How to give your presentation a great title

People don’t usually give much thought to the title of their presentations. Yet they should. Giving your presentation an interesting title means that interested people are likely to turn up to hear you speak. If you ever speak at seminars you realise that you are sometimes competing against 4 or 5 other speakers. In this situation, often the best presentation title in the programme will get the lion’s share of the audience.

We can borrow a few lessons from journalists and copywriters when it comes to naming your presentation.

People who write headlines understand what it takes to get people interested and engaged.

Wanda Loskott, on her site http://www.loska.com/columns/headlines.html lists her choice of the Top 100 headlines of all time. There are some fairly dated ones in there, but it’s the structure of the headlines which we can learn from.

25% of them start with the word “how”.
16 of them are questions.
Not one of them is less than 4 words long.

Next time you are trying to think of a name for your presentation try starting it with the word “How”. This will get you thinking more like a copywriter, it will engaging more of your audience from the outset and you will invariably end up solving a problem for the audience.

Here are Wanda’s Top 100:
They Laughed When I Sat Down at The Piano - But When I Started to Play!
Give Black What They Deserve
Profits That Lie Hidden In Your Farm
How I Made a Fortune With a Fool Idea
Thousands Have This Priceless Gift - but Never Discover It!
Do You Do Any Of These Embarrassing Things?
Six Types of Investors - Which Group Are You In?
Does Your Child Ever Embarrass You?
To People Who Want To Write - but Can’t Get Started
The Crimes We Commit Against Our Stomachs
How to Do Wonders with a Little Land!
“Here’s an Extra $50, Grace”
A Wonderful Two Years Trip at Full Pay - but only men with imagination can take it
A $10,000 Mistake!
The Greatest reason in The World
The Man in the Hathaway Shirt
Dare To Be Rich!
How To Rob Banks Legally
A Startling Fact About Money
How To Discover What You Are Really Good At
How To Write a Business Letter?
The Secrets of Making People Like You
Advice to Wives Whose Husbands Don’t Save Money
How a New Discovery Made a Plain Girl Beautiful
How to Win Friends and Influence People
How to Swim with The Sharks without Being Eaten Alive
Do You Make This Mistakes in English?
Why Some Foods “Explode” in Your Stomach
You Can Laugh at Money Worries - if You Follow This Simple Plan
Five Familiar Skin Troubles - Which do You Want to Overcome?
How I Improved My Memory in One Evening
Suppose This happened On Your Wedding Day!
Free Book Tells You 12 Secrets of Better Lawn Care
The Secret to Being Wealthy
To Men Who Want to Quit Working Some Day
Imagine Holding an Audience Spellbound for 30 Minutes
New Shampoo Leaves Your Hair Smoother - Easier to Manage
Thousands Now Play Who Never Thought They Could
Great New Discovery Kills Kitchen Odors Quick!
For The Woman Who Looks Younger than She Is
Check the Kind of Body You Want
“At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock”
Why Wall Street Journal readers Live Better
“Dear American Tourister: You Saved My Life”
Girls! Want Quick Curls?
You May Be Eating More Salt Than You Should
Get Rid of That Humidity!
How You can Get a Quick Loan of $1,000
Become a Well Paid Hotel/Motel Executive
How To Get More Energy From The Food You Eat
They Grinned When the waiter Spoke to Me in French
Imagine Harry and Me Advertising our Pears in Fortune!
My Sears Kenmore Sewing Machine has 9 Different Stitches - Imagine!How I Improved Memory in One Evening
You Can Make Big Money Easily
Get Rid of Money Worries for Good
Keep Your Dog safe This Summer!
Free to Manufacturers.
Write for Brochures You Want.
The Instrument of the Immortals
For People Who Don’t Have Time for Unimportant Books
How To Avoid Mental Hazards
Break Out of Jail!
Tenants Mysteriously Disappear from the Carrboro Apartment Complex!Will You Help me Free Gina?
Don’t Even Think About Buying New Home Without Reading This Report!How To Start from Scratch and Become a PO Box Millionaire
The Secret of Having Good Luck
How To Get Rich Reading Classified Ads
How To Form Your Corporation Without a Lawyer for Under $50
Seven Steps to Financial Freedom
How To Write a Hit Song and Sell It
Who is Making a Bundle and How
How The Experts Buy and Sell Gold and Silver
Want to Be a Legal Investigator?
How To Write a Good Advertisement
But What if You Could See Her Naked?
A Little Mistake That Cost a Farmer $3,000 a Year
The Child Who Won the Hearts of All
The Last 2 Hours are the Longest - and Those Are the 2 Hours You Save
How To Burn Off Body Fat, Hour-by-Hour
Is Your Home Picture Poor?
“I liked this product so much - that I bought the company!”
Why Some People Almost Always Make Money in The Stock Market?
How Much is Your Working “Tension” Costing Your Company?
Is The Life of a Child Worth $1 to You?
161 New Ways to a Man’s Heart - in This fascinating Book
How To Give Your Children Extra Iron - 3 Delicious Ways
Often a Bridesmaid - Never a Bride!
Little Leaks That Keep Men Poor
This is Marie Antoinette - Ridding To Her Death
Take This One Minute Test!
Here Is a Quick way to Break Up a Cold
“I lost my bulges - and save money too!”
Satisfaction Guaranteed - or Your Money Back!
The Truth About Getting Rich
Do Your Employee Work as Slowly as They read?
The Most Expensive Mistake of Your Life
7 ways to Collect Your Unpaid Bills
Need More Money!
What Your Lawyer Doesn’t Want You to Know
Have You Ever Seen a Grown Man Cry?

From: How to give your presentation a great title

presentations