, what do you call your course?
[00:01:01] James Marland: Cause it's one of the first things that people see. In fact it might be the only thing that people see and it's important to. get the right information to the right audience so that they would pick up your course. Imagine that your course is. On a bookshelf. With other courses and all that people see is the title.
[00:01:24] James Marland: what are the titles about your topic that might influence people to pick them up?
[00:01:32] James Marland: Let's say you go to the parenting bookshelf. Where all these parenting books and you see parenting 1 0 1. You know, or parenting. Parenting skills for new parents. All right. Those are good. Basic titles. But what if you saw. A book on parenting.
[00:01:52] James Marland: That said.
[00:01:53] James Marland: Adventures in parenting. How to get the most of the. 50 weekends, you have left with your teenager. Or a book on parenting might be. what's a famous one. getting your kid to mind without losing yours. Or something like that. I don't even know if that's a good book. But, It just stuck, stuck with me. Or, boundaries for kids.
[00:02:21] James Marland: So. There's often a, a title that sticks out to you and it makes you want to pick it, pick it up and say, oh, you know, I can Parent my kids without losing my own mind, or I can set boundaries with my kid or, oh yeah, there, there is. I do need to get the most out of.
[00:02:42] James Marland: My parenting. With the, with the time that I have left. So you, you open it up and then you look at the chapters and the chapters. Tell people what your course is about. And so it's in your best interest to make your title in your chapters. The best that they can be. The most exciting that they can be in to communicate the most benefit that they can.
[00:03:05] James Marland: So that's why. That's why creating good titles is important. For course, creators. We're going to go over a few basic tips. And then I will give you some formulas for running your content through that that could possibly help you make a great online course titles. The first place to start for most people is Google. Do a search on your topic and look for pop-up popular keywords. You might not stop with Google.
[00:03:36] James Marland: You could try YouTube and look up your topic and see what popular YouTube. Creators have. And what comes to the top and what gets the most hits and views and likes and interests. Then there's also Amazon books.com or Amazon books. Where you can look at the, the, the content that. Of books that are already selling that already have a lot of reviews. That you can search for those keywords.
[00:04:07] James Marland: And then one of my new favorite ones is answer the public. I believe at the answer, the public.com. It's just a, it's a visual representation of Google keyword searches and you get three free searches a day on answer the public. But go check those out and see what are some of the popular keywords for your topic? The next thing to do is consider your audience. What, what do they call it?
[00:04:33] James Marland: What are their languages? What is the message that they send about their audience? What are the questions they ask about it? Without jargon, I think for the technical people, jargon is often something that we use and we don't even think about it. I know. In the medical field and the mental health field, there are so many acronyms. You could choke on them. But. People don't talk that way.
[00:05:00] James Marland: They don't understand that way. I'm watching I'm rewatching a show. The, the good doctor. Just, just discovered it. And Sean is an autistic doctor and he's like very smart. And he often goes into the. Well, I'm only in season one or season two, and he goes into the room. And when he's talking to the patient, he also, he often has to be reminded, you know, patients don't talk this way.
[00:05:27] James Marland: You have to rephrase what you're saying in a way that the patient understands it's the same way for your course. You have to consider your audience. And what are the words that they understand? One of the big things. One of the big takeaways and key principles from naming your courses, grabbed their attention with key benefits. I got this from Graham Cochran's he's he's he creates courses and he uses Kajabi. And one of his. His. Big lessons on this is people. Want to know what's in it for them.
[00:06:02] James Marland: So highlight the benefit of your course. In the topic. Tell them exactly what they will learn. What is the promise of your course? What is one of the things that you're going to deliver in your course? When you name it, just put it right in the
[00:06:20] James Marland: You could do a course for teenagers, you know? Parenting teenagers. It sounds like a boring course, but peace in the house. It's something that a lot of people might understand or communicating, you know, How to have a conversation with your teenager. How to build a respectful relationship with your teenager?
[00:06:41] James Marland: One of the books I recently read was, well, it's about two years now. I think. What was it called? How to. It was parenting adult children, how to keep your mouth shut and the welcome mat out. Something like that. It was, it was basically once they are teen over a certain age 18. You know, and they're considered adults.
[00:07:03] James Marland: The more advice you give. If I could boil the book down, the more advice you give. The more you're seen as interfering. The older they get and the less trustworthy they are view. So how do you bite your tongue and let them make some of their own mistakes while still welcoming them into the home and being there for them. Without chasing them away with all your good advice and nagging. And be in the parent of a, a, a, almost 20 year old now. It was a very helpful book. Because I was certainly on the advice giving side of that, and now I am trying to be on the supportive side.
[00:07:43] James Marland: So, a title like that.
[00:07:47] James Marland: Explain some of the key benefits.
[00:07:52] James Marland: The next is short and memorable. Try to keep it short and catchy. And along with short and catchy is clarity. Clarity trumps cute. So if you have a cute name or accused spelling or a cute way to say something that needs extra explanation and the brain's going to tune it out. So.
[00:08:16] James Marland: The thing that the, the course creator has to do is create something that. It's short and memorable kind of catchy, but also doesn't go too far to the cute side where people who don't understand what it is. I wouldn't be able to understand it. Some, unless you're a big brand, which I don't think any of us are, but a big brand. You know, Starbucks. I don't know what a Starbuck is.
[00:08:43] James Marland: I don't know where it started. I do know it means coffee right now. And, and that is a you know, A brand that transcends the, the cute trumps or clarity trumps cute raw. Because they've grown beyond. The having to understand what it is with their presence. Where most of us aren't like that most of us can't deal with. Deal with the confusion factor of somebody saying. You know, I don't know what this is.
[00:09:14] James Marland: I'm just going to go keep searching. Because there's so much volume of information out there. So, Short and memorable, but clarity trumps cuteness.
[00:09:25] James Marland: Make sure that your, your title communicates your promise that you are delivering something valuable.
[00:09:34] James Marland: And that it is something that they, they are, they want that they want to go to.
[00:09:42] James Marland: As I said, imagine you're going to a bookstore, you're looking for a solution. What title makes you pick up the book? What chapter titles make you buy it? It's like a two stage process.
[00:09:53] James Marland: Here is the, here's a checklist for you. If you're going through your. You're naming convention. One it's specific to the level of students, skill and field. Two. It explains the benefits or the learning objective three, it's easy to read and remember. For it's grammatically correct. Five. It sets the right expectations. Six it's 60 characters or less. And seven. Your title would make people pick it up in a bookstore.
[00:10:29] James Marland: And. I have. 1 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Eight eight naming conventions. In this, in this handout. The first. I'm going to give you two, the first one's the rule of three. Since people are easily drawn to things that come in threes, you can make sure that your title. Is catchy by giving them three key points as well as three easy things to remember. The formula is a, B, C.
[00:11:02] James Marland: And some examples of this might be smarter, faster, better. Eat, pray, love the good, the bad and the ugly. What are three benefits that. Your course could be. So it's like the form, the rule of three. The next naming formula or convention is contrasting topics. If it makes sense for your online course, having too strongly connected or seemingly contradicting arguments. Can make a compelling product.
[00:11:35] James Marland: For example a and B pride and pred, a, the formula is a, and B pride and prejudice. The birds and the bees less work. More productivity. So you could present some sort of contrasting topic. I'll do one more here in the bottom line. Using interesting adjectives extract the essence of your course or chapter topic to a, of B.
[00:12:01] James Marland: So that's the formula. The formula is the AFB. So this could be the pursuit of happiness or the psychology of success or the secrets of a great podcast. So you're just giving them the bottom line.
[00:12:18] James Marland: These naming conventions came from the website, learn words or learn worlds. And content sparks. If you wanted to check them out that's where that came from. And also the the bookstore metaphor came from Graham Cochrane and his website and YouTube channel.
[00:12:38] James Marland: Check, check that out as well.
[00:12:40] James Marland: So if you wanted to get this a free resource, just email me a just [email protected]. And putting the subject mind, send me your title goes here, presentation, and I will send that out to you. As always more resources on course creation, studio.com. And. There's just lots of resources for you to get started. Creating a online course, make sure you download the course navigator.
[00:13:07] James Marland: If you have no idea where to start, that can help you get started. Just outlining your course and where. Who you want to take with you and where you want to go from there storm to the Oasis from their storm to their, to their safe Harbor. This is James from course creation studio. We'll see you next time.
[00:13:26] James Marland: Thanks for listening to the scaling therapy practice. This podcast is for information and entertainment purposes only, and it's not intended to serve as personal professional advice Everybody's situation is different. So take that in mind when following any of this advice, but thank you so much for tuning in to the episode. The scaling therapy practice is a proud part of the psych craft network.
