Sleepy’s tagline is “For the rest of your life.” FedEx’s is “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.” Ivory Soap’s is “99.44% pure.”

A great tagline communicates confidence to customers. It sets expectation. It is a concise way of saying what your customer will experience.

Here are the steps to take to create a great tagline:

1. Make it short and impactful. Less words, more impact.

2. Make it easy for your clients, employees and most importantly the people you don’t know to remember and repeat.

3. Make it your ultimate brand promise. What is it that you commit to delivering to your customers, every time? It better be bold. It better be big.

4. Make it so employees can be proud of it.

5. Make it your distinguishing factor. What is it that makes you different from your competitors? I mean really distinct? Build your tag line around that.

6. Don’t get cute, but sometimes it just happens. Sometimes your tagline will have a positive double entendre. That’s good, but don’t force it.

7. Make it something that you want to be known for, for the rest of your life.

8. Make it nothing short of remarkable.

My tagline is “Put life back into business.” That’s what I do. That’s what I stand for. That’s my promise. And yes, a double entendre snuck in there.

Bad taglines happen too (see below). I walked by this van with a tagline “We Make & Keep Commitments.” That tagline sucks. Nothing unique. Nothing that employees or customers can be wowed by. Surely not something that is remarkable. Don’t be that guy.