About the Author

Simon Gornick is “The Tagline Machine” a top content consultant and copywriter with over a decade of experience delivering lines to most of the top studios in Hollywood. Follow him on Twitter@taglinemachine.

You can reach him via his site at http://taglinemachine.com

The Not-A-Top-Ten List

As someone who loves writing, I despise the whole idea of the “Top Ten List”.  So in a spirit of wild defiance I’m not going to number these tips. I’m not even going to put bullets next to them. But even without numbers or bullets they may help you create your own catchy slogans, or to know what to ask for if you’re getting some help.

Words are like toys – play with them!

The English language is an endless playground of meaning and counter-meaning.  Implications, juxtapositions, puns, punctuation. Try them all.  A slogan is like a poem. It’s something you can sketch, build, take apart and build again. Creating a good tagline has to be fun, or it won’t be good.

Does your tagline got rhythm?

Make the most of the music of your line to help them connect to your target audience.  Even in a few words, a great line can have a beat, a flow, even an echo. Listen to your lines out loud and hone them down to give them more rhythm.

Write yourself a creative brief

A creative brief isn’t a particularly skimpy pair of undies. It’s the roadmap to what you need in a Tagline. How do you want your brand to be seen? How would you describe it in human terms? What’s your target audience? Objectively, ask and answer key questions about your business.

We all need options

When I write lines for a client, I study the creative brief I get from them and come up with lines choices that explore a series of directions that express that brief.  Don’t be happy with the first decent notion that hits the page.

To thine tagline be true

The audience has a great big polygraph test it uses on anyone who’s stretching the truth unacceptably. So the simple advice is – don’t try to twist the truth in your tag or you’re guaranteed to get busted.

No big words

Shorter single syllable words have more immediacy and impact. Long words take up valuable persuasion time.  And when you only have four seconds, every millisecond counts.  As for words that require a reader to check a dictionary; go ahead and ask yourself whether they will.

And definitely no buzz words

Buzzwords are created by lazy writers for lazy writers, and lazy is not what you want associated with your brand. Steer clear of game-changers, ideations, and out-of-the-box slogan approaches if you want to connect with a fast moving internet audience.

Longer is better

That’s the long and the short of it. You get more word options, more time to connect and more wordplay with which to enhance emotional resonance.  Shorter taglines are very a la mode right now, but if they work at all they only deliver for mega-brands.  Don’t tagline your blog with the single word “Insight” or use “Advanced. Intelligent” for your startup slogan. Uggh.

Borrowing is bad

A good tagline says a huge amount about the brand it represents. And so does a bad one. One of the big mistakes people get into is thinking that borrowing is a bonus. It’s not. It just says that you’re short on imagination. And that is never a good image to project to an audience. If your line feels second-hand, even if it’s accidental, then it probably is.

Make ‘em laugh

Marketing is seduction. And the best way to seduce is with laughter. Wit is power, pure and simple.  But don’t be clever for clever’s sake or you’ll blow it. If you’re not naturally funny, don’t force it. Hire someone to be funny for you. Heck, every funny guy in Hollywood does it, so why shouldn’t you?

Clichés are bad news

Using a cliché in your tagline is a really bad idea, because to your visitors it looks like you picked some vaguely connected cliché INSTEAD of a tagline. You do not want that.

Go with your gut

There’s no science to writing a great slogan. It’s all art. Or to put it another way, it’s all in the gut. Formulas are good for learning a strong foundation, but when you’re trying to nail your line, use what you’ve learned to go with your gut on the right slogan.

Half an idea is no idea at all

Don’t expect your audience to finish a thought. They’re not going to do your work for you. If they think or even worse see an ellipsis, they’ll just….piss off to the next site.

Subtlety might not do the trick

The internet audience is very literal. I mean we love them and all, but keep it obvious, and at the same time make it fresh. That isn’t a contradiction. It’s a challenge.

Say it out loud

The phrases you remember best are the ones that talk to you. In other they’re like conversation bites. You could imagine saying them yourself. The same is true of taglines. They need to feel natural. There’s one sure fire test to check that. Say your line ideas out loud. If they sound ponderous and awkward, you can bet your boots they’re not memorable.

Check it before you use it

I’m not a lawyer, so make sure you consult one before you publish any tagline, but here’s an example of what you don’t want to happen. You came up with a fabulous winning line, put it on your site to rave reviews, only to find that someone in your business space came up with something just like it, and sends you a rude letter or ten telling you to take it down or worse. You get the picture.

Best of Luck, everyone. May your slogan be good to you.

Listen up!

