How to Write a Slogan:
To write a winning slogan, you'll need to do some digging to pinpoint precisely what your value proposition is. Once you know this, you can start coming up with ideas on how to package it in a snappy one-liner.
Use the following steps to guide you through the process, from research and brainstorming to editing and testing slogans.
Do some research.
Understand your brand.
Reflect on your company history and read over your mission, vision, and values statements. Beyond knowing what your company is about, you'll want to establish its brand personality and what gives it its edge.
Check out the competiton.
Have a look at how your competitors are positioning themselves in the market and what they are promising their customers. Learning about your competitors will help you identify what makes your business different.
Learn about your audience.
Find out who your target audience is and what is important to them. Understanding what your audience likes, values, and needs can provide the insight you need to formulate a slogan that resonates with them.
Define a key benefit.
Using your research, identify what makes your company and brand different from its competitors, the unique appeal and key benefit(s) your business offers, and how you want customers to feel about your brand. Then, distill this into a single idea — your brand's value proposition — that you want your slogan to convey.
Come up with slogan ideas.
List key words and concepts.
Make a list of words, concepts, and phrases that relate to your business and value proposition. When doing so, consider your brand's personality and the language of your audience.
Depending on this, you may want to add informal wording and colloquialisms to your list. However, avoid complicated jargon and big words.
Brainstorm ideas.
Using your research and list of related words and concepts for inspiration, jot down rough taglines or messages that convey your value proposition.
You can also add your keywords to a slogan generator to get more ideas.
Create a shortlist.
Read over your list of ideas and consider which have the potential to become a punchy slogan for your business. Select the top five ideas you'd like to refine.
Write your slogan.
Refine your ideas.
Work on each of your shortlisted ideas, playing around with the words and phrasing to come up with a clear, clever, and catchy line that conveys your brand's value proposition.
What to do:
- Keep it short — ideally between three and five words.
- Make it easy to remember.
- Keep it simple.
- Create an emotional connection.
- Make it attention-grabbing — it should spark interest.
What to avoid:
- Clichés.
- Dishonesty, including making promises you can't keep.
- Copying competitors.
- Big words.
- Complex ideas.
- Ambiguity.
You can draw inspiration from real-life and fictional stories to help you create an emotional hook and explore opportunities for wordplay to add a humorous twist.
Ensure the slogans align with your brand.
Look at your initial brand research and check if your slogan ideas relate to your brand and match its distinct style, tone, and personality.
Check for negative connotations.
Review your ideas with a critical eye, looking out for anything that could be misinterpreted, has negative connotations, or may be deemed inappropriate.
Select a slogan.
Test your top ideas.
Before making a final choice, test your slogan ideas on employees and customers to get some feedback. You may learn about some unexpected associations people make with the slogans, good or bad, and find out whether they are likable, resonate with people, and convey the key benefit of your brand or product.
Don't be disheartened if none of your ideas strike gold — use the feedback you get to polish up the audience favorites until there is a clear winner that you are happy to move forward with.
Launch your new slogan.
Now that you've chosen a slogan, it's time to include it in your marketing messages and materials. Add your slogan to your logo, selecting a font that complements the logo design.
Carefully plan a marketing campaign that drives home the key message of your slogan. This may include ads that demonstrate the benefit, competitions that engage customers on the topic, and adapting the customer journey to align with the promise your slogan makes.
