How to create the perfect tagline for your startup
3 steps to help you form the perfect tagline for your startup
Hey there š,
Hope that you had a great week, and welcome to Startup Growth Diaries!
Today, Iām diving into one of the most challenging yet essential tasks for every startup: creating the perfect tagline. šļø
A tagline isnāt just a catchy phrase; itās a concise embodiment of your companyās mission, value, and vision. Itās the first impression you make, the one-liner that sticks in your audienceās mind, and the anchor for your brand identity.
But how do you distill everything your company stands for into just a few wordsš¤? Thatās the question Iāll help you answer today, as we break down the process of crafting a tagline thatās clear, memorable, and powerfully aligned with your startupās story.
In this newsletter, Iāll walk you through a quick case study using Canva, the beloved design tool, to demonstrate how to build a compelling tagline from their story and brand usage.
I'll also share examples of other companies and how they nailed their taglines.
Letās get started! š
1ļøā£ Know your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)
To create a strong tagline, you first need a clear understanding of what your company does well for its customers, what makes you unique, and how your approach to solving the problem stands out from existing solutions. In other words, you need to define your unique selling proposition (USP).
If you havenāt aligned on a clear USP with all relevant stakeholders, that should be your first priority before moving forward.
For example, when I looked at Canvaās mission statement, it was clear: their mission is to empower everyone to design and easily publish anywhere. Without Canva, most people would probably need to hire a graphic designer for small design tasks, such as creating a social post or a simple banner.
2ļøā£ Choose your ESP (Emotional Selling Proposition)
Defining your USP is important, but this is not enough to create your aspired tagline. In order to really create a great tagline, we also need to decide - how do we want our potential and existing customers to feel about our product?
In order to define that, companies use the Emotional Hierarchy for brands.
Brand emotional hierarchy is built just like the known Maslow Hierarchy of Needs, and works on the same principal - the base refers to the most basic emotions while the top refers to something greater that one self.
As you can see the pyramid also divided to āself-centeredā which refers to most companies, and as a startup that is usually where you will also be. The ābeyond selfā refers to brands that managed to created something bigger than their product - like Nikeās āJust do itā or Appleās āThink Differentā. Some companies like financial ones, will want to lead with control and safety, some companies will want to make you feel some sense of community and belongings while other will want to make you feel the most productive.
š You should choose the feeling that is right for YOUR customers (more examples will follow).
In this case, we already know Canvaās tagline - āWhat will you design today?ā. We can tell that Canva used āEsteemā and took the āProductivityā part to lead for the emotion they wanted to make customers feel. āļø
Canva is talking to small business, owners or creative teams that want to go faster or actually - anyone that donāt have the full design resources or skills. Thatās why Canva is talking about Productivity as this process used to be so long, frustrating and all you want to do is just this small task and finish it today.
3ļøā£ Now letās combine them together (USP+ESP=Buyer)
The next and final step, is where the magic really happens. When we manage to connect our USP and whats so good about our product together with the emotion that we want to make our users feel.
or in other words - ESP + USP = your buyers heart ā¤ļø
āļø Canvaās USP - Anyone can create professional designs.
āļø Canvaās ESP - As you want to scale, we help you be much more productive.
So letās combine the two together and we will get - What will you design today?
It may sound simple, but every word in this tagline has been engineered and thatās the hardest to do. Create something simple that can contain all of what you want to tell and make people feel. Letās break it down -
āļø What will youā - Very personal, talks about YOU as the creator and combine curiousity.
āļø āDesignā - This is what you can do with our product.
āļø āTodayā - Itās fast and productive, you can create it quickly today. Also gives you the feeling of returning back, and a call to action.
And here are some more examples and examples of how different companies are using different approaches and emotions to set tell their company stories with a simple tagline -
Beehiiv
āļøUSP = A newsletter platform, giving all the right tools for people who want to start a newsletter.
āļø ESP = Creation/Growth
ā Tagline - Own your audience. Own your future.
Beehiiv really used the growth emotion of someone want to start their own newsletter and start to create and own their own audience. They know that they are talking to someone who inspires to create their own audience and if they will be successful, their own future, and they really used that in their tagline.
Ramp
āļø USP = Financial service that will consolidate all your company spend management in one place while leveraging automation and insights.
āļø ESP = Productivity
ā Tagline - Time is money. Save both.
Ramp really nailed their tagline as speaking to finance managers who we all know, always looking to save costs for their company, and telling them that this product is exactly what they need to be more efficient and more productive.
Github
āļø USP = A collaboration tool to write code.
āļø ESP = Belonging.
ā Tagline - Letās build from here.
Github is probable the no.1 brand in the world for being known as their community and belonging feeling (as you can find their stickers on your friendly engineer laptop).
They chose to give a feeling of belonging, while using them youāre part of a bigger community of builders.
Apple
āļø USP = The best computers, phones, and more
āļø ESP = Beyond self (Inspiration)
ā Tagline - Think Different
Apple is one of those companies that their brand is so strong and emotional, itās segmented under āBeyond selfā. If with all other products we usually take the emotion and combine it with our product and whatās in it for our costumer, here we are looking beyond that. We are looking at something that is bigger than the product and bigger that the actual immediate value of our users.
This privilege is really given to top companies in the world like Nikeās āJust do itā, McDonaldās āIām loving itā and more.
And thatās it for this weekās Startup Growth Diaries! š I hope you found these examples inspiring and that they spark some fresh ideas for your own startup growth journey.
If you enjoyed this newsletter, donāt forget to hit the Like or Share buttons below ā„ļø.
Catch you next week with more pages from the diary!
Until then, keep growing š
Idan
