Using Corny Titles to Attract Attention to Your White Paper
Every once in a while I’ll run across the use of a “corny” white paper title. What’s a corny title?
It’s the use of a common expression, phrase, song title, or slang term in an attempt to make an otherwise boring white paper seem somewhat more palatable to the reading audience. The latest example is with a white paper published by IntelePeer entitled “Bridge Over Troubled Waters: An Overview on ENUM for Connecting VoIP Islands.” The paper’s title, which is obviously borrowed from the award winning song by Simon and Garfunkel, attempts to make a analogy that emphasizes greater connectivity among disparate VoIP networks.
So why use this tactic? Does it gain a larger audience for the paper? Does the technical reader appreciate the creative analogy? At what point does the use of an analogy become “corny” and work against the marketing goals of a white paper?
From my perspective, the use of these corny, analogy-laden titles doesn’t make a very good marketing strategy, especially when that paper targets a more technical audience. There are several reasons why I come to this conclusion:
1. Risky First Impression - Corny analogies can create a risky first impression which doesn’t always turn out as you had expected. In this case, what if your reader dislikes Simon and Garfunkel? In other cases, what if they find your analogy in poor taste or immature? If that happens, I can assure you that they won’t get to page one.
2. An Ineffective Approach – Business and/or technical professionals aren’t impressed with creative analogies. What gets their juices flowing are titles that speak to their day-to-day business issues. Titles that either positively touts productivity or financial gains, or negatively touts higher costs and/or potential losses get their attention much more effectively.
3. Diminished Credibility - If a company has to borrow a title from another source, it diminishes the credibility for the paper. After all, if the paper’s sponsor can’t come up with an original title, then how credible or impressive is the information be inside that paper? Is the data in the paper also borrowed from another source?
So, can the corny analogies. If you need to exercise your creativity, find an analogy that uses colorful adjectives that business and technical professionals really care about.
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