Feel like you need a tagline to go with that nifty brand name or logo? Excellent call.
A great tagline is compelling verbal shorthand for who you are and what you promise. It has the potential to unite all aspects of your brand around a single, powerful idea in a way that resonates with your audience and which they’ll remember long term.
Your business name may not fully convey your company’s brand or message on its own. Pairing your business name with a strong brand tagline enhances your positioning and communicates your company’s brand more effectively to potential customers.
When you put it like that, you can see how a tagline does a lot of the heavy lifting. So it pays to get it right. But despite the fact that writing a tagline may look easy (just a few words? How hard can it be?) coming up with a cracker can be a struggle.
You’re not alone. Taglines are tricky little beasts.
As a tagline copywriter with over a decade of experience, I’ve helped hundreds of companies craft memorable taglines that spell out their secret sauce and positioning in a few clever words. Capturing the ethos and identity of your business in a few words is one of my favourite creative challenges, and here’s why…
The great thing about taglines is that it doesn’t matter what business you’re in. Or if your brand is big or small. If you can communicate with clarity, and ideally with an emotional benefit, you can create a meaningful tagline for your business.
So let’s help you decide if you need a tagline. Or if a marketing slogan is what you’re after. And then let’s dive into how best to come up with the goods.
ARE TAGLINES AND SLOGANS THE SAME THING?
Though these terms are often used interchangeably, a slogan is a memorable phrase that’s typically used to advertise an individual campaign, product or service. Whereas a tagline is evergreen and summarises what your business is all about.
But whether you need a tagline or a marketing slogan, the process we’ll be going through below will work just as well. You can also use it to come up with catchy brand and product names. And, if you focus on key words they can help bring organic traffic to your business too.
WHEN TO USE A TAGLINE
- Do you have a brand name which doesn’t convey what you do?
- Do you have a brand name which explains what you do but doesn’t convey a benefit?
- Do you have a brand name which doesn’t convey your character, culture or the purpose behind your brand?
- Do you want to tell an emotional story about your business and why it matters in the world?
- Do you want to reposition your business or reshape perceptions of your brand?
A memorable tagline can make a significant difference at the moment when a customer is deciding whether to engage with your business, helping your brand stand out and communicate its value clearly.
LET’S LOOK AT SOME TAGLINE EXAMPLES
Katie Marshall of Chicks and Mortar offers unbiased education and practical support to empower women tackling property projects. She uses a tagline to define her offering. (Plus, she says, it helps avoid misconceptions – no bricklayers here!)
Here’s a great example from my copy buddy Amanda VanElderen. She uses consonance in her tagline to differentiate her writing from the dry-as-dust work of other writers in business to business comms.
WHAT MAKES THE MOST EFFECTIVE TAGLINE?
Whatever the reason you want a tagline (or marketing slogan), there are some general rules of thumb. Good taglines (the memorable ones) share certain qualities that make them effective. You don’t have to tick all these boxes, but while you’re coming up with ideas, they’re important to keep in mind.
- Keep it clear and simple
- Make it memorable
- Make it meaningful
- Make a promise
- Highlight a benefit
- Make it emotional
- Make sure it’s unique
USING A PROJECT BRIEF TO GUIDE YOUR TAGLINE CREATION
A project brief is your secret weapon when it comes to creating a standout tagline. Think of it as your roadmap: it keeps your creative process focused and ensures your new tagline aligns with your overall brand strategy. A well-crafted project brief outlines your goals, target audience, key messaging, and – crucially – your brand personality.
When you sit down to write your tagline, refer back to your project brief. It should include details like your unique selling proposition, the main benefits you offer, and the tone you want to convey.
By grounding your creative process in a clear project brief, you’ll ensure your tagline is not just catchy, but also meaningful and on-message. It’s a simple step that can make all the difference in creating a tagline that truly resonates with your audience.
