
Many well-known brands benefit from a “tagline” – that short statement that accompanies the brand’s logo in ads or commercials. It can also be called a “themeline” or, simply, a “slogan.”
Whatever you call it, a line such as “Just do it” (Nike), “Let’s go places” (Toyota), or “Expect more. Pay less.” (Target) does some heavy lifting for big brands. Taglines capture a meaningful aspect of a brand’s promise, and act as a memorable “last thought” to remember a brand by.
So here’s the question for all my service-driven small business solopreneurs out there: Do you need a tagline for your small business?
There’s no wrong answer. Many small businesses thrive without a tagline, while countless others developed a slogan early on, and their logo rarely appears without it.
In the end, you’ll have to decide – after all, you know your small business (and your challenges) better than anyone else. But it’s worth taking a minute to understand the roles that a tagline can serve, as well as best practices that will help you evaluate potential slogans.
Playing Tag: Roles of a Tagline
Let’s return to those big brands for a moment. When brands such as McDonald’s and Walmart carve out precious ad space (or commercial airtime) for a slogan, you know there has to be a smart reason.
What purpose is that tagline serving?
Here are a handful of roles that taglines serve for brands of all sizes. That’s right: Branding is branding is branding. A tagline for a small business like yours can serve the same purpose!
Capturing a Brand’s Essence
When BMW describes itself as “The ultimate driving machine,” their goal is the same as a wedding venue that says “Where memories are made.” In both cases, the brands look to sum up their brand in a few words.
Promising a Benefit
Here, I’ll offer an example that’s close to home. If you go to the 17hats website just now, you’ll see our tagline there: “Manage business better.” In just three words, that’s the benefit we promise to small business owners.
Staking Out a Positioning
“Think different” positioned Apple as a thoughtful alternative to the bland, look-alike PCs of the time. Of course, you don’t have to be Apple to stake out your position in the customer’s mind. If you have a niche for yourself as a solopreneur, such as “The post-divorce life coach,” you can use your tagline to explain and claim that specialty. Learn more about positioning and finding your unique selling proposition in past 17hats blogs.
A Nod to Advertising or Social Media
Big brands use taglines to bring to mind their million-dollar ad campaigns. But even without their big budgets, you can still implement that same strategy. Any tagline that accompanies your logo in your email signature should be the same tagline that greets visitors when they land on your website. (Yes, in the same way that you can’t miss “Manage business better” when you land at 17hats.com.) Consistency in messaging helps to build your brand. Sometimes that same tagline can find a role in social media too, as a handle, headline, or hashtag.
Identifying a Club That Customers “Join” When They Choose That Brand
This kind of tagline positions the brand by describing the brand’s customers. When Gatorade asks, “Is it in you?” … or CapitalOne questions, “What’s in your wallet?” … they are asking you to opt into a “club” of consumers that do business with that brand. If your small business appeals to a discerning audience, you may want to consider a tagline that holds up a mirror to your kind of clients, and makes them feel good about choosing your brand.
Best by Test: Tagline Best Practices
OK – let’s say you are considering a tagline for your small business. How do you evaluate it? Glad you asked! Here are five characteristics that successful taglines share:
Short and Sweet
Most taglines are short – five or six words, max, and three or four words is even better. This is especially important if you’re going to attach your tagline to your logo. (Graphic designers often call that standardized visual relationship a “lockup.”) A short tagline in a logo lockup will be legible even when the logo is small, like on a business card.
Catchy and Memorable
Various tricks can make your tagline easy to remember. You might use wordplay, for example, like the tagline “For love in bloom” for a wedding florist. Rhymes can also make a tagline memorable, such as “The quicker picker upper” for Bounty paper towels.
Authentic and Honest
Tagline ideas can come from anywhere: Your sister-in-law might suggest a slogan for you, or you might Google “tagline generator” for online resources. (This is another opportunity for you to leverage AI chatbots such as ChatGPT or Bard – learn more here.) But before you become infatuated with a line that sounds good, be sure to ask yourself if it’s true for you and your small business. If you plan upscale, elegant, candlelit dinner parties, then “Party on!” may not be apt for your business.
Differentiating and Ownable
For starters, you don’t want to use a tagline that one of your direct competitors is using. A little online research will help you uncover who is saying what in your category. But you should also ask this of a potential tagline for your business: Does it help you stand out? In a perfect world, you want a tagline that differentiates your brand. You can do this by staking out your positioning (see earlier bullet above), so you lay claim to a particular facet of your field of work.
Durable and Not Limiting
Don’t choose a tagline that will hold you back in five years. This is a made-up example, but let’s say you’re a long-distance running coach. You could choose a line such as “Miles ahead” or “Find your runner’s high.” But, in the back of your mind, it occurs to you that you might expand your coaching practice in the future – to triathlons, or overall fitness. In that case, you might find a more enduring tagline to be “Unlock your potential” or “Your personal best” or something else that gives you room to grow.
Brand Speak Through Taglines
Taglines are a tried-and-true marketing tactic. Huge multinational companies as well as one-person small businesses can benefit from a short, memorable expression of what a brand is about.
If you’re considering a tagline for your small business, start by looking at the slogans you encounter with a critical eye. What role is that tagline serving for UPS or M&M’s or your local tax preparer? What makes the line catchy? What positioning is the line staking out, for what target audience?
The more you understand what makes taglines tick, the better equipped you will be to create a memorable, powerful tagline for your own small business.