We are all familiar with taglines, especially the most notable and iconic ones. 7-Up is “the uncola”. Nike wants you to “just do it” Chevy trucks are “like a rock.” General Electric says “we bring good things to life.” Taco Bell wants us to “think outside the bun.” Just because you own a small business website and not a large corporation, does not mean that you cannot benefit from the use of a tagline.

A tagline can give the name of your small business website an extra meaning and possibly pique the interest of potential customers. Coming up with the ideal tagline takes creativity, brain power and patience. You don’t want to rush out and use the first thing that pops into your head. The use of a tagline that isn’t well thought out could backfire and become a turn off for customers.

Here are a few points to consider when creating a tagline for your own website, be it a small business, nonprofit or an organization.

1. Be clear in your message. A confusing tagline serves little purpose other than leaving people scratching their heads. For example, if your small business website is called the Child Professor and sells educational toys, a poor tagline may read “this game’s for you.” You want your tagline to clearly reflect what your small business is about. With this example, a much better tagline would be “learning through play.”
2. Do not be overly clever. There is a difference between being catchy and being clever. Catchy taglines will stick in the mind of customers, while being clever is a slippery slope, as it may go too far and lead to confusion. Using the above example, an overly clever tagline may sound something like “brain power in a box.” The message is trying to convey that the games sold by this small business will make children smart, but it just doesn’t properly reflect the nature of the business.
3. Do not make over-the-top statements. A tagline should not make promises that cannot be kept. In the educational toy store example, a tagline like “create your own Einstein” borderlines on falsehood. Sure, there may be that one special child who plays with these toys and grows up to be a genius, but the rest of the children are merely learning new skills through play and will go through life with average IQ levels.
4. Do not pigeon hole your small business with a narrow tagline. Businesses are constantly evolving, and it would be unfortunate to be married to a tagline that focuses on a specific element of your small business. Ponder the possibilities of how you might want to expand your small business in the future before devising your tagline. Using our example, if they began the small business just selling board games and created a tagline of “board games for the brain,” it would not be very relevant when expanding the scope of their business to sell the myriad of other educational toys out there.
5. Create many taglines and test them. Try to come up with a number of taglines for your small business and run them past employees, friends and family. The tagline that may be your favorite might not resonate with your focus group. Think about what the customers would want, and go with the one that is most popular.

Creating a tagline is not necessarily a quick process. The perfect tagline is a valuable marketing tool, so take your time and be open to suggestions. Think it through, and you will no doubt come up with a winner for your small business.