How is a tagline perceived?
Its given more importance than another short  statements in your marketing materials or website.  Visitors realize that takes a higher commitment to the idea to put it in your tagline, so they’ll put  more importance on your tagline than other  statements.

What does a tagline really do?
On your website, it sets the tone (creates a starting  point) for the “conversation” that takes place on your  website.  It plants a thought in the visitor’s head –  one you want there — so they will look for proof of  what the tagline suggests about your company.

Its Value to Your Business

1. Positioning – a tagline can quickly establish your  positioning in your marketplace relative to  competitors as well as on your own.
2. Shortcut – it creates a shortcut in one area of  your marketing content, by placing an ending  conclusion first.  If the visitor trusts your company,  you may save yourself some sales time.
3. Foundational – it creates a strong foundation for  the rest of your marketing pitch.  A well chosen  tagline can create momentum in a sales situation  and create faster understanding of your unique value  proposition in the eyes of the visitor.

Creating A Tagline – Your Selection Process Needs To Be Complete
Most companies dive straight into creating a tagline  without considering the foundation on which it  should be based.
Consider how these taglines (examples) can solve a specific  business challenge:
1) Not your average ____ company (breaks the  perception of your product being a commodity)
2) Helping _____ business to grow (breaks the  assumption that your product / service is only for the  “other” types of businesses)

Why does your selection process need to be complete? Otherwise you’ll waste some incredibly valuable real estate on a catch phrase that doesn’t'  address your most significant sales cycle gaps.  Here are some key steps:

1. Consider your competitive landscape
2. List your company strengths
3. Analyze your customer segments
4. Give yourself options prior to debating which is  the best one

We’ve seen it work
In many client situations, we seen the tagline  building process bring a much broader focus to  clients online efforts.    Armed with a large number  of ideas and a framework for choosing between  them, AftertheNet has witnessed management teams (or single managers) produce highly focused and  powerful taglines which have a big impact at the  start of a visitor’s successful flow to conversion on their  website.

For most organizations, positioning can play a big role in creating advantage when competition is a key issue.

Many times, a prospect is not just looking for a single product.  They are also looking to engage and test a relationship with anorganization for more long term needs.  This is a critical type of prospect for your company: they have long term revenue value and provide greater margins over time as selling is no longer required (like any returning customer situation).

While working with clients, AftertheNet helps them explore the right strategy for positioning their company in the market place.

The factors which affect positioning decisions include:

• competitive situation
• pricing point of products / services
• critical features for their customers

Companies have a difficult choice in positioning their brands in the marketplace.  They often avoid positioning out of fear of narrowing their customer base and thereby reducing their opportunity.

Our approach is to treat your brand positioning as more of a voyage rather than a one time tactical step

Consider this new angle on your company branding:

Is there a particular area in which your company excels:

• The customer service part
• The delivery of product or services
• The post purchase support side
• Anything else

Consider putting that strength front and centre in your tagline or opening branding statement.

Why is this important?

If you have larger competitors, often you’re the second or third company that people are looking at.  Immediately, your company is on a defensive footing in the sales process — struggling to stand out in a comparison shopping situation.

Creating a strong positioning statement around your core advantage area will give your company some of that control back:

• By creating a clear picture of your distinct advantage in the marketplace
• By connecting more strongly with those prospects who regard that area of strength most highly

This approach to positioning doesn’t narrow your company’s market opportunity –  it only creates a stronger starting footing in a competitive sales process.

What purpose can branding play in your business strategy in 2010?

Driving Visibility
Stronger Competitive Positioning
Improve Sales Efficiency
Support Value Perception
Build Trust and Credibility

How is your brand important to your business:

• Generating leads for your business
• Creating another advantage in competitive sales situations
• Speeding up the sales process
• Creating a higher value perception beyond product to company
• Meeting the trust threshold among prospects to allow deals to close

A lot of your brand gets built on your website:

Your most detailed brand development can happen on your website

• It can be multidimensional
• It can be specific to different segments
• It can be geared towards multiple goals

The key to powerful online branding: Start from goals
Our studies of branding in many industries suggests that it should start from business goals and challenges.
With those in mind, the focus exists to create a more focused and valuable brand building strategy.

The harder decisions become easier when you know:

• the audiences your brand is targeting
• the role your brand plays in your sales process
• how your brand needs to create competitive strength

Your company has a clear opportunity to start 2010 on a stronger footing in large part driven by a clearer branding strategy on your website.   Leverage this asset that you already have to increase your business effectiveness in multiple ways.

It seems like every day that we’re in a discussion with customers who want to start using discounts or special offers to get people to buy their premium services. We don’t stop customers from using whatever means they think is right. But we do suggest taking a look another a possible cause for atleast a significant portion of sales of higher priced items.

We’re not saying its not logical to take another look at your prices or product line. But there a big chunk of the population that’s still working and/or has plenty spending power. But they’re not just looking for potential value. They’re looking for a higher probabilty of value — meaning they’re more risk averse.  If they have doubts about your ability to deliver, the likelihood of purchase drops even faster with price.  It’s not that people aren’t willing to spend on higher ticket items, its just they want higher certainty of value.

Your challenge in this economy is not just to prove the value of your products or services. You also have to give prospects a stronger sense that you can deliver that value. Our approach with our clients, is to break down the resistence points by all dimensions: product lines and user segments.  This allows a more tactical use of discounting or offers versus using credibility and branding techniques to address doubts among those who can still afford your regular prices.