TAGLINE INSPIRATION: WHERE TO FIND YOUR BIG IDEA
Stuck for ideas? Don’t worry – tagline inspiration is everywhere if you know where to look. Start by digging into your brand’s own story: your values, your mission, and the feedback you get from customers can all spark memorable phrases. Sometimes, the words your clients use to describe your business are the perfect foundation for a great tagline.
It’s also helpful to look at what’s working in the wider world of branding. Iconic taglines like “Skincare that doesn’t cost the earth” (Sukin) or “Australians Wouldn’t Give a XXXX for anything else” (Castelmaine XXXX) are great examples of how a few well-chosen words can capture a brand’s essence and stick in people’s minds. Analyse what makes these taglines effective – are they promising a benefit, evoking an emotion, or simply stating a bold truth?
Don’t forget to use online tools and resources for extra inspiration.
Tagline generators, branding blogs, and even competitor research can help you brainstorm and refine your ideas. The key is to find a phrase that’s not only memorable but also authentic to your brand and meaningful to your customers. With a little creativity and research, you’ll land on a tagline that sets your business apart.
Here are some of my go-to tools for rhymes, phrases and synonyms:
https://www.rhymezone.com/
https://www.phrases.org.uk/
https://www.wordhippo.com/
Plus, there are heaps of online tagline generators that may spark some ideas:
https://www.shopify.com/tools/slogan-maker
https://au.oberlo.com/tools/slogan-generator
https://www.designhill.com/tools/slogan-maker
MY 10 STEP TECHNIQUE TO WRITING A TERRIFIC TAGLINE
Step 1. What are your brand’s commitments and core values?
Understanding your company’s brand, including its commitment and core values, is essential for creating a tagline that’s quintessentially you. Ask yourself, ‘What do I want my business to stand for?’, ‘Who do I want to help?’, ‘What are the values that drive my business?’ Think about things like honesty, accountability, diversity and inclusion, fairness, quality…
Step 2. What do you do?
It’s time for that thesaurus. Write down synonyms and words associated with the products or services you sell. For example, if you sell trinket boxes, you might write treasure, valuables, jewellery, keepsake, charm, pieces, sparkles, mementos…
Step 3. What benefits do you offer?
Taking the previous question one step further, what do people to ‘actually’ get from your products or services? What advantages does it bring? These ‘ultimate benefits’ are things like speed, value, ease, precision, freedom, success, growth, confidence, relief… For our trinket box example, you might ‘actually’ be offering benefits like safety, tidiness or simply, delight.
Step 4. What words do you associate with your brand?
Your brand has a personality, an identity. When describing your brand, what words do you and your customers use? Is your brand helpful, playful, authoritative, disruptive, creative, honest, adventurous, aspirational, visionary, cheeky, or something else? Write these adjectives down.
Step 5. What emotions do you want to evoke?
What do you want people to feel when they think of your business? What are the warm fuzzy feelings you want to evoke? If you can ask your customers directly or compile a list of commonly used emotions from testimonials, perhaps even use a word cloud, this can really help.
Step 6. Time for some brainstorming
By now you should have several lists of words and ideas. It’s time to get creative.
Play around with word combinations. Sometimes just two words together is all you need. (In our trinket box example, ideas could include ‘Treasure today’ or ‘Spark delight’.)
Consider using a rhetorical device. I’m not just talking about rhyme, rhythm or alliteration – although these techniques are commonly used and with good reason. Linguistic wordplay goes a long way in making brand recall efforts simpler. Here’s what I’m talking about:
Isocolon: Use similar syllables in each phrase for a repetitive ring.
‘Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s Maybelline’
Anaphora: Use repetition to create emphasis.
‘Have a break, have a Kit Kat’
Anthimeria: Make a verb into a noun or vice versa.
‘Olay. Your best beautiful’
Alliteration: Repeat the initial consonant sounds.
‘Homing Instincts. Where Melbourne goes for gifts’
Assonance: Repeat the vowel sound.
