What's a Tagline?

A tagline, sometimes called a slogan, is a brief statement that captures the essence of your business (or your unique selling proposition) and your brand, making it easy for people to quickly understand what you offer, and differentiating you from your competition. It's a tall order for a little line.

A tagline is not a headline, which is more specific to a specific ad or a paragraph of text, like what you might say on your website. Taglines get used repeatedly; headlines typically do not.

Taglines may be portrayed in audio, text or multimedia, and are used in all types of communications, such as on a website near your logo, at the end of an ad, or on a business card. Combined with a logo, they can really set the tone for your brand.

Famous Taglines

Let your fingers do the walking (Yellow Pages)

We bring good things to life (GE)

We try harder (Avis)

The ultimate driving machine (BMW)

Have it your way (Burger King)

What’s in your wallet? (Capital One)

All the news that’s fit to print (New York Times, 1897)

Some would argue that taglines have gone the way of the flip phone. But in this New York Times branding article, the "Nationwide is on your side" slogan still cuts through the clutter.

Other well-recognized brands may feel ready to drop the tagline, but for a small business, it’s an opportunity to distill the idea of who and what you are in the minds of customers quickly. Remember, you’ve only got those 8 seconds to make an impression with your website. So why not take advantage of your tagline, combined with your logo, to communicate what you're about.

Tagline Writing Tips

Taglines are a reflection of your positioning, in other words, where you fit in the customer's mind.

• Think about the top words or phrases that define your business. For Blockbeta, that's: strategic, small business and marketing.
• Before trying to be clever, write several straight forward statements like the one I started with, “Startup and early stage business consulting.” Pretty dry, and it didn't capture the key words.
  
• Get creative by substituing words that no one else is using, but are still understood by your audience. One of my favorites from the MacArthur Foundation, is "Building a more just, verdant and peaceful world." Verdant is such a memorable substitute for the overused environmental or green, and works well for the audience they're trying to reach.
  
• I replaced the scary word "strategic" with "big picture approach" on the Blockbeta tagline. Big picture also gave me a play on words -- big and small, which makes it catchy and memorable.
  
• Avoid writing in general or superlative terms, such as, "We're the best plumbers on the planet." These types of taglines don't communicate anything specific about your business and they aren't believable.
  

There's no substitute for good old fashioned brain work

There are loads of websites claiming to help you write a tagline automatically, such as the slogan generator, but after some hilarious attempts (give it a try; it's pretty funny), they just don't cut it. You'll end up with a lot of junk that will waste your time and throw you off track. If you get stuck, maybe it's time to hire a professional (like us!).