Ever wonder how it could take a writer so long to write two or three words ... or why they charged you hundreds of dollars for them? Get a sneak peek into the cranium of a tagline maestro and discover the method behind the madness.
I used to get squeamish whenever a client asked, "How much for a tagline?" If the client doesn't know the value of a strong, brand-focused tagline, any amount of money sounds ridiculous.
But distilling the essence of a company or mission into a few hearty syllables is no easy task. So on behalf of content strategists, marketing consultants, brand experts, and copywriters everywhere, I'm pulling back the curtain on this mysterious process (or at least, mine), hoping the muscle behind those pithy words gets some flexing time.
1. I review the clients website and marketing materials, pasting the highlights in a "Notes" document, so I can have it all in one place.
2. Next, I Google. Competitors. Prospects. Target markets. The usual. I'm looking for language, emotional triggers, repetitive dreck, and key concepts done fresh.
3. Now to my personal resource library I go. Branding, archetypes, messaging. The goal? To soak in words and ideas connected to the Client's core values. Key words jump out at me, then march dutifully across my legal pad in rows, columns, and impulsive diagonals.
4. I go to my notes doc and thesaurus words like a madwoman. Sweat beads upon my brow. I'm looking for hot combos, unexpected angles, distinctive words and an authentic link between the Client and its new direction. I may cackle. Grunt. Twitch. It's involuntary.
5. Now I go into "Pluck ‘n Play" mode. (My favorite step!) I take the most powerful words and combos, then see what they look like as stand-alone Finalists. Tweaks, trade-offs, and lots of ruthless deleting ensue.
6. This is the hardest part: I walk away. It's a struggle because I'm obsessed at this point, and can't stop the churn of the word puzzles whizzing through my neuro-receptors. Alas, I must.
7. Fifteen minutes to a day later, I read the Finalists out loud. Then I pester my husband/business partner to read them aloud as I watch his face. (I can tell if he thinks one falls short. He tightens his lips, and scrunches his nose ever-so-slightly!)
8. Down to 8-12 Finalists. Strike, cut, chop – the lamest stragglers get the axe. (Spoken aloud, each preceded by the name of the Client's business, the bum ones stand out like sore thumbs.) What remains is a couple "out there" candidates, a couple "on the nose" ones, and a few middle-ground options.
9. With fingers crossed and heightened hopes, the taglines are released into the wild. Off to the Client they go!Sometimes I get the call, "Yup! They're going with the third one!" That's a good day. Other times, I get asked to send along a few from the cutting room floor. All this is taken in stride.
And in the end, I've got two to three words that have earned me a few hundred bucks.
(I should charge more, don't you think?)
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