Developing a Tag Line for Your Business

Recently at a VA forum we were discussing developing taglines for your business.

There is a fantastic book called ‘Seven Second Marketing’ written by Ivan Misner who is the founder of BNI. It’s about how to use memory hooks or how to make you instantly stand out in a crowd.

My own ‘memory hook’ really works best in my own country and for those of you who haven’t read my blog posts from 2006, perhaps this is a good time to explain something. My business name is “A Clayton’s Secretary” and the memory hook is ‘the secretary you need when you haven’t got a secretary’ (trademarked).

What that means is this: In the 1980s there was a non-alcoholic drink being advertised with Jack Thompson in the adverts. He would go into a bar and order a Claytons – the drink you had when you weren’t having a drink. The term caught on and thereafter a ‘claytons’ was the thing you had when you didn’t have the real thing. (You’ll even find a description of this use in Wikipedia under Appearance in Popular Culture)

When I was first starting my business I didn’t have a name but I was writing a brochure and finished it off with ‘let me be the secretary you need when you haven’t got a secretary’. Immediately my business name came to me and I went and registered it a day or so later.

The name has been with me ever since and many who have lived in Australia and are now overseas know what it means – I’m gradually educating everyone else! I started out as a homebased secretary but things change over time, don’t they?  It’s been the perfect ‘umbrella’ name for a network of VAs, rather than just a single operator as I started out.

Sometimes your memory hook can come before your name, just as mine did, but if you’re stuck with ideas, then I encourage you to get Ivan’s book. He’s got lots of stories and examples that should help you. You can get the book by clicking on the image.