Today’s post is by Simon Gornick, “The Tagline Machine,” a top content consultant and copywriter with over a decade of experience delivering lines to most of the top studios in Hollywood. You can reach him via his site at http://taglinemachine.com and follow him on Twitter at TaglineMachine. He’s new to the Twittersphere – so say hello!

What is a tagline anyway?

You’ve got four seconds to get your message across.

Taglines are industry speak for those catchy brand or product slogans that have been a staple of the advertising and marketing landscape for decades. They’re the text that’s at the sharp end of a marketing message, and good ones can drive logos, images and ideas home with audiences in a matter of seconds.  These days, it’s not just big brands that have them. Increasingly, especially in the dog-eat-dog landscape of the Internet today, they’re part of the lexicon of small business and personal branding too.

Why (just about) everyone needs a tagline

Unless you’ve been living in a cave in a jungle on an uninhabited island in the Pacific, you’re well aware that the global economy is in a very serious funk. More and more people on this side of the pond have to strike out on their own with the only weapon at their disposal. The Internet.

Some choose that road, while others have it thrust upon them.  But whoever you are, on the web means everyone starts as a teeny, tiny fish in a vast ocean. Getting noticed is everything. And that’s just the way it is.

If you look at your Internet content on a word-by-word basis, some of the biggest bang for your buck is right at the top of the page next to your logo. A good tagline tells me what you and your business is all about. It’s a critical part of the focus and engagement equation, and a great way to distract the audience from its endless flow of marketing distractions.

Takeaway

Unless you’re a big brand, you’ve got about 4 seconds to make an impact before a prospect gets click-happy.  A tagline positioned just right can serve you proud.

When Logos get Lonely. (Sniff)

People respond to images with far more immediacy than they do to text. The brain just processes pictorial associations that much faster.  But you don’t need four seconds to get a logo. You need one, maybe two tops, and you’re ready for the next piece of information.

Of course, there aren’t many logos and company names that capture all you need to know about a brand.  That’s where the marketing slogan comes in. With the couple of seconds you have left before consumer dances off somewhere else you can deliver a great phrase that reinforces the graphic message of your logo or ad image.

Reinforcement can elevate enthusiasm and curiosity if the line matches an awesome logo, but more likely, a catchy slogan will help the save the day for a poor or average logo (which most are).  The tagline can deliver wit, intelligence, connection and meaning to a “whatever” logo. 

Takeaway

Nine times out of ten, your logo probably isn’t that good. Consider a strong tagline to give it a helping hand.

Personal Branding and Slogans. It’s All About Me.

The new entrepreneurial landscape doesn’t look kindly upon shrinking violets or boring people. We’ve go to be out there hawking our wares (in a nice, sharing-y kind of way, of course) rather than suppressing our inner carpetbagger.  You have to be witty, irreverent, insightful, original, and on point, not just some of the time, but all the time.  Taglines can really help in making those first impressions count and avoiding visitors to your site giving you a ’swift click in the pants’.

Imagine you’re at a party and wearing a great line on a t-shirt. People read it and laugh and they’ll look at you and say, “Okay, you’re cool”. But if the line on the t-shirt shouts out “unfunny dork”, they’re gone.

When you’re branding yourself, your logo is probably a photo of you.  Most of us aren’t blessed with movie star good looks, so a catchy slogan next to the picture can be a text driven “face-lift” to add a little extra fabulous.

The tagline might be a quote by you, the core of your insights, or even some grand scheme you have, but if it’s well written and not too bombastic, it can be the key to that all important virtual handshake with site visitors.

A sub-set of personal branding is blog branding. If you’re planning to monetize your blog, a great tagline can provide the overarching thought to the main thrust of your posts, constantly reinforcing the subject matter, themes and character of your work.

Takeaway

Taglines are great personal branding and blog differentiators. (Say that when you’re drunk, or bungee jumping.)

What are the dangers of bad taglines?

Great branding sloganeers get paid shed-loads of money to white board awesome, well-ideated, out of the box, ‘concepts’ that everyone up and down the chain or command agrees are just fab-tastic.  But when those very expensive lines are plastered everywhere they can just as easily get a crap-tastic reception in the big wide world.

Bad taglines are a damaging waste of marketing time and real estate. If someone sees a landing page for the first time, checks out the tagline and goes “uhh?” then there’s definitely a problem. A great example of the “uhh?” is the classic…

Excellence through total quality.

Whatever that means.

Sometimes a tagline can do serious harm to a brand or business because double (and undesirable) meanings just take your mind down avenues the brand really doesn’t want you to travel.

We want you to live.

That’s very nice of you, Mobil.

Make 7-Up Yours!

How dare you, 7-Up! Up yours too!

Put together your own Tagline Hall of Shame as you research your brand’s line. Seeing what not do really helps get it right.

