Let’s set the scene: you’re setting up your small business, and you need to summarize it in a few words. Do you go cute and catchy? Vague and elusive? Do you take inspiration from Nike’s ever non-committal “Just Do It”?
The answer is simple: none of the above. Your small business tagline can’t afford to be catchy or cute – it needs to be practical. Sure, vague taglines work for well-established brands, but for brands that people don’t immediately know and recognize, your tagline can make or break you.
BUT, don’t panic! It’s not too difficult to figure out the perfect tagline. You just need to get the basics right, and you can build it up from there. As a general rule of thumb, you need to make sure you priorities being clear over aesthetics. Being creative is fantastic, but only if it doesn’t obscure your message! Clarity triumphs everything.
We’ve put together three basic questions to help you make the perfect tagline for your small business:
1. Who is your audience?
The biggest factor to consider is who exactly your audience is. Who is going to want to read your tagline and find out more about your business?
For example, if you’re wanting to grab the attention of the general public, complicated and sector-specific vocabulary isn’t the way to go. Likewise, if you’re looking to attract a very specific audience, making sure you’re clear and concise about what you’re offering will help you only attract people who will definitely be interested in the service you offer.
You could even go as far as mentioning your audience specifically: listing your tagline as “Helping builders nail their next project” or “Solving recruitment problems for small business owners”. This will help your audience know if they’re looking at the right business for them.
However, there’s a problem with this – if you’re appealing to a wide range of groups, don’t name just one. You don’t want to isolate any potential customers – you need to get the right balance between broad and appealing, but also specific.
2. What’s your most important benefit or service?
It’s not uncommon to play to your strengths when marketing your business, and this is no different. You’ve got to ask yourself what the biggest benefit or service you offer is. Is it delivering award-winning beauty treatments? Is it improving clients’ marketing strategy? What do customers come to you expecting? Or what do you want them to expect?
For example, here at TheMillCreek.net, our tagline is Websites. Done. Right.”. It’s simple, and has a very does-what-it-says-on the-tin approach to our company. It shows our commitment to helping our clients thrive online, which is reflected in the ongoing support we offer as a standard part of our web design services. Clients know that, right from day one, we don’t just stop at web design - we like to see your business succeed too.
3. How are you going to phrase it?
The final thing to consider here is your phrasing. Like we said earlier, clear and concise is better than creative and catchy. There are a few stock sentences you can try and adapt to fit this, for example:
(What) for (whom)
(What) (with what benefit)
(Do this) to/and (get the benefit)
Basically, you just need to make sure that you have what you offer and who you offer it for, in your tagline. Of course, there is scope to get a little bit creative with this formula – extra points if you can use alliteration or rhyme! But of course, only if this keeps the message clear. If you need to change a word to make things catchy, but the new word doesn’t exactly reflect the same thing as the old one, don’t do it. Customers will be more responsive to a simple tagline, than a super-fancy nonsense one that rhymes.
Following these rules, you should be in a great position to get started with your business’s tagline. Taglines should simplify your business, so creating one shouldn’t be too complicated either.
Of course, here at TheMillCreek.net we’re committed to helping business grow, so if you want any more information on taglines, or marketing your business online, fear not! We’re here to help. Get in touch with us today to find out more about our website services and how we can help your business succeed.
