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Building a brand is an intentional process that incorporates elements like visual identity, writing tone, and color palettes. For solo entrepreneurs and small businesses owners, slogans can be a big step in developing a brand identity. They help you communicate your values to customers and make your business and services stand out. Slogans can also become an integral part of your marketing and social media campaigns.
Read on to learn more about what makes a good slogan and how to come up with one that sets your brand apart.
What is a brand slogan?
A slogan is a sentence or phrase that helps people notice and recognize your brand, services, or products. These are short—a phrase, a sentence, or at most a few short sentences—and should be unique and easy to remember. Slogans always have a positive tone because the goal is to make customers feel good about your brand.
You can use brand slogans in many different ways and places. For example, they are commonly used in promotion campaigns, in particular via email marketing or social media. Slogans are also useful on websites for added branding reinforcement.
What’s the difference between a tagline and a slogan?
Slogans and taglines are both concise statements that represent your brand identity. Business owners often use a tagline to convey their mission. As a result taglines are often straightforward and more descriptive than slogans.
Taglines also tend to be permanent, while slogans can change as your marketing strategies shift and evolve. A slogan may only apply to one marketing campaign, while a tagline will live on your website long-term. For example, a furniture designer might have a tagline like, “Modern designs to make you feel at home,” but use the slogan “Designed for calm” in a marketing campaign.
Types of slogans
Major companies often create brand slogans for advertising campaigns to sell goods (fast food, candy, clothing, groceries) and services (insurance, software services). But slogans have applications outside of sales or promotional activities.
Types of slogans include:
Business slogan: Think of these slogans as your calling card. These tend to be broad and summarize your brand or business. For example, a freelance editor might create a slogan highlighting the accuracy of their services, like "Powerful PR made simple" or "Perfect paragraphs, every time."
Advertising slogan: A slogan can promote your entire business or one aspect of your services. A salon might have a slogan for holiday deals, while other businesses might come up with a slogan for seasonal discounts, like “Spring into savings" or "Deals for days."
Descriptive slogan: These describe what your business does or who you are and communicate your value proposition. Nutritionists frequently use descriptive slogans to summarize their approach to their work, like "Healthy eating made simple" or "We help you look and feel your best."
Persuasive slogan: These slogans are written to convince someone to work with you or use your services. A potential customer should read this and get the sense your brand is the solution to a particular need they have. For example, "Find your bliss in a busy world," for a spa.
Emotive slogan: These slogans are often empowering and inspire people to feel a certain way. For example, environmentally conscious businesses may want a slogan that touts their sustainability efforts, like “Go green, because the Earth matters.”
Creative slogan: These slogans emphasize your distinctive approach to operations and capture your brand in a unique way. These are less straightforward, so they can be the most difficult to write. A copywriting agency might use, “We have the write stuff,” or a tourism board might use "California cool never looked so good.”
Is a slogan necessary for a small business?
Although many people are familiar with slogans because major corporations use them, a slogan is also valuable to small businesses. But whether it’s necessary for your business depends on your circumstances. If your business is brand new or a secondary side hustle, a slogan may not be a top priority. But if you’re looking to develop your business, a slogan can help you:
Distinguish your brand from others. Especially when you’re working to gain traction in your market, a slogan can help you stand out and communicate your brand identity.
Create deeper connections with customers. Customers like to feel good about the businesses they work with and support. A slogan that appeals to the emotional side of people can tap into that.
Enhance your brand recognition. A well-written slogan becomes associated with your business. This familiarity is a good thing. When people need a service or have a problem to solve, it’ll help you be top of mind.
Complement other marketing strategies. A slogan can strengthen your marketing strategies. For example, many brands incorporate slogans into their logo or advertising artwork. Social media campaigns are also excellent places to incorporate slogans, either via text or graphics.
When might it be helpful to have a slogan?
Don't feel pressured to come up with a slogan for the sake of it. As with the rest of your brand identity, being intentional about when and why you need a slogan is important. You might want to have a slogan when you're:
Debuting an advertising campaign: Ad campaigns, particularly ones tied to a holiday or season, are ideal places to use a catchy slogan.
Launching a product or service: This is another ideal time to have a slogan. You want to make sure customers are aware of your new offerings, and a snappy phrase is a great way to draw attention to your business.
Ramping up your marketing activities: When your business is in a growth phase, a slogan emphasizing one aspect of your services can help strengthen your messaging.
Introducing a rebrand: A brand refresh is a great opportunity to incorporate a slogan.
How to come up with a slogan
It's more difficult than you might think to write concise copy that makes an impact. Although slogans are short, it can take time to get them right. Here are some tips for creating a memorable slogan.
Know what you want to say. Before you start, consider what you want your audience to remember about your brand. This will help create some guidelines for brainstorming.
Have a dedicated brainstorming session. Coming up with a slogan is an iterative process. Sit down and come up with some potential ideas. Write everything down; there are no bad ideas at this phase.
Conduct market research. You'll want to stay away from using slogans similar to the ones used by other businesses in your niche, as this can cause confusion.
Align slogans with your marketing strategy/plan. Your marketing strategy and marketing plan provide guidance for your business activities, including slogans. For example, you can tie a slogan to a planned promotional push or a sale on a specific product.
Think about where you want to use the slogan. As you're thinking of slogans, consider how you want to use them. For example, you could create bespoke graphics using the slogan or come up with a social media campaign with a hashtag or contest around your slogan.
Plan ahead. Even though a slogan is often temporary, you want to be intentional about its usage. Perhaps you might modify your slogan to fit different advertising campaigns over a given year. Planning ahead can save you time later.
Take your brainstormed slogans and use the list above to narrow down your options. Which choices fit the message you want to share and feel original? Are they fitting for how and where you plan to use them?
5 characteristics of a good slogan
Great slogans all share certain traits. These parameters can guide your brainstorming as you come up with ideas and help you choose the strongest one from your final contenders.
Short, specific, and easy to remember: A slogan isn't a lengthy summary, but something that succinctly emphasizes key parts of your brand and business.
Unique to the brand: If your slogan is too similar to other slogans, it won't be as successful. Your business might be confused with another. Or you could run into legal issues if your slogan resembles a phrase that's trademarked.
Has purpose and is intentional: Don't create a slogan randomly because every other business you see is doing it. Make sure your slogan aligns with specific goals or business activities.
Possesses a meaningful message: Slogans can be creative, but they should be connected in some way to your brand or business. If a slogan is too random or disconnected, people might not associate it with you.
Clear and accessible: People want to feel welcomed by brands. If your slogan is too clever or not easily understood, it can alienate potential customers.
Friendly to its audience: One person's humorous joke could be another person's offensive insult. When in doubt, err on the side of neutrality.