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are my "Top-Ten Tagline Tips" to help you devise
a tagline that sets you apart from the rest.
1. Ask yourself if your competitor can "wear"
your tagline. If they can, change it until only you can
wear it.
2. Ask perfect strangers if they understand
your business after seeing and hearing your tagline.
3. Write down taglines that flatly explain
what you do. Don't worry about how slick they sound. You
can always fine tune them later.
4. Collect other people's taglines that you
like and examine what makes them work. Then apply that learning
to the making of your tagline.
5. Before writing a tagline, figure out what
your 150-word elevator pitch is. If you can't get your USP
into a one-minute speech, you'll not be able to get it into
seven or ten words.
6. Read "Focus" by Al Reis and
"Realities in Advertising" by Rosser Reeves. Also,
"Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind" by Trout
and Reis.
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7.
Stay away from flip or hip sounding taglines. They will
soon sound dated, and an international audience may not
get the double entendre or idiom upon which it's based.
8. Must your tagline be slick-sounding? If
you're selling running shoes, maybe yes. If you're selling
die-casting equipment, decidedly not.
9. Is a tagline always essential? No. Especially
if the name of your firm is self-explanatory.
10. Should you invent new words to be used
in your tagline? Maybe yes, maybe no. You run the risk of
dating yourself, or being misunderstood. But if it's the
type of word that people love to say (sometimes called "playback")
then you may want to consider this tricky option, but test
the daylights out of it before you commit to it.
Bonus Tip: Don't change your current tagline
just because you're tired of it. If people understand it
and it serves you well, don't muddy the waters by confusing
them with a new one unless absolutely necessary.
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