When talking about a "Tagline" for a business, you'll commonly hear some popular names cited such as:
The taglines examples you'll see are typically that of ginormous brands.
But that's the problem with these examples...
They're all HUGE PUBLIC COMPANIES!
Every single one of these examples has been around for decades and is worth billions of dollars (here's a list of all the company slogans on the S&P 500), yet somehow people think their much smaller businesses should have equally vague brand taglines.
Well before we build our billion dollar brands, we might wanna start a little smaller:
The Evolution of a Tagline:
Let's you and I start a little side business together. Let's see how our tagline may change as our company grows in size.
Notice how the tagline grows from a "descriptive tagline" into a more "aspirational tagline" here:
At that very beginning stage when we're at $0/year, having a vague tagline such as "Tell the world" will be relatively useless to us.
However once we start closing gigantic deals, have that fancy office on 5th Avenue in New York, and handle marketing for Fortune 500 brands.....then maybe "Tell the world" is a more appropriate tagline!
So yes, when you're at the level of a large business, your tagline will often be something short and clever and "aspirational."
However, if you're not there juuusst yet, here's a quick formula to follow:
Here's the 3-step process for creating a tagline:
Step 1.) Dump out your entire business in a few sentences.
Step 2.) Trim it down.
Step 3.) Trim it down to one short sentence.
The #1 best way to create a tagline for your business is to describe what you do in the shortest space possible.
This process is like trying to cram a large thought into a single Tweet.
Let's jump into some examples of how we would do this:
Sumo Tagline Example:
Step 1.) Dump out your entire business in a few sentences:
"We create tools that go onto any webpage that help promote and share your website to get more traffic through several tools: Share buttons, Welcome Mats, Pop Up email collects, and more. We make these tools really easy to use."
Step 2.) Trim it down:
"Tools that go onto your webpage to help promote and share your website to get more traffic."
Step 3.) Trim it down to one short sentence:
"Tools to Grow Your Website’s Traffic."
WPengine Tagline Example:
Step 1.) Dump out your entire business in a few sentences:
"It's really cheap to host a Wordpress site, but when something goes wrong, your host will be no where to be found. Also, Wordpress gets hacked if you don't upgrade it or choose poorly designed plugins."
Step 2.) Trim it down:
"WPengine makes hosting a website on Wordpress super easy. We're like the perfect website host."
Step 3.) Trim it down to one short sentence:
"Wordpress hosting, perfected."
WeWork Tagline Example:
Step 1.) Dump out your entire business in a few sentences:
"WeWork is a community space where people can co-work together or rent larger private offices. We let you do what you love by providing fast internet access, bathroom facilities, coffee, beer, and meeting spaces."
Step 2.) Trim it down:
"A community space where you can focus on what you love doing, and we will handle all the hassles of running an office."
Step 3.) Trim it down to one short sentence:
"Do what you love."
Think of your tagline like a "Headline For Your Business."
Your tagline will often be placed on things like:
- Flyers
- Stationary
- Outdoor signs
- Business cards
- Website headers
These are items that have only a quick-shot at getting someone more interested.
For this reason, the only job of your tagline is to get attention and make your customer want to read/research more!
A note to people who have spent more than 2 hours of brain-time trying to "Come up with a great tagline":
Your tagline will unlikely be a big driver of business. Like....at all.
I've NEVER gone to McDonald's because "they had a cool tagline."
It's cause I want food stuffed into my face immediately.
I've never done business with a web designer because his tagline was clever like "Design for life."
I've never bought a car because the tagline was "Zoom Zoom."
Just remember....
You should be focusing waaayy more of your time on:
- The quality of your product.
- Getting referrals from other people.
- Getting feedback from customers.
THOSE are all things that will increase your business.
If you have spent more than two hours trying to come up with a tagline for your business, you are definitely focusing on the wrong thing.
Use the 3-Step Tagline Formula shown above, knock your tagline out, make sure it's not "too clever", and then focus on improving your business in REAL ways!
With all that said, I do respect some taglines floating around out there.
For example, here's my all time favorite tagline:
Geico has gone through all sorts of cutesy characters as their "spokesman", but their tagline has remained the same:
"15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance."
This tagline kicks butt because it's jam-packed with important stuff....and only in about 10 words!
Dang.....that Gecko knows what he's doing!
Let's just compare this brilliant Geico tagline to a few of their top competitors in the insurance space....Statefarm and Allstate:
I mean, without having previous experience knowing what these companies do…..would you have ANY clue what they sell based off their tag lines??
No.
Bravo Geico. Your tagline could be used for a $100/year insurance business or a $50Billion/year insurance business.
So remember, use the 3-Step Tagline Formula from above to create a quick tagline and description for your own business:
The 3-Step Tagline Formula
Step 1.) Dump out your entire business in a few sentences.
Step 2.) Trim it down.
Step 3.) Trim it down to one short sentence.
Watch this video guide on How To Create A Great Tagline:
Download this Taglines post:
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P.S. See every slogan from the S&P 500 here (all the slogans from the top 500 companies).
P.P.S. Try running your own business through the 3-step process for creating a tagline:
Step 1.) Dump out your entire business in a few sentences.
Step 2.) Trim it down.
Step 3.) Trim it down to one short sentence.
P.S. Leave a comment below with your own tagline!
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