It’s the most hard-hitting copy you’ll ever craft.
Guaranteed, hands down.
Your tagline can provoke attention, accentuate your abilities, and make you irresistible to prospective customers.
Conversely, it can confuse prospects, increase bounce rates on your website, and even cost you money because confused buyers don’t buy.
Your tagline is a huge advantage when in competitive situations. So, when you fail at it, you end up losing an opportunity (that you probably won’t get back) to communicate your value.
Here’s why your tagline so important, and how you can write a tagline that can ultimately help your print business sell more printing.
1. Make it about your customers’ pain points, and not about you.
Your customers and prospects don’t want to only hear about you and your business.
It’s true; they don’t.
It’s the most common mistake to make, and it happens because we assume that everybody cares about our business the same way that we do.
Your prospective customers want to know four things:
- How your business will help them solve a problem.
- How your solution will meet a need.
- How your product or service will save time.
- How your service will make your prospect money.
In other words, what’s in it for them?
Here’s an example of a tagline from a regional bank.
The Valley Region’s Best Provider of Banking Solutions
Or:
Good-Quality Banking Solutions That Give You a Better Quality of Life
You’ve seen examples like this first one, before. It’s very matter of fact and only about the business. It’s nice.
But who wants nice?
The second variation tugs at your heart because it shows the value proposition to prospects and customers. It shows a positive result. The second one is much more persuasive because it’s not only about banking, it’s about helping people live better quality lives. Keep your tagline specific, relevant, and compelling, and you’ll instantly become more effective.
2. Avoid industry jargon and technical vernacular.
Here’s an example of a tagline that’s vague and boring.
Helping business owners in niche industries leverage synergies to win new business when in competitive customer situations.
Huh?
Industry upon industry has its own vernacular with terms, acronyms, and verbiage that confuses. Not to mention, many of those taglines are train wrecks, like the one above. Writing insider vernacular in your messaging is probably second nature to you, and that’s okay to do, just not in your tagline.
Compare these two:
Delivering Payment Solutions for Channel Partners
Or:
Making it Easy for Your Technology Company to Get Paid
See the difference? The second tagline explains what you do very clearly without using industry jargon.
If prospects have to work to figure out what you’re communicating, they’re going to be confused and move on to your competition. Insider language ultimately impedes your ability to comprehend.
3. You can be too humorous.
It’s a problem when businesses try to get too cute.
In high school, everyone loved the class clown. In real life, where you need to be an adult, no one likes unprofessional humor. Clarity beats clever every time.
Let’s say you own and run a plumbing and drain cleaning business. For a laugh, you could go with:
The Number 1 Company in the Number 2 Business
But since humor doesn’t pay bills, you’ll probably get more results from something clear like this one:
Reliable Plumbing and Drain Cleaning You’ll Love
See the difference? One looks borderline unprofessional, while the other speaks clearly to your audience.
4. Your tagline should be flexible.
Write down all the places you’ll use your tagline before you finalize it because a tagline that’s too long can become a problem.
Consider placement on things like your website, business cards, email campaigns, videos, letterhead, trade show booth material, and the side of your vehicles.
Make sure your tagline fits on all these types of types of locations. Everything needs to look consistent and proportional. Remember, less is more when creating your tagline.
Take a look at these taglines that are too long, and then one that’s just right.
High-quality Marketing Strategies that Help Your Business Become Professional, Profitable, and Productive
Or something much more straightforward, like the one below. Remember, brevity is the soul of wit.
Creating & Executing Marketing Strategies for Businesses
Last of all, don’t give up. Keep working to create a tagline that best reveals your unique selling proposition in a short phrase of words. No one said it would be easy.
