How to name a program.

By Stella Orange | Comments Off on How to name a program.

One of the questions I get asked all the time is: Stella, what should I call my program?

And I’ve watched many, many business owners really wrestle with the naming process.

The truth is, what you call your offer does matter. But I also want to urge you to stop putting so much pressure on yourself to come up with the PERFECT thing.

I was thinking about renaming one of my copywriting programs recently, and realized that I was going about it in a specific way. I thought I’d share my process with you, to see if it sparked some good ideas.

Now, let’s preface this by saying that if you are just starting out, please don’t spend a lot of time coming up with the name of your program. What’s going to get people into it is your ability to talk with them and sell. Stick with something simple – a shift, a breakthrough, a makeover. Shoot for a 2-3 word name that suggests transformation.

If you are more of a seasoned business owner and you have a list and an online platform, go deeper. Be thinking about whether the name is aligned with your brand and how you are positioning yourself in the marketplace. This is where we talk a bunch about the difference between writing gourmet copy, and writing fast food copy.

From there, here’s what I noticed:

  1. “What am I looking for here?” Start with a pattern of how other people are doing it. Programs that sell well tend to be benefit-driven, and have a verb/noun combo. Something like:

VERB your NOUN – example: Write Your Website

ADJECTIVE VERB NOUN – example: Emergency Turn-Around Clinic

NOUN VERB – example: Cash Control

NOUN to NOUN – example: Conversations to Cash

You can use this pattern to generate a bunch of options, before you start evaluating which one will work for you. Also, I noticed that the best program titles are super-grounded. They make sense. And they give you some promise of what you’ll get.

  1. Designate the “cute police”. Have people in your life who tell you when your name is too cute. There are a lot of people out there with names that don’t mean anything to buyers – this is a symptom of being isolatedand working too much on your own.
  1. Build creative time into your production process. Creativity and inspiration don’t always perform on demand, like dancing monkeys.Don’t rush it – and also, know when you just need to pick something and move forward.
  1. Run a couple options past colleagues, clients, and potential clients. Make sure you are on the right track – float your top 3-4 options in front of people. See what they say. I posted on two private groups I’m a member of –and my comrades, friends, and clients gave me great feedback about what worked, and what didn’t. That was a 3-day conversation, with more than 21 posts. Then, I emailed my mentor and pitched 2 top titles to her and asked for her feedback.
  1. Talk it out. Then, I got on the horn with my accountability partner and talked it out, until it felt decided. This is why I’m such a fan of having people in your life that you can talk your ideas out with – because giving voice to them makes it more real. It also gives you pitch practice – how to talk about what the program is about and why it’s a great deal.

In the end, and after all that, I decided to stick with the program title I had before – Writing That Sells. But the whole process helped me reconnect with why I do the program at all – and name the gap in the marketplace that I can fill (training in non-icky copywriting with feedback from a real copywriter).

So, as you set out to name or rename your program, remember – it doesn’t need to be perfect for people to buy it. And give yourself the space to talk it out with your friends and comrades – that conversation and collaboration will energize and embolden you in ways that working alone never will.

Mighty thanks to hobvias sudoneighm flickr photostream for the thinker.

Stella Orange is a copywriter who helps people put their work into words. For eight years, she wrote email campaigns that resulted in more than a million dollars in sales for her clients. In that time, Stella also taught popular marketing writing workshops to business owners on both sides of the Atlantic -- and a few in Australia and New Zealand. In 2017, Stella cofounded a creative and consulting shop offering a complete and slightly unorthodox line of business advising and marketing services. She continues to write copy and advise clients on customer delight, how to resonate with more sophisticated, discerning clientele in your marketing, and just who, exactly, your ideal clients are. Stella is the founder of Show Up And Write, a weekly writing group and writes a letter every two weeks or so (here’s the sign-up). She lives with the Philosopher and their two kiddos in Buffalo, New York, a fifteen-minute bike ride to the Canadian border.

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