Craft a Tagline That Moves People to Take Action [Computers in Libraries]

You have the potential to position your library and to impact specific programs, fundraising campaigns, and special events in a flash by crafting the right messages. Any type of library that sends relevant and memorable messages can join the cohort of healthy organizations whose taglines help to build awareness of their value and keep them firmly in audiences' hearts, minds, schedules, and wallets. And you can do it no matter what your level of marketing expertise is. Here's how.

Your Name Alone Just Isn't Enough

You face this challenge on a regular basis: You've got to explain in a few words what your library offers and why those programs and services are valuable. That's what taxpayers, university leaders, the town councilors, and other budget decision makers are always wondering, right? Many organizations, libraries included, expect their names to broadcast that value. Trouble is, it just doesn't happen that way very often.

That's where your library's tagline-those vital eight words or fewer-comes in. It can complement your library's name and clarify people's perceptions (or misperceptions) to convey its unique impact or value in the community you serve with personality, passion, and commitment. It's the haiku of your marketing messages.

When it's crafted well, a tagline is a meaningful message that connects with your target audiences and motivates them to take the actions you need.

In fact, a high-impact tagline is the simplest and most effective tool to communicate your brand. Using a great tagline is the best way to freshen up your messages, to emphasize your commitment to your work, to revive outdated positioning, and to build interest in your current programs, events, and even fundraising campaigns.

Here are two strong examples of powerful messages. Both have won Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards.

"The Quickest Way from Q to A!"

University of West Florida Libraries

The UWF Libraries' tagline was submitted as an entry in a student contest and highlights the value that librarians have (and that the internet doesn't).

"Spread the words."

Edmonton Public Library

Edmonton Public Library's tagline is an example of effective surprise as a familiar saying takes an unexpected turn. Who would have thought that one little "s" could make a tagline sing and zing? [MLS published a full-length article, "How We Rebranded the Edmonton Public Library, " in the March/April 2011 issue. -Ed.]

You can see the winners of the 2012 Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards at nancys .me/16UE64B.

But beware, library communicators. The absence of a tagline-or the use of an ineffective one-will put your library at a competitive disadvantage in funding, building your staff and volunteer base, and increasing program participation.

Nine Steps to a Powerful Tagline

It's best to start by pinpointing what you're trying to accomplish. How do you want to use marketing to achieve your library's goals for the next few years? Build off of your strategic thinking, whether it's formalized in a plan or not.

1. Identify which groups of stakeholders are the most likely to help or are the most influential in getting you where you want to go. These are your target audiences. Focus on these groups only. Go broader and you'll risk alienating the people who can do the most to move your mission forward.

2. Invite a group of individuals who represent each target audience-library colleagues, board members, budget decision makers, patrons, and whomever else is central to approval-to serve as your marketing advisory group. Make sure to set clear expectations: You'll be looking to them for insights, not for consensus, as you develop strategies to better connect with target audiences.

3. Get a good sense of what these folks want from the library and what's most important to them about the way those services are delivered. Then see where that overlaps with your library's mission and goals. That's the sweet spot you want to hit with your tagline.

4. Examine other libraries' taglines to see what makes them work. Focus on libraries that serve a similar mix of patrons in the same types of communities.

5. Before you draft a word, draw on these insights to draft the core concept that encompasses no more than two ideas (one is best) to be conveyed in your tagline.

6. Fine-tune that core concept with your marketing advisory group.

7. Then, and only then, ask each member of your marketing advisory group, and your in-house marketing team (gotta have one), to draft and submit two taglines based on that core concept.

8. Based on those submissions, create two to three taglines that you'd be happy with. Put them up to a vote by the marketing advisory group and your in-house team. A face-to-face meeting is ideal for this because it will enable people with divergent perspectives to leam by listening to each other. But if email is the best you can do, that can work too.

9. Once you have the winner, then approach, train, and support all possible messengers (there are always more than you think) to use the tagline as effectively and as broadly as you possibly can.

Musts for Effective Taglines

> Your tagline must be simple, concise, clear, and understandable, and it must convey your marketing message.

