How To Write a Profitable Tagline

How do you come up with a good tagline?

What makes a tagline ‘good’ and how can you avoid a ‘bad’ one?

It’s clearly a common problem. It’s also an important question because a tag line is a powerful tool to help you stand out in a crowded market.

A tagline should ultimately help you grow your business. If it doesn’t it isn’t a good tagline.

But the truth is it’s not always easy to craft a profitable tagline. So don’t beat your self up for creating something which really doesn’t work.

You are not alone.

Here’s how to craft a compelling tagline which actually helps your business grow.

Are you making these common tagline mistakes?

Clarity is key.

Cute and or clever taglines should be avoided. They make people think. The moment you do that, you’ve lost.

People are busy.

We are bombarded with advertising messages, notifications on our phone and work and home pressures. If your tagline is cute and or clever, it will require more time than people have to decode it.

It’s just easier to ignore it.

So avoid being cute or clever.

Don’t try to appeal to everyone. Inevitably if you try to appeal to everyone your text will become bland and meaningless. Clearly identify who you are targeting and write it to them.

Here’s a strategy for crafting winning Tag lines

1. What’s In It For Me (WIFM)?

This should be your guiding principle for everything communication intended for a potential customer. Ask your self the question from the perspective of your ideal prospect. Your tagline should go some way to answering that question.

For example, for a plumber it maybe something like

“Reliable home plumbing services done on time”

As a customer, this stands out from the crowd because it implies I can rely on this company. And if I have a busy lifestyle, the last thing I need is a never-ending plumbing job. So something which gets done on time really appeals to me.

2. Your Tagline Should Clarify And/Or Differentiate

There are two types of company name. The first is very descriptive such as

“Johnsons Independant Financial Services”

It says what the company does in the name. In this case, you can use your tagline to highlight a differentiating factor. Maybe, you specialise in helping farmers with their financial planning. So you may want a tagline such as

“Financial Planning For Farmers”

But if your company name is a little more abstract or less specific then you should use the tagline to clarify the value you offer to your ideal client.

For example, unless you know beforehand what this company does you’re unlikely to guess from its name. Its name is “Billy”.

So Billy uses their tagline to clarify what they do:

“Hassle-free accounting software for successful entrepreneurs”

3. Call out who your target audience is

Knowing who you serve really helps sharpen your message. The more specific you are the clearer you become.

Take another look at the Billy tag line.

It both clarifies what they offer, accounting software. It answers the WIFM question by telling the potential customer it’s hassle-free. And finally, they call out who it’s for by identifying its software for entrepreneurs.

Now the pushback is often something along these lines.

We don’t want to exclude potential clients.

This is a dangerous false belief. For if you insist on trying to appeal to everyone, you will end up appealing to no one.

4. Don’t make me think

Because we operate in such a fast moving world. So many things vie for our attention. It’s just easier to ignore things which we have to think about to understand.

As a result, your tagline should be easy to understand quickly.

In Conclusion

A tagline is a powerful tool for growing your business…if done right.

Avoid being cute or clever.

Make it appeal to your ideal client.

Make it useful and make it answer the WIFM question from the perspective of your ideal prospect.

Use your tagline to clarify what you do if the company name is vague. Or if your company name is descriptive, use your tagline to differentiate your self from your competitors.

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