Tuesday, October 5, 2010

To Make Your Small Business Memorable Use a Tagline

The one overriding goal of your small business’s marketing efforts, especially during a start-up phase, is to be noticed, is to be memorable in the eyes of customers or potential customers. You achieve being memorable by finding something your customers or potential customers can identify with, an image that you can own. Then you deliver that image --- your marketing message --- in a unique and memorable way, that is, in a way that is different from your competitors.

One way you can present your marketing message in a unique way is to have a memorable tagline or slogan and promote the heck out of it. “You’re in good hands with…” I don’t even have to complete the phrase; it is instantly recognizable as the tagline that Allstate Insurance has been using for decades.

A memorable tagline that means something to your customers or potential customers --- particularly if it has emotional impact, like Allstate’s --- is a great shorthand way to define your business, to differentiate yourself from the competition, and to build identity over time.

I can’t emphasize enough that your tagline must clearly be different from any taglines your competitors use; to sound like them is to promote them instead of yourself. At the same time, keep in mind that it has to make sense, it has to be instantly understandable. A too cute tagline may send mixed messages (mean different things to different people) and can be worse than no tagline at all.

Dave Ramacitti is co-founder and chief content developer for Marketing Over Easy, a new website dedicated to helpi9ng small businesses be smarter marketers.

To receive a free copy of our information-packed special report “58 Free & Low Cost Tricks to Effectively Promote Your New Small Business” visit us at www.marketingovereasy.com.

© 2010 by David F. Ramacitti. Excerpted from The All-Important Stuff You Gotta Do First to Effectively Market Your Small Business © 2009 by David F. Ramacitti.