This is the ninth in a series of posts about the elements of a successful newsletter. 

9. The Title

Many people spend hours thinking about what to call their newsletter. I’m here to say that, really, it doesn’t matter all that much.

The most important thing about your newsletter is not the title, it’s the content. And of that content, it’s the headlines that will get people reading.

So don’t worry if you can’t find the perfect title. What you have already is likely to be good enough.

Having said that, here are some pointers:

1) Avoid a title that is too cute or uses too many puns. If your title is too cute or clever, it’s likely you will undermine your newsletter’s authority.

2) If you serve a local area and are likely to be including local content, consider a title that refers to your locality. Then you’ll make the newsletter appear immediately relevant to your readers.

3) If your newsletter is going to be mainly about your products or service (or topics surrounding your products or service) then choose a title that reflects what you do. But be certain that your readers are really interested in reading more about your product or service — this goes back to the decisions you will have made about content.

4) If you intend to inject a lot of personality into your newsletter, consider including your name in the title. Then you’ll tightly link the newsletter to yourself rather than the topic and, if you do it well, you’ll closely engage readers.

If you’re stuck for some titles, here are some words you can mix and match to come up with a good name:

• news
• times
• telegraph
• report
• reporter
• monthly
• post
• mail
• courier
• gazette
• dispatch
• sentinel
• herald
• world
• mercury
• tribune
• express
• journal
• bulletin
• guide
• voice
• recorder
• record
• … and newsletter!