Second most?
Why not the first most important sign? Surely if you have to go, you have to go, you have to go, right?
Wrong.
Notice which sign passengers look for as soon as they get off the plane. They're looking for the ‘baggage claim' sign. It's when they see the ‘baggage claim' sign, that they start moving in that direction. And it's then that they start looking for the ‘I have to go now' sign.
What's this got to do with marketing?
When someone comes to your website, they're looking for a sign as well.
That sign is your tagline. Or your strap line. Or whatever you call it.
That's the first sign that your prospect is looking for.
That tagline needs to be ‘un-clever.'
It needs to tell me quickly what you do.
It doesn't need some cutesy-pie line. Or some vague line.
Tell me in plain English what you do. What problem you solve. What solution you bring.
That's the sign that the customer is looking for.
When the prospect gets to your website, they're not looking for your headline, or your subscribe button. Or your wonderful goodies. They're looking for the tagline. When he gets that sign, he knows he's at the right place. That tagline gives him direction and confidence.
So how do you create a tagline that's powerful? Do you have any ideas? Or examples of good taglines?
Great post!
From what you’ve said and what I’ve read, it seems like the most powerful taglines answer Who & What or Who & Why or any two that suit.
FedEx uses (used?) “The World. On Time.” to tell us Where they ship to and How it’s going to get there.
I would mention UPS’ new tagline, but it was so craptacular, I can’t remember it from just a day or two ago, except to say that it didn’t say anything memorable!
My tagline is longer than it should be, but suitable: “Ideas and advice for the smallest businesses on the smallest budgets.” What and for Who.
Craptacular. Now that’s a new one! Love it!
Yup, what and for who would work.
I advise clients to use a problem/solution/target audience.
E.g. target=small business.
Problem=Not getting clients
Solution=Get Streams of Clients
There’s a book on how to create this stuff (it’s called the Applications of the Brain Audit–and it’s a good read), but the key is really to get a clear message across.
If it takes a simple visual, then so be it.
If it takes ten words then so be it.
If the client reads the tagline and can’t understand what it means, then it’s a waste of a tagline.