Make Taglines Work for You

Readers use taglines to decide if an article is worth their time. A great tagline can drive traffic to the articles you want people to find. To grab your audience’s attention be innovative and use words that put a fresh, new, and exciting spin on your stories. You audience will respond.

A tagline is a one line sentence that describes an article in a nutshell. Think of it as a very short commercial for your content. Taglines need to be informative, punchy, and short. Readers are looking for content that pertains to their lives and experiences. A well-written tagline will help them find it.

To write a good tagline you need to think like an advertiser. Use active language, uncomplicated structure and sell your content. The trick is to do all of this in the short space most sites have for taglines. A few ways to incorporate big ideas into small spaces are:

1. Use numbers. Numbers can reduce any task to simple steps. They help the reader see exactly what will be expected of them in the article and lets them make a decision on whether or not the outcome will be fast enough for them. Ex. 7 steps to a brighter smile.
2. Don’t be afraid to make promises if you can back them up. If you promise something that will change their lives, readers will want to know more. Just make sure you aren’t making empty promises that you can’t deliver on. Ex. A revolutionary workout
3. Offer surprising information or inside scoop. Everybody wants to be an insider. If you have the latest information on your topic, let your audience know. Your readers want to be ‘in the know’. Ex. The hottest trends in home furnishings
4. Leave your audience guessing. If you can tug their interest but leave them guessing, you leave your audience with a strong desire to find out the rest of the story. Be informative in your tagline, but don’t give everything away.
5. Personalize as much as possible. Make it relevant to your audience’s lives and their experiences. Answer the question, “what’s in it for me?” Ex. How can YOU look your best!
6. Identify specific needs. Wherever possible, show how your content holds the solution to situations that your readers are facing. Get specific. Ex. Don’t waste another sleepless night
7. Pay attention to current trends. If it’s hot in popular culture, you’ll see it everywhere. See if there is a way to tie your content to the trends of the day. Just be careful not to ‘bait and switch’ * Ex. Anything to do with the current carb craze.

* ‘Bait and switch’ refers to the practice of offering one thing and supplying something completely different. It can be tempting to use a tagline that promises something really trendy and then linking it to an article that barely meets that description. ‘Bait and switch’ borders on outright dishonesty, annoys people very quickly and will cost you traffic. It is a tactic best left out of your arsenal.