There’s nothing new about taglines. They’ve been used in different types of media for quite some time as a way to summarize the entire company/product/organization in a short bit of space/time. On a website, the tagline is usually a short bit of a text near the logo to describe what that site is. They’re the first glimpse into exactly what it is you do. If the tagline isn’t clear, visitors will have to spend more time figuring that out (which they may not). Often visitors enter your site somewhere other than the homepage and the tagline may be the only real description on the page where they do enter.
A good tagline should:
- Be clear & informative
- Be short & concise (six to eight words)
- Differentiate your business
- Offer at least one clear benefit
- Be personable and catchy (hopefully a bit clever)
- Be unique
- Stand on its own
This may seem like a lot of weight on just a short phrase, but good taglines are invaluable for differentiating yourself and quickly describing what it is you do. Once you have a good one you’ll be able to use it on all your marketing materials and advertising. If you don’t know how well your tagline works, try showing someone (or telling) your tagline and see what it is they think you do.
How do you use your tagline?
(photo by Delphine – Very very busy :/ @ Flickr CC)
Technorati tags: tagline, design, marketing, uability, business
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Most of us who have our own businesses got started because we had a passion for something. I think many of us get so busy with the day-to-day requirements of running a business that we forget about that passion that started it all. We get run down and we stop working on the things that really matter to us. Or we take on too much work and don’t have time for important, but unbillable tasks. Without taking some time for tasks that we’re excited about, we start avoiding work that needs to be done and our overall quality of work suffers. –