If you’ve created a course, package or programme you might have come up against that old question:
What the hell should I call this thing?
Well, I’ve been naming stuff for people for about 15 years now and I’ve got very good at it.
And I’ve had plenty of success with naming my own stuff: Screw Work Let’s Play (book), Scanners Night (live event), The 30 Day Challenge (online course), the Pioneer Programme (group programme).
In my one-to-one client mentorships we will often get to a point where we put intensive focus on getting the name of their main offer right.
Here are 7 guidelines for names that really work:
- Titles should speak to what your buyer wants. Ideally, make it aspirational: my audience wants to ‘screw work’ and they want to be a pioneer.
- If you provide people something that is very appealing, include it in the name. Eg If you get people results quickly your confidence course could become “Instant Confidence”. If you help people make more money include that – I helped Jessica Rose retitle her book to “Start & Grow A Profitable Jewellery Business” which went on to be #1.
- The name must make sense before you’ve taken the course/read the book. No good calling it the Parasympathetic Boost if your buyers don’t yet know what the parasympathetic system is
- If the name is not obvious, the strapline underneath must be very straightforward to make up for it. Similarly for non fiction books, if the title is obscure, the subtitle needs to spell it out. Eg F**k Work Let’s Play: Do what you love & get paid for it.
- Short and snappy is usually best – 2 or 3 words. It’s punchier and more memorable. Plus, I guarantee you will regret it after the thousandth time you’ve mentioned your course if it’s called ‘Self actualise your innate awesomeness’
- Try using alliteration or rhyming to make it more memorable: Pioneer Programme, Summer Sales Sprint, Bestseller blueprint, Surviving to Thriving. (ChatGPT is good at helping with this!)
- Choose a name that has a similar vibe to your course/product. ‘F**k Work Let’s Play’ tells you the book is going to be pretty informal. My client Ben Levy’s Make It Happen programme tells you that his goal achievement process is pragmatic and focussed on a really tangible outcome.
Ultimately you can win with a non-ideal name by the brute force of marketing. If you call your course the Pink Flamingo Programme and talk about it everywhere, after a while, people associate your general messaging and vibe with the programme – despite the fact no one knows what it means on first hearing it.
Got a name for something that you’re not sure about? Get in touch and I’ll see if I can help.
