Everyone knows a great tag line can make or break your website. Unfortunately, this means that when you’re writing a tag line for your small business, you’re not only up against copywriters like me, but a bunch of other people who know that tag lines really do matter. In addition, tag lines are one of the places where a lot of people go wrong early on, and it sets the tone for their entire site. Here are four quick tips to read before you start creating your new tag line: if you start the process with some basic knowledge, it makes the whole thing a lot less stressful.

You Don’t Have To Reinvent the Wheel
This is honestly where lots of people get hung up, even copywriters like me. This is the one instance where I will tell you to try and forget about being unique and different and out of the box: for tag lines, those goals really just jam up the whole process. Honestly, there are only so many words out there, and when you cut the pool down to strong tag line words, it gets even smaller.

You see the same words used over and over again in tag lines for a reason: they are strong, they make an impact, and they tend to flow well. There is no shame in using these words, and if you can come up with a tag line that puts them together in a way that is coherent and makes the right statement, you should be proud of yourself. Save the out of the box stuff for the body of your website.

Think In Three Word Phrases
What do many great tag lines have in common? Three word phrases. If you don’t believe me, think about Nike and McDonald’s. Now, not every great tag line is three words, but it is certainly a nice simple framework to think about. Done right, it can also be an incredibly clear and powerful framework to build a tag line with. If you’re having trouble writing anything down, just draw out three blank spaces on the page and see what happens: you’ll be amazed at the results.

Your Tag Line Is Your Philosophy, Not Your Business
Your tag line should reflect your core philosophy. Most of the time, this isn’t related to what you do. Your potential consumers can figure out what you do from either the name of your company, or the first sentence of your website copy. Don’t waste time on it in your tag line. Instead, use it as a place to make a strong statement about your identity and what you value. Your tag line is the first step to establishing your brand: make it count.

Google Your Exact Phrase To Make Sure It Is Unique
Most of the time, it won’t be. At which point you’ll have to draw out your blanks again and start over. Welcome to the life of a copywriter (I’m mostly joking, I promise). It is very difficult to find a totally unique combination of words, in part because there are seventy billion businesses out there that also all have tag lines with words that are marketing friendly and would also like to sell things. However, starting over is always better than having a copycat tag line.

Per usual, if this all seems like too much work, or gives you a headache just thinking about it, consider hiring an expert.

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