The tagline, for example Nike’s famous "Just do it…", has been in use for decades. There’s a draw to having a snappy phrase to set beneath your company logo, and let’s face it, tag lines sound and seem cool. The truth however is that the great majority of businesses don’t need taglines and should not be using them, especially online. Let me give you a quick example why.

Yes, this is precisely what many companies are communicating to their potential customers with their own company tag line or slogan… are you one of them?

Here’s an example why…

Imagine that your company is called "Carlile Industries" (just