Today we are answering the question on every entrepreneur’s mind: How Do I Write a Great Tagline that Connects with My Audience in 2021? And if you are as excited as I am to kick off your brand with a tagline that is going to connect with your ideal audience like crazy, let me know right now by quickly clicking that thumbs-up and giving this episode a like! Enthusiasm is catching, so let’s spread the love, and set an intention right now, for creating a thriving and enthusiastic brand community that will create massive word-of-mouth advertising in 2021 because that’s how your brand can Come Out of Nowhere to Become an Inspiration to Millions.
Let’s jump right in. The first three things your ideal individuals are going to see when encountering your brand will be your Name, Tagline, and Logo. Now, because of digital marketing, we see around 5,000 ads a day. We may feel pretty used to it by now, but for our brains to process that much information every day on top of everything else going on in the world and in our own lives, well…it’s A LOT. To cope with this digital onslaught of information constantly flying at us, we as consumers have adapted by becoming professional deleters. It is estimated that our memories will now automatically delete close to 99% of the ads we see every day, so your brand’s name, tagline, and logo better connect and fast! This fast-paced process that we all use to decide what to buy is called The Blink Test; it’s that 3-5 seconds your brand gets to make a stellar first impression on your ideal individuals. We decide in a blink whether to delete or dive in! I have actually created The Answer Key for passing The Blink Test because it really is so important. Every brand hoping to capture the hearts of their digital consumer community will absolutely need to pass The Blink Test in order to win Brand Loyalty in 2021 and beyond. No matter what business you are in, Brand Loyalty is your business plan.
For this episode, we are shining the spotlight on How to Write a Great Tagline that Connects with your ideal individuals in 2021. I’ve created a checklist to act as 4 simple guidelines to help you innovate and elevate your brand’s tagline in a way that passes The Blink Test with flying colors.
Create Clarity!
As tempting as it may be to choose a tagline that is clever, slightly vague, or could possibly make a person think, “I wonder what they mean by that…” in the world of digital marketing, Clarity outperforms Clever every single time. And more often than not, “I wonder what they mean by that…” is going to result in a Blink Test fail!
Your ideal individuals don’t care about what your brand knows until they know that your brand cares! It’s always all about them.
Your tagline is your brand’s opportunity to let your ideal individuals know in a blink that your brand cares about making their lives better. I often love to reference billion-dollar brands, like Apple “Think Different” or Coca-Cola “Open Happiness,” because they truly check every box on the checklist; however, if you are a new brand in the beginning phases of building your brand community, it’s important to note that when these rockstar brands were just starting out, their taglines were a bit more succinct to let their future brand loyalist know exactly what value their brand had to offer.
One of Apple’s first successful taglines was “The Computer for the rest of us.” This lets people know immediately, this is a company that creates computers that make the lives of regular people better. Apple grew into “Think Different,” over time, and leaned into Clarity over clever when they were still getting established.
Coca-Cola’s first tagline was simply, “Drink Coca-Cola,” and yeah, it lets us know that Coca-Cola is a beverage. That much is perfectly clear, but when you look a bit closer you discover it was incredibly effective for the times because the nation was currently being swept up in a movement against drinking alcohol as we approached the Prohibition Era. “Drink Coca-Cola,” was a clear way of saying, who needs alcohol, try this fun alternative instead.
I want to give you one more example that I love. Geico. Okay now, Geico is one of those billion-dollar brands, but they’ve stuck with their Clarity over Clever tagline from the get-go: “15 minutes will save you 15% on car insurance,” and it couldn’t be more clear.
In a blink, we know exactly who this company is, and what it can do for us, and they leave the cleverness and the humor to their delightful mascots.
Your brand’s first tagline is an opportunity for your brand to clearly convey the value your brand wishes to contribute to the lives of your community. There will be plenty of opportunities later to delight them with humor and cleverness. For first impressions, and for passing The Blink Test, use your tagline to let them know you care, by letting them know exactly why you are there! Clarity Outperform Clever Every Time.
Inspire a Consistent Emotion!
One of the most brilliant guiding lights your brand will have for connecting you to your audience in 2021 is through establishing one all-important emotion for your brand to inspire over and over again. This one emotion should be consistent throughout your name, tagline, and logo.
In relationships, consistency builds trust, and your brand’s tagline can lay the tracks for the beginning of a beautiful relationship by inspiring an emotion that your ideal individuals can learn to expect from your brand time and time again. Deciding what you want that one emotion to be, and then infusing that emotion throughout your brand culture, will ultimately define your brand at its very essence.
The decision to buy is emotional. People will know your brand and distinguish it from all others, not by your name, tagline, logo, products, or services…No, they will know your brand by how well they feel your brand knows them. Earn their trust through emotional consistency, because when they feel like they know you, that’s when they can really start to connect more deeply. The brand that knows them best is the brand that wins Brand Loyalty.
Remember, your brand isn’t destined to become whatever you say it is. It’s destined to become what everyone else says it is, and that will be entirely based on how your brand makes people feel. It’s always all about them.
Value Every Vulnerability! (Or VEV)
VEV is vital for creating a tagline that can pass The Blink Test in 2021! Valuing Every Vulnerability means that your tagline faces down the limiting beliefs your ideal individual encounters when deciding what to buy. I call these limiting beliefs The Obstacles to Buy.
The most common limiting beliefs are centered around Time, Money, Ability, and Peer Pressure. You Value Every Vulnerability when you use your tagline to help them remove their limiting beliefs.
L’Oreal: Because You’re Worth It, removes the limiting beliefs around time, money, ability, and peer pressure. Do I have time to put on make-up? Can I afford this mascara right now? Will these cosmetics even do anything for me? You know what? I’m worth the time it takes, I’m worth the money it costs, I deserve to look and feel my best…do you see how “Because You’re Worth It,” helps L’Oreal’s ideal individuals overcome their obstacles to buy?
Nike: Just Do It, blasts every limiting belief right out of the water! Do I have time to exercise? Can I afford these shoes? Can I really make these new and exciting changes? Only one way to find out! I’m gonna Just Do It!
Geico: 15 minutes will save you 15% on car insurance. Removes the limiting beliefs around time, money, and ability. No explanation necessary, because they spell it out with such clarity.
Valuing Every Vulnerability means your tagline sees into the real self, not the “photoshop” self, the real beating-heart truth beneath the surface of your ideal individual, and says, “This brand is where you belong. Come as you are. This is your home.”
Offer a Greater Future!
I actually created an entire masterclass on how to make your tagline an invitation to A Greater Future, and it will be an amazing additional resource for you. I’ll be sure to include the link in the description below.
Let me give you a few examples of Great Taglines inviting people to their greater future, the greater future of being an action taker such as Nike “Just Do It.”, or the future of a great relationship such as “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there”, or time-saving such as Bounty “The quicker picker-upper”, it may be money-saving such as Payless “You could pay more, but why?”…Whatever greater future your brand has to offer, make your tagline a clear invitation to a party your ideal individual wants to attend; an invitation to a future they have been looking for all along.
Making your tagline an invitation to a Greater Future makes buying from your brand an instant win.
Every moment you tie on your new Nike running shoes is the moment you “Just Do It.” Every moment you apply your L’Oreal mascara is the moment you affirm to yourself “I’m worth it.”
Let’s look at Visa, “It’s everywhere you want to be.”
This is about travel, entrepreneurship, and pioneer spirit. Once you have your Visa in hand, you are free to travel the world. An instant all-access pass to a greater future.
On the other hand, we have MasterCard “Somethings in life are priceless. For everything else there’s MasterCard.” This is about friends, and family. This is about making important and precious memories happen now. Once you have your MasterCard in hand, you are free to get your daughter’s braces, plan your parents’ 50th-anniversary party, and book your family trip to Disneyland. MasterCard is also an instant all-access pass to a greater future.
Make your tagline an invitation to a greater future, and the purchase becomes the easiest and the best decision your ideal individuals could possibly make.
Now that you have the checklist, it’s time to start your creative engines! Without censoring yourself write out a few sentences about what value your brand’s products or services have to offer your ideal individuals. Remember, it’s always all about them. After you have it written out, trim it down to just one sentence, and then using your 2021 Greatest Tagline Checklist, brainstorm a list of possible taglines that hit the mark for each of the four guidelines we’ve covered, using the fewest words possible.
Let’s recap the four guidelines on your Tagline Checklist:
Creates Clarity
Inspires a Consistent Emotion
Values Every Vulnerability
Offers a Greater Future
While brainstorming, just let yourself flow and come up with as many possibilities as you can. They don’t all have to be contenders for THE ONE tagline that will connect your brand with your ideal individuals. It may very well turn out that you find your greatest tagline by piecing different ones together, and also keep in mind that this tagline brainstorming list you’re creating is your valuable intellectual property and that can be easily converted into email headers, social media posts, ad campaigns…this exercise is a win-win, so really root your heart into the emotion you wish for your brand to most inspire because that emotion will be the true connective fiber within your brand community, and then using that emotion as your touchstone, allow your imagination to soar.
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Remember if you get stuck, or you’d like more inspiration, I have an in-depth tagline masterclass already posted on YouTube entitled Greater Future: Make Your Tagline an Invitation.
I release new articles every Tuesday and Thursday, so treat these episodes as a masterclass for becoming an Inspiration to Millions with Branding. And as always the way to becoming an Inspiration to Millions starts with our motto: Love What You Do and Love How You Do It.