Takeaway

Before you settle on a line, try it out on lots and lots of real people. If people say “get it AND like it” keep line. If people just say “get it”, ditch line, If you get red flags all over the place, dump line but quick.

Where is a tagline a bad idea?

Corporate Lawyers probably don’t need a slogan, because they’re professionals whose bread and butter comes from reputation and referrals, but if you’re an ambulance chaser advertising on the back of a bus, a catchy slogan is probably a good way of differentiating yourself from the other ambulance chasers advertising on the back of other buses. 

Takeaway

Just because everyone else has a tagline isn’t a good enough reason to get one of your own. It has to be something that works for your business.

Differentiashun

Differentiation is a key area where business taglines and catchy slogans can really bring it. If you’ve got a site selling a product or service, it’s a sure thing there’s a bunch of other people doing something pretty similar, unless you’re an Arabian horse trainer, or a unicycling beat poet, in which case your business speaks volumes without a tagline.

Sadly, most of us aren’t vintage fire truck restorers or baroque marionette designers. So what makes you special? And don’t lie because your four seconds will be up real fast once the public bullshit detector is switched on.

I’m a good copywriter, but the thing that makes me special is that I think, sleep, eat and drink taglines. Erika is an excellent copywriter who specializes in bold, snarkified posts that keep it seriously real.  She doesn’t just write, she rants and we can’t get enough of it.

Takeaway

It’s a no-brainer, but understand and feel what it is that makes your business special and, you know, kinda tagline that.

And coming soon…

Part 2 of this post – “The Definitive Do’s and Don’ts of Taglines” will wing its way right at you when Erika says it should.

My points of contention? Let’s see:

• Random population of anyone’s “title” into the email. Total fail. Kinda like a Twitter auto DM.
• The assumption that anyone requesting a connection with me would have an answer for any question of mine.
• The assumption that their answers would be “high-quality.”
• The fact that I’m going to show you your erroneous thinking in one image.

Sometimes fields that are auto-populated are not such a good idea. After all – if Old Spice can make it personal, so can LinkedIn.

Special thanks to @jodiontheweb for her quick hand at Photoshop today.

One day in the town of Ghent
A businessman to his team sent
An email, not so long, that stated
His company’s website – man, did he hate it
Build me another, one that surpasses the rest
I know with this team, ours will be the best!

On one computer, the designer clicked “close”
And on another, the copywriter started crafting some prose.
Said the designer, “I’ll build the most beautiful 3.0 site!”
And the copywriter purred, “God, I LOVE to WRITE!”
So the designer built, adding navs and buttons
While the copywriter wondered what rhymed with “mutton.”

For days on end, they each boiled and toiled
Their respective ambition for their crafts unspoiled.
The designer crafted wireframes rivaling Frank Lloyd Wright designs
And the writer penned copy inarguably divine.
Alas, the day soon came where their assignments were due
Their client would be delighted, this truth they both knew!

Two emails were opened and to each were attached
And their respective masterpieces to the boss were dispatched.
With the click of a mouse, they each let out a sigh
Their mastery of their craft, neither could deny.
“I love what I do!” they independently exclaimed
And then reached for the phone, braced for their moment of fame.

“Are you there, Mister Copywriter? It’s me, the client.
I’m getting Mr. Designer on the line – will you hold just a moment?”
The copywriter held till the designer chimed in
Then with a cough and a swallow, they heard the reaming begin.
“Did either of you speak? Did you plan? Did you get in cahoots?
Because nothing that you gave me is of any damn use!”

“You, Mister Writer – your words – hey, they’re great.
But with the design from Mr. Designer, not a lick of sense they make.
And you, Mister Designer – what are my site visitors to do?
None of the copy I have fits – do I have to review?
I told you both once that this site must be supreme
And by your lack of collaboration, you’ve ruined my dream.”

“How do you write, Mr. Copywriter, if you don’t know where your words go?
And Mr. Designer, how do you design if you don’t know the word flow?
They both work together, the visual and the text
So my site visitors don’t get confused and know what to do next.
What I have from you two are two separate things
When they should truly be one – a marketing choir that sings!”

Speechless they were as the client bid them farewell.
Is there a moral to this story? Ah, yes – here’s the sell:

A website is a choir, not a series of one-acts
If it’s anything but, it looks put together by hacks.
No matter your role: SEO, writer or designer
No one’s more important, no single role finer.
If you think you’re the schiz and you don’t need another soul,
I’ll tell ya – you’re wrong and have a long way to go!

Words must fit boxes and boxes the words
Your SEO must guide you, else none of its heard.
If code is crap, the words won’t ever matter
‘Cause the search engines won’t find you among the cruddy code clatter.
And no SEO strategy? Well, just give up the ghost.
Words with no purpose? Yeah, your website is toast.

So Designer, Copywriter, Tech Professional – hear this!
Do you want a client like the one above? (pissed)
All it takes is the willingness to work as a team
To conjure-up a plan and build a collaborative scheme.
If this, you can do, you’re miles above all the rest
As they simply don’t get it…So why not work like the best?

Step one: start with wireframes. Where do words go?
How will visitors click though? How will they spend dough?
Step two: SEO research. What traffic do you want?
What words help them get here? Don’t be nonchalant!
Step three: craft the copy, SEO and design in mind.
It all comes together, your separate ideas now refined.

That’s a site to be proud of, no ifs ands or buts
A well-executed strategy with minimal fuss.
Your team? Essential. They make you look better.
So pick up the phone, drop an email – WHATEVER!
But hey – collaboration…it’s not for everyone, I know.
You can lead a horse to a team, but to collaborate? Perhaps no.

Website content is the undisputed king – search engines rank you by it, people rate you by it, and most of all, it’s the number one tool (in conjunction with a solid website design) that tells your visitors who you are, what you do and what you can do for them.

But your web copy isn’t working. WTF, over?

Today’s post is the first in a series of five posts that will cover website content. As a reminder, installment two in my WordPress Series will be published this Wednesday (catch installment one Three Reasons Your Website Sucks and One Simple Way to Fix It here), so if you haven’t subscribed, have a lookie-loo at the right hand side of this page and subscribe via RSS feed or email. Let’s face it – you get a lot of crap in your inbox every day…why not get some crap you actually want to read?

Most people think that the mere act of having a website is their ticket to instant traffic and an exponential increase in sales. Yeah – you’re wrong. There are two key components that go into a solid website: content (king) and design/coding (a piss-and-vinegar queen that’s bucking for the throne at all times). A pretty website alone, while nice to look at, isn’t going to result in higher traffic or sales. It needs the compliment of coherent, purpose-driven content. Now, before I get the commenters who think I’m being sexist by putting forth that a website is a patriarchal entity and the matriarchal figure is subservient (blah-blah-blah)…it’s a metaphor. The king and queen compliment one another and work together to create a web-based kingdom that:

• Is sticky (keeps visitors on your site)
• Lets visitors know what you want them to do (click here, buy this, subscribe, submit a form)
• Converts visitors to customers (creates revenue or another desired result)

In the words of Mel Brooks: It’s good to be the king.

Any old words slapped up on a web page simply won’t do. There’s a tried and true method for developing coherent and conversion-oriented web copy that works. The next four parts of this series will cover the following topics:

• Do Your Homework: Audience Identification and Keyword Selection (WTF is a keyword?!?!)
  • Who do you want to visit your site and why? This post will delve into how to think like your target audience and how to do the research for your entire site that will result in web copy that speaks to your audience and more importantly, speaks to the search engines. Search engines are smart, but you’ve gotta tell them what they want to hear.
• Specialization of Labor: Why Each Page of Your Website Should Have a Job
  • Ever worked in a company where everyone was the sales/marketing/administrative staff/lead developer and CEO? Too many cooks in the kitchen! We’ll look into why each page of your website should have a clearly defined purpose and talk about how that helps the search engines and your business simultaneously. Copy rules here, and it takes a polished pen/keyboard to write purpose-driven text that gets you where you need to go.
• Who Loves You, Baby? The Importance of Links and Anchor Text
  • Expanding on the idea of specialization of labor, we’ll discuss why the specialization you committed to will help your website from both the inside AND the outside. There’s a heavy importance that search engines place on links (both internal and inbound from other sites) as well as the way you create those links – anchor text. Stop pasting URLs and hyperlinking the words “click here.” Do it right, reap the rewards.
• It’s Not Over Until It’s Over: Revisiting Your Site, Making Revisions
  • When you’ve finally achieved a site that works and one that’s got a design and the complimentary copy to do what you expected it to do—you can’t just let it be. We’ll go over the importance of analytics, competitive analysis and how to stay one step ahead of your competition through some smart “tweaks” to your web copy and site meta data to ensure that as the months and years roll by, your site isn’t left in the dust with the dinosaurs.

There’s a lot of crap lurking out there on the interwebz, but your website doesn’t have to belong to the Crap Club. Follow this series of blog posts and take your website from crap to content-rich in a few easy weeks of reading. We’ll see you next Monday with Do Your Homework: Audience Identification and Keyword Selection, and don’t forget to catch this Wednesday’s installment in my WordPress series and how it can be used as a tool to help you build a solid website.