Beanz Meanz Heinz
Consonance: Repeat the consonant sound
‘bugcrowd. See Security Differently‘
Find common phrases, song or movie titles, lyrics, catchphrases and metaphors featuring your listed words or (and this is a great tip) words that rhyme with them. A clever twist of wordplay or an unexpected turn of phrase feels familiar and makes taglines stick in your brain. For example, shaving brands often use phrases like ‘shave money, shave time’ to cleverly highlight both time and cost savings.
In our trinket box example, we might consider something like ‘Think inside the box’, ‘Enduring love’, or ‘It’s what’s on the inside that counts’.
Write down everything that pops into your head. Even the silly ones. I often come up with 50 or more initial ideas, trying different styles, lengths, words and punctuation. Once the creative juices start flowing, you’ll find you’re on a roll.
Step 7. Sleep on it. Then harvest and hone.
Read all your ideas out loud. Some will sound rubbish. Scrap ’em. Add any new ones that bubbled up overnight. Polish the best ones, remembering to:
- minimise prepositions (to, with, for, etc.)
- eliminate buzzwords like solutions, passion and excellence
- scrap the generic, ambiguous and inane
- try out different punctuation like full stops and commas (which add drama) and ellipses (which soften two-part phrase and suggest a passage of time or relationship between two ideas.)
- keep it strategic and authentic
Step 8. Check your language for diversity, inclusion and equity
Remember, language is fluid and nuanced. Meaning and connotation are impacted by societal and cultural change. So it’s vital to make conscious word choices and get a 360 view of your tagline ideas.
Step 9. Consider how your wording will work in different contexts and fonts
Short taglines are easier to work with. They fit underneath a logo without distracting from it. But if your tagline doesn’t work underneath your logo, you can use it elsewhere like your website, business card, print materials, digital ads and promo items.
Step 10. Check it’s original
Once you’ve got a few final tagline ideas on your shortlist, you want to check for any obvious commercial, domain or trademark conflicts. Google it. And if you’re in Australia, try the Australian trademark search.
COMMON MISTAKES TO AVOID WHEN CREATING A TAGLINE
Even the best brands can stumble when it comes to writing a tagline. One of the most common pitfalls is settling for something too generic or vague – phrases like ‘We Care’ or ‘Quality First’ don’t tell your audience anything unique about your business or your values. Another mistake is making your tagline too long or complicated. The best taglines are short, memorable, and easy to say.
It’s also important to avoid jargon or technical language that might confuse your audience. Your tagline should be instantly understandable to anyone who sees it. And don’t forget to test your ideas. Share your shortlist with real customers or colleagues to see which phrases resonate most.
By steering clear of these common mistakes, you’ll be well on your way to creating a tagline that’s not only one to be remembered, but a true reflection of your brand and what you stand for.
TAGLINES FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
For small businesses, a good tagline is more than just a catchy phrase – it’s a powerful tool for building brand identity and standing out from the competition. With limited resources, small businesses need every advantage they can get, and a memorable tagline can help you make a lasting impression on customers.
The best taglines for small businesses are simple, authentic and reflect your brand personality and values. For example, a local IT consultant could go with ‘Tech Support, Human Touch’ to emphasise personal service.
Investing time in crafting a strong tagline can help your small business attract new customers, foster loyalty, and communicate what makes you special. Remember, you don’t need a big budget to create a tagline that’s big on impact – just a clear sense of your brand and what you want to say to the world.
GONE THROUGH THIS PROCESS AND STILL NOT COME UP WITH THE GOODS?
No worries. As a veteran tagline copywriter, I can help. Get in touch, and I’ll send you some questions about the kind of tagline you’re looking for, what sounds good to you, and what kind of image you want to project. We’ll have a chat about it. Then I’ll come up with several concepts for you to choose from, and I’ll explain why each concept was chosen so you can make an informed decision about which tagline is best for you.