Part 3: 'The #1 Most Critical Success Ingredient
of Your White Paper'
Dear Nam,
There's one tiny thing that's vitally, critically
important, above all other things:
YOUR TITLE.
The title is more important than anything
else! If you choose a title that's not interesting,
nobody will read your paper. It doesn't matter
how good your paper is if nobody reads it!
Let me give you some examples of BAD white
paper titles (these are real white papers, btw):
"Business Reality of the MidMarket Real-Time
Enterprise" (That's a horrible title! It's extremely
vague and communicates no benefit whatsoever)
"WorkSpace - the CRM Solution from Relavis
and Mainline" (Who cares about Relavis or Mainline?
Customers only care about themselves)
How do you write a good title? The first tip is,
don't get your inspiration for titles from the technical
world. Instead, here's an example from the New York
Times Bestseller list - several recent popular titles:
BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE - How six M.I.T. students
won more than $3 million at Las Vegas casinos.
SPIN SISTERS - How the women of the media sell
unhappiness - and liberalism - to the women of America.
CRAZY LIKE A FOX - The inside story of how Fox
News beat CNN.
TRUMP: HOW TO GET RICH - Secrets of his eponymous
success, by a man - and media personality - who
should know.
Make no mistake, the titles of these books
were critical to their success. The Trump book is
of course popular because The Donald's name is on it,
but he still doesn't deviate from the time-tested "How
To" formula, which for anything that's teaching you
how to do something, is just about unbeatable.
Also notice that the subtitles are very, very
important and carefully worded. They create
tremendous curiosity. (Who wouldn't want to know
how six MIT students gouged a casino for $3
million?)
One of the most popular white papers in the
technology world is called "What Hackers Know
That You Don't " by AirDefense. Communicates
a powerful message in only six words.
*Let me give you a perfect 'success test' for any
title you choose:
Imagine that you're running a tiny classified
ad in the back of a magazine, with nothing
but your title - plus the words 'for more
information call (800)555-0000.'
Put your title in that ad and ask yourself,
'Would this, all by itself, make my phone ring?'
Let's try it -
What Hackers Know That You Don't - for more information
call (800)555-0000
Yeah, that one definitely passes the test!
Tomorrow is Part 4:
'Why Your White Paper Can't Be a Dry
Technical Treatise'
Perry Marshall
http://www.perrymarshall.com/whitepaper
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