What makes a tagline work, and seven that do.
Creating the perfect tagline is something that many brands struggle with. How can you fit what you are into a few words? How can you convey your essence in a three-word message, in such a way that gets people to act?
There are many articles on the web giving examples of the best business taglines. The most common examples that come up include Apple with Think Different, Samsung with Imagine, and the like.
What many of them fail to address is the simple fact that you are not Apple, Samsung, Google, or any of the largest companies in the world. Think about it. As a small B2B company trying to position yourself as a niche leader, can you really get away with a one-word tagline like Think or Imagine?
Remember that your tagline can change over time. As your brand visibility increases, there may be a place for abstract taglines that invoke dreamy emotions or clever, witty slogans.
For most businesses, though, what your tagline needs to consist of is pretty simple. You can be smart and clever, but above all your USP needs to shine through. What do you do? How do you help?
You should try to add personality, as The Few. The Proud. The Marines does, and be memorable, as The Happiest Place on Earth is. You should also try to position yourself as the market leader. Your main focus, though, should be on conveying your USP so people know what you do and how you can help them.
Coming up with the perfect tagline does not have to be more complicated than it is. It is pretty simple.
Imagine you had only one sale to make, and you were asked to describe your business in one short paragraph. Your job is to use that paragraph to tell the buyer what you do, how you can help them, and why they should buy your product.
Then imagine that you had to condense all of the information in that paragraph into a 160-character text message. Once you have done that, shorten it even further into one sentence.
Your tagline is the essence of what you do, boiled down into one single sentence.
Here are seven B2B tech companies whose taglines describe their USPs well.
LeadPages is a drag-and-drop landing page builder. Clients can build landing pages, websites, and funnels.
Why it works. The tagline addresses a problem many businesses have, which is that they spend money on a lot of clicks and cannot convert those clicks into sales. Turn Clicks Into Customers is catchy, memorable, and makes getting conversions sound easy with LeadPages.
WP Engine offers managed WordPress hosting plans. Since it is a managed hosting platform, businesses can focus on their strategy without worrying about website updates, optimisations, or security.
Why it works. It is simple yet catchy and speaks directly to what business owners want, which is high-quality hosting that will not let them down, without glitches or security issues. The use of the word perfected positions them as the leader of WordPress hosting.
Oracle sells integrated cloud applications, database technology, and enterprise software.
Why it works. Oracle has used a number of taglines over time, and all of them are good examples. The one above sums up what they do, which is network computing, and positions them as innovators and leaders who are enabling a new age and paving a path nobody has tread on before. Others they have used include Oracle: The Information Company, Hardware and Software Engineered to Work Together, Software. Hardware. Complete., Enabling the Information Age, and Integrated Cloud Applications and Platform Services. All of them sum up what they do, and lines like The Information Company also position them as an industry leader.
PayPal offers businesses and consumers online money transfer and payment services.
Why it works. PayPal speaks directly to what is on every online consumer's mind, which is their data security. They position themselves as the easiest way to send money online safely. Another tagline they have used is The Way to Send and Receive Money Online, which sums up what they do and positions them as the market leader with the words The Way.
Canva is a free online design platform for creating infographics, social media posts, and blog post images.
Why it works. Many bloggers and businesses think that online design is difficult and expensive, and every blogger needs it. Canva speaks directly to those struggling with online design.
Hubspot offers inbound marketing and sales tools for businesses, including marketing automation, CRM, and customer support tools.
Why it works. It sums up what Hubspot is about, which is helping businesses grow in the best way possible. It speaks to business owners who have tried other solutions and been frustrated by the lack of results.
ClickFunnels allows businesses to create hosted sales and opt-in funnels.
Why it works. Creating effective marketing funnels is another task many businesses struggle with, and ClickFunnels makes it easy. It is catchier and more memorable than their longer version, Enabling People To Grow Their Companies Through Sales Funnels, though even that gets straight to the point and summarises their USP in a single sentence.
A tagline is downstream of a proposition. If the sentence underneath it has never been settled, no amount of wordsmithing will produce a line your market repeats back to you.