One of the presenters at last week’s Newsletter Marketing Summit discussed how to approach the creation process (videos, blog posts, etc.). I won’t go into everything, but the point that stuck with me was that you should create the title of your piece first. Only then do you create the meat of your content. Most people probably ignored this part of the presentation, but I didn’t. It was the third or fourth time I’ve heard this from a notable marketer gifted at copywriting.

Creating the title first is supposed to have a few advantages. First, packaging is important. Creating the title first means it’s not left as an overthought. You can create an amazing blog post, podcast, video, etc., but if the packaging is bad, no consumer will ever find it. Titles for written pieces are critical to generating interest—similar to what headlines did for newspapers back in the day. For videos, e.g., on YouTube, packaging includes titles and thumbnail pictures. David Ogilvy’s book was written decades ago, but it stresses the same point in relation to newspaper ad headlines (see here). I’ve been thinking more about titles since reading Ogilvy’s book, and I’m more intentional about creating the titles for each blog post.

Second, creating the title first focuses your creation process. It forces you to create something that supports the title. Said differently, your thinking and creativeness are confined to a narrow lane. You can’t wander. This is the opposite of what I do now: I write my blog posts and then try to create an interesting title.

I want to get better at selling and communicating my ideas, and this sounds like an approach that can help with that. I’m going to try writing my blog post titles first for a few posts. I’ve been following my current process for almost five years, so I’m curious to see how this change will impact my thinking and creative process.