What does your tagline say about you?

Earlier this week, Lisa worked with Katie Rowland of KRC Coaching to present a workshop on taglines to the WIBN group in Reading.  We got some great feedback and lots of ideas were generated, so we just wanted to share some of the key points.

What is a tagline?

Also known as a slogan or a strapline, a tagline is a short phrase that tells your audience what you offer. With just a few words, your tagline must be understandable, summarise the product or service, build trust or incite to buy.  Taglines can be your best and least expensive form of advertising. 

No matter what your company does, your tagline creates a first impression.  Make sure this is the right impression!

A tagline can be a powerful message to enhance your brand.  Who hasn’t heard of:

Tagline – Things to consider

A tagline should be:

•       Memorable

•       Clear not clever

•       So what? – Benefits

•       Personality

•       Can include a call to action e.g. Think Different

•       Keep it simple – single words can work well (always good in threes) e.g.

Review your taglines

It's never too late to change a dull, tired, non-communicating tagline. Even the biggest brands with famous taglines change their slogan every few years. Most people remember when Coke was "The Real Thing," but look at all the other taglines they've used over a period of 20 years:

• 1970: It's the real thing.
• 1971: I'd like to buy the world a Coke.
• 1976: Coke adds life.
• 1979: Have a Coke and a Smile.
• 1990: Can't Beat the Real Thing.

How smart is your tagline?

The best taglines separate you from your competition, express your personality and add to your branding and marketing campaign. A tagline should tell not only what your company does; it should also make it clear how you are unique compared to your competition.

Assess your current tagline by asking yourself three questions:
1. If you left your business card somewhere, could someone glance at it and know exactly what your company does?
2. Would your tagline work if your competitors used it?

3. Are you proud to use your tagline every day?

Where should you use a tagline?

Now you have your tagline, make sure you use it!!  Places to include it are as follows:

•       Business card

•       Website – We recommend homepage

•       Email signature

•       Networking events

•       Marketing collateral eg appointment cards

•       Any presentation title slide

•       Social media

Even we benefitted from the workshop.  Our old tagline was “Making your marketing solutions as simple as 1,2,3”.  We’ve now tweaked this to:

Making your marketing as easy as 1,2,3

So what changes will you make to your tagline?

It's our birthday…….

Lisa and I are celebrating our fourth year in business together this month – it’s quite amazing to us how quickly those four years have flown by but then they do say ‘time flies when you’re having fun’ and we are blessed to say there has been a lot of fun over the past 48 months!

I’ve turned to some wordsmiths other than myself to sum up how we feel about our work as we move into our fifth year in business so all that remains to say is a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has been part of our journey so far, it’s been great having you along for the ride!