Do Blogs Need Tag Lines?
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Question: Should Blogs Have Tag Lines?
When CocaCola was a young softdrink company, they were faced with a problem. People would hear about “CocaCola” or read its sign on the roads - but they wouldn’t know what it meant. They had no idea what CocaCola was and what they should do with it.
So some smart marketing executive at CocaCola came up with a solution. Tag one single word to all the billboards and other advertisements. The tag word was very simple. And it told people exactly what CocaCola is and what they should do with it. The tag word?
“Drink”
CocaCola started adding “Drink CocaCola” to all their ads.
Over the years, CocaCola dropped its tag word from their ads. But without it in their initial days, they would have had a much harder time making people realize what they were about.
Unfortunately, not many products - especially blogs - can convey their message with just one word. A whole line is usually required. The Tag Line is the answer.
Purpose of a Blog Tag Line
Just like CocaCola’s tag word, the purpose of your blog tag line is simple:
Your tag line helps people know what your blog is about.
The benefits of having a tag line for your blog:
- A tag line will increase your blog page views
- It’ll help people know what your blog is about and why they should read more of it than a 1001 other blogs
- It’ll keep them on your blog for longer durations
- A tag line is a re-inforcer. It’ll help build a stronger association in their brains - leading to them remembering your blog better
Three Steps to Create a Powerful Tag Line:
1. Mention what your blog offers
2. Mention how you take care of the downside (optional)
3. Don’t mention anything else.
These rules were conceived by de-constructing the best tag line of all time:
“Fresh Hot Pizza in 30 Minutes or Its Free!”
Important: Don’t try to be witty or creative with your tag lines. It just doesn’t work unless you’re willing to spend a few million dollars in promoting that tag line.
Tag Line Evaluation Test
How do you know that the tag line you’ve come up with is good or not? There is a simple trick that helps you evaluate tag lines. And that is:
Would you buy a book with that tag line as the title?
If the answer is No - go back to the dashboard. And come up with another tag line.
Action Summary:
- Come up with a short concise tag line for your own blog too.
(Disclosure: I’ve substituted my tag line as the name of this blog. The blog name was going to be “BlogClout”. And the tag line was going to be “How To Grow Your Blog Traffic.” But I changed it at the last moment because I’ll be using the name BlogClout with some other applications too. And didn’t want to over-extend that name and confuse readers. So thats why my tag line ended up being the blog title.)
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Where did you get the cocacola image from?
Posted 21 Jun 2007 #
Thanks for asking Jamie. I got the image from one of the stock image sites in 2005. Don’t remember which one right now. But I had made a post on CocaCola in 2005 on another blog of mine - and had used this same picture there.
Posted 21 Jun 2007 #
Haha. Glad to see you posted an article on this after we discussed it for a while. I’m still trying to think of a good tag line for my blog.
Posted 21 Jun 2007 #
Thanks Jared.
I always find that its easier to answer questions than write posts. Hence, most of my blog posts are based on discussions I’ve had with others or questions I’ve answered on online forums.
Posted 22 Jun 2007 #
Hi
Read my blog post on taglines at:
http://www.rajeshshakya.com/tagline-your-brand-mantra.htm
Rajesh Shakya
Posted 22 Jun 2007 #
Thanks Rajesh for posting your link.
While your post has some good information, the examples you share don’t pass the tag line test. Most of the tag lines in your list aren’t good at all. They are just fluffy words.
You’ve got to separate the tagline from the brand name and see if it has meaning left. Would you buy a book with that name? If all you heard was the tag line without the brand name, would you be willing to find out more about the product and buy it?
Tag lines like a_?Setting the Standardsa_? and a_?a_?and Youa_Tre Donea_? are meaningless.
Posted 23 Jun 2007 #
[…] Do Blogs need Taglines […]
Posted 31 Aug 2007 #
I totally believe in having taglines. It helps with the branding process and if you come up with a good one, you’ll impress first time visitors!
Posted 14 Apr 2008 #
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Posted 09 Aug 2008 #