3 ms·

How to choose a tagline for a tech startup

28 points by aledalgrande 14y ago

grantph 14y ago
A good tagline is like much most marketing. Lots of experiments with split testing of multiple taglines to see which one the market responds to the most. As for the comments regarding branding, branding should be always done in-house without an agency. There's a misconception that outsourcing marketing is a good idea but often, the outsourced company doesn't know your business as well as you do. Read the Marketing Game by Eric Shulz(marketing for Coca Cola and Disney). He has some clear opinions about outside agencies. http://www.ericschulz.com/ http://www.ericschulz.com/
- justinchen 14y ago
  Many entrepreneurs use our PickFu service to split test taglines as they iterate on variations. http://www.pickfu.com http://www.pickfu.com
  - grantph 14y ago
    Does PickFu allow inplace split testing like Google Analytics? It seems to be more an independent polling service. My idea of split testing is to always be inplace so the user doesn't realize they're being tested.
    - justinchen 14y ago
      It's more of a polling service that gives you a kind of instant focus group. You ask a question, we'll give you the answers.
- aledalgrande 14y ago
  Wow that's a good tip, will make sure to read it thanks.
- PeterThomson 14y ago
  Eric has some great stuff. He and I disagree on getting expert advice, but we agree about being as practical and pragmatic as possible when creating marketing for a new product: http://www.ericschulz.com/1/post/2012/05/make-your-package-scream-like-a-carnival-barker.html http://www.ericschulz.com/1/post/2012/05/make-your-package-s... I love his stuff.
bobbydavid 14y ago
I like the design on your website, but one thing that bothers me is the big red icons on the top right. As soon as the page loaded, I couldn't help putting my eye over there, before I even saw the title. It felt like I had 3 or 4 facebook notifications I needed to take care of. Maybe it's designed this way to encourage social media use, but I need a chance to look at the page itself before I tweet it out! Hypothetical musing: what about if the dots appeared once I scroll down to the end of the article?
- aledalgrande 14y ago
  Haha I'm not the website author. Agree with you though, I would just use reds for call to actions.
- PeterThomson 14y ago
  Thanks BobbyDavid, the icons are an experiment. I've been using DiggDigg (now owned by the team at Buffer) for social sharing but I needed somewhere to put the links to my profiles (not the links to tweet about the content). "Flare" (by the guys who did Tim Ferris's landing pages) is good, but not quite perfect. I'll keep iterating. Thanks!
guybrushT 14y ago
Its better to have no tag-line as opposed to a bad one. Also I believe a tag-line can convey 'benefits'. Not sure why you would recommend otherwise. Coca-cola's "Deliciously refreshing" worked well. Not sure if you consider 'ad slogan' to be the same as a tagline, but some of these are good examples: http://www.winspiration.co.uk/slogans.htm http://www.winspiration.co.uk/slogans.htm

28 points by aledalgrande 14y ago

A good tagline is like much most marketing. Lots of experiments with split testing of multiple taglines to see which one the market responds to the most. As for the comments regarding branding, branding should be always done in-house without an agency. There's a misconception that outsourcing marketing is a good idea but often, the outsourced company doesn't know your business as well as you do. Read the Marketing Game by Eric Shulz(marketing for Coca Cola and Disney). He has some clear opinions about outside agencies. http://www.ericschulz.com/ http://www.ericschulz.com/

justinchen 14y ago
Many entrepreneurs use our PickFu service to split test taglines as they iterate on variations. http://www.pickfu.com http://www.pickfu.com
- grantph 14y ago
  Does PickFu allow inplace split testing like Google Analytics? It seems to be more an independent polling service. My idea of split testing is to always be inplace so the user doesn't realize they're being tested.
  - justinchen 14y ago
    It's more of a polling service that gives you a kind of instant focus group. You ask a question, we'll give you the answers.
aledalgrande 14y ago
Wow that's a good tip, will make sure to read it thanks.
PeterThomson 14y ago
Eric has some great stuff. He and I disagree on getting expert advice, but we agree about being as practical and pragmatic as possible when creating marketing for a new product: http://www.ericschulz.com/1/post/2012/05/make-your-package-scream-like-a-carnival-barker.html http://www.ericschulz.com/1/post/2012/05/make-your-package-s... I love his stuff.

bobbydavid 14y ago

I like the design on your website, but one thing that bothers me is the big red icons on the top right. As soon as the page loaded, I couldn't help putting my eye over there, before I even saw the title. It felt like I had 3 or 4 facebook notifications I needed to take care of. Maybe it's designed this way to encourage social media use, but I need a chance to look at the page itself before I tweet it out! Hypothetical musing: what about if the dots appeared once I scroll down to the end of the article?

aledalgrande 14y ago
Haha I'm not the website author. Agree with you though, I would just use reds for call to actions.
PeterThomson 14y ago
Thanks BobbyDavid, the icons are an experiment. I've been using DiggDigg (now owned by the team at Buffer) for social sharing but I needed somewhere to put the links to my profiles (not the links to tweet about the content). "Flare" (by the guys who did Tim Ferris's landing pages) is good, but not quite perfect. I'll keep iterating. Thanks!

guybrushT 14y ago

Its better to have no tag-line as opposed to a bad one. Also I believe a tag-line can convey 'benefits'. Not sure why you would recommend otherwise. Coca-cola's "Deliciously refreshing" worked well. Not sure if you consider 'ad slogan' to be the same as a tagline, but some of these are good examples: http://www.winspiration.co.uk/slogans.htm http://www.winspiration.co.uk/slogans.htm