The reason I want to bring this up is because you need to start getting back into work mode, I’m sorry. Yeah, you can have time off and yeah you are going to have fun.
But I know what you like because I’ve been doing this for 30 odd years. That’s why the grey hair is. You can’t really switch off can you? No matter how hard you try.
So, rather than go back to work, rather than sit down and think, or drive somewhere and go and do something, how about getting a quiet hour or quiet 30 minutes or something like that to yourself and just doing something that feels like you’re working.
[player]
So we are going to talk about taglines. And just to make that clear, a strap line and a tagline is the same thing.
I did look it up, I did check it out just in case I’m a complete idiot and didn’t know. So you would find, of course its headlines, and theirs slogans and things like that. And those are different. But let’s call a tagline, a strapline. I call them taglines. You call it what you like.
But in effect the tagline tends to be right next to a logo, generally part of the logo, usually right under it. Something like that. So that’s where it is.
It isn’t a standalone thing, it tends to come with it. And the reason I want you to think about it, is a lot of people don’t put any effort in. so if it says, the, I mean first of all, if your tagline says ‘the’ at the start, get rid of that. That is a stock word. Waste of space. Get rid of it.
If you can’t make it, reword it, so it doesn’t disappear, write another one. It does not need to be there. That’s a waste of space. Okay?
Inspire People
That tagline needs to inspire people to understand exactly who you are as a, whether it’s as an individual or as a business, what your brand is about. And what you want them to do. Or what you inspire them to do.
It needs to evoke something. Now of course we read about a lot of, a lot of these from others, and generally they are retrospective. It’s like logo design or logo or names.
People come out and say, oh have a fantastic name like Yahoo or google, or apple. But that’s retrospectively after their so many worth umpteenth hundred billion.
Obviously yahoo is worth about $5 right now. And so be it. Given away all their, getting yourself hacked and not telling everyone. But you know what I mean.
These things always talk about the big successful companies and say oh they just had a great little idea. Why not you do it? That’s retrospective guys.
When it came out somebody, lots of people probably said this, a little idea, a silly name.
It Needs to Stand the Test of Time
But with that tagline they need to stand a test of time. You don’t need a, you shouldn’t have to change it because your value shouldn’t change. And you want to get something across to your customer.
I don’t care if you are just the local accountant. Whether you are a landscape gardener service or whether you are the next Facebook. It needs to say something about you. It needs to be thought about.
You cannot just have the same generic message that everybody else has. You can’t look at, say you were a competitor, you got a giant competitor and they got a famous one.
You can’t look at theirs and reword it, and use something similar. Because that’s not yours. That’s theirs. This has to be you. So what does it say about you.
Now try your absolute best to keep it short. It’s going to go on a logo. You can’t have it wrapping onto a couple of lines. It doesn’t have to be grammatically correct.
It can even have full stops or periods in between. It can be, oh gosh, who’s got something like faster. Bigger. better or something like that, and with a period in between. It can be something like that. So just think, it can be grand.
Don’t be embarrassed. Don’t think, oh gosh I can’t say that, I am just. No. don’t get carried away with that. It’s part of your brand. Honestly.
Now this is the bit where, I am going to cheat here because I’m going to pick up, this, I got a laptop and I wrote some down. And the reason for this is because I want to give you some examples.
Just to make you think. The reason I’ve got these is, in front of me, is because I’d forget them. Whenever I try and remember a bunch of things, as you know, I’d have never write scripts for these.
Whenever I try to remember a bunch of things, if I’d say I have got 5 points or 5 lessons to learn, I forget one of them. So occasionally might have to jot it down. So, so I am going to read some here.
Now, for example, Loriel. ‘Because you’re worth it’. Now you know obviously these companies have multimillion pound budgets.
But so do many other beauty companies. Can you think of theirs? You certainly know that one. Don’t you? If I said because you’re worth it, you can probably even picture Jennifer Anniston saying it. Someone like that. Or is that just me? Sorry. Anyway.
How about Avis? Avis has ‘We try harder’. They used to use that in the 60s, then they dropped it. And they brought it back a couple of years ago.
Because they found it worked. We try harder. And it’s almost like for in the individuals mind, they can form the rest of the sentence.
Here, this one is so called, it’s unbeatable. You think, how did they think of that? But they probably didn’t realize at the time how good this will be. Nike, ‘Just do it’.
That is applied to so many other things. It’s so obvious now. But you can do that. Why not? You don’t have to grow the size of Nike to have that little, that little tagline down there.
Some have been around forever. In the UK, we have Jon Lewis. Which is the equivalent of Macy’s maybe. Something like that. Or the bay in Canada. Big store. Anyway big department stores.
Theirs is ‘Never knowingly undersold’. Now yes it’s a grammatic metaphor, but think of the words. So in other words, nobody ever beats them on price and quality. But they don’t say price. Undersold. No one beats them.
How about Diamonds? De Beers. De Beers own virtually all the diamonds around. But, ‘A diamond is forever’. Yeah, simple. It is.
Nokia, yeah yeah yeah, I know Nokia is not really around but by the way Nokia are bringing out those little simple phones again. But anyway, Nokia. ‘Connecting People’. 2 words.
Some, I’ve got a couple here, that don’t even need, they actually put the name in the strap line. So for instance ‘Mum’s gone to Iceland’. Iceland is a frozen food store brand in the UK. Big one.
Uber is ‘Everyone’s private driver’. Airbnb, belong anywhere. Okay, enough. Okay. You get the gist.
Tuesday Toolbox Tip
It is Tuesday. Tuesday’s Toolbox Tip. Now I don’t normally have one of these, laptop on top off me and reading off, I don’t normally recommend things that cost money. But this is so good, it’s been around for so long, it’s still the same. It’s so good, it’s like, it’s just amazing course on blogging, updating your website, writing copy, everything. It’s from Copy Blogger. It’s generally now called Rain Maker Digital. But just look up CopyBlogger.com and it’s called Authority. It is, it’s a course, it’s on everything. They update things, it’s a monthly fee, or you can pay annually. It is worth every single penny, and by the way it is $55 a month I think. So what’s that about, 35 pounds a month? Seriously if you can’t afford that, and you are trying to build a business, you are doing it wrong. You think everything’s for free, that isn’t entire education. So look it up, Copy Blogger Authority. Just google that, you’ll come across it. Anyway, enjoy the rest of your holiday Tuesday. Enjoy tomorrow’s interview, Expert Interview Series, you are going to love it. I am not telling you who it is, you are going to have to find out. Click here to instantly download our FREE Book “The 71 Ultimate Marketing Tools”
It’s a good one. She is brilliant. She is such good fun. Honestly. Seriously. And on Thursday I’ll be back with another quick tip. See you then.
