Know-How Exchange : Taglines/Names

Hi, kay.pbfngla,

Visited the PBFNGLA website, and here's a few thoughts for your consideration:

Your PBFNGLA has been around for decades and only recently implemented a newsletter called "Nursery Times"? If members are responding well to it, they likely are responding to the content, not the title. Given the breadth of membership, there is nothing wrong with this title, assuming a plant nursery can be seen as a common denominator for all.

A difficult task for those of us in marketing & promotional communications is the effort of putting ourselves inside the heads of our intended audience, to divorce ourselves from our own biases and predilections.

One man's boring title is another's thorough descriptor. Don't mess with a newsletter title for the wrong reasons. CONTENT is KING, not the publication's title. Are people reading this newsletter? Responding to it? Engaged in providing content for it? It's a communications tool, after all, so it is much more important to have relevant content than an "exciting" title. Imagine in five years that a new editor takes over who personally thinks YOUR new title is also "extremely boring" and so decides to change it again. Your professional PBFNGLA membership can easily lose confidence in the newsletter if management keeps changing the title, the look, the content style without justifiable reason. It's a slippery slope.

We should not title a newsletter based on what WE personally find interesting or exciting. The important thing to learn is whether the existing title resonates with your readership or otherwise fulfills its purpose. If so, leave it alone. If not, study a change that will help the newsletter achieve its mission.

Seeking random title suggestions from online marketing professionals does not constitute a valid study of the PBFNGLA market. Your organization has been around for decades and deserves better, more careful research than that.

Good luck!

Growing Business
Fruits of Your Labor
Planting Ideas for Your Business