> If you have a multicultural or international audience, make sure that they can understand your tagline. Cultural differences are critical here.

> Include words or phrases that connect with your logo, if possible. Example: "Get a piece of the rock" for Prudential Insurance, which has a rock logo.

> Employ active verbs. As always, they'll engage your audiences.

> Hold your course. Once you create a tagline, stick with it for at least 3 years.

> Don't change it just because you're tired of it. Some of the most well-known taglines have been used for years.

How to Put Your Tagline to Work

Your tagline is one of the six vital components of your branding, along with your library's name, positioning statement, key messages or talking points, tone, and visual identity (logo, type, colors, images, look and feel). Make the most of your tagline by ensuring that it's frequently heard and read across various channels (online, offline, in conversation) and audiences.

Feature it prominently in all print collateral and stationery, online communications (including your Facebook page, enewsletter, and website as well as the email signature used by all staff members), signage, conversations and presentations and, where appropriate, your main voice mail. Go for it!

Here's a Quick Quiz to Help Measure Your Tagline's Power

Assess your tagline against this seven-point checklist to see how it measures up. Check each box that applies. This process will highlight specific oreos that may need improvement. Each point includes examples of effective taglines (and their organizations) to help you assess your own words.

1. Tagline conveys the library's or program's impact or value.

* "Increasing physical activity through community design" (Active Living by Design)

* "Protecting Your Retirement. Securing Your Benefits." (RetireSofe)

* "Informing Grantmakers, Improving Our Community" (Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers)

Make sure you use your tagline for all it's worth. If your tagline lacks this positioning value, it's a bust. Descriptors don't make the grade.

2. Tagline is broadly and easily accessible and memorable, avoiding jargon and acronyms.

* "Starve Fear. Feed Hope." (National Eating Disorders Organization)

* "A Passion to Help. The Ability to Deliver." (AmeriCares)

3. Tagline is eight words or (ewer. Simplicity + brevity = clarity.

* "We Help Neighborhoods Play" (Silken's Active Kids Movement)

* "Where Volunteering Begins" (VolunteerMatch)

4. Tagline makes an emotional connection.

* "Helping Preserve the Places You Cherish" (LandChoices)

* "When You Can't Do It Alone" (Jewish Family & Children's Service)

5. Tagline captures the spirit or promise o( your library or program.

* "Finding the ways that work" (Environmental Defense Fund)

* "Grounded in Tradition... Open to the Spin!" (Memphis Theological Seminary)

6. Tagline has the tone that will connect with your audiences while being true to your organizational "self."

Effective taglines may be humorous or earnest, tangible or conceptual.

* Humorous: "To Life" (from Fiddler on the Roof. Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County) This tagline succeeds due to the cultural common ground shared by the federation and its base. That's a prerequisite for integrating humor into your nonprofit's tagline or other key messaging.

* Earnest/Straight Ahead: "Invest in security and peace worldwide." (Ploughshares Fund)

* Tangible: "We Stop Polluters" (Potomac Riverkeeper)

* Conceptúo!: "Ideas into Action. Action into Service" (American University)

7. Tagline is authentic.

Make sure your library can stand behind your tagline 100%. When it does, you build credibility. When it doesn't, you lose any you may have.

* Authentic: "Explore, enjoy and protect the planet" (Sierra Club)

* Hyperbole: "eliminating racism, empowering women" (YWCA) It's simply not within the organization's mission or power to achieve this.

How does your tagline rate? Add one point for each box checked:

* 6 or 7 points: 5-star tagline

* 4 or 5 points: Good, but still needs some tweaking

* 3 or fewer points: Get back to the drawing board.

Nancy Schwartz is president of Nancy Schwartz & Co., a consulting firm that offers marketing planning and communication services to nonprofits (nancyschwartz.com). She shares her 15-plus years of marketing expertise as a strategist, speaker, and blogger at gettingattention.org. Schwartz holds an M.B.A. in management and marketing from New York University and a B.A. in comparative literature from Brown University in Providence, R.l. Her email address is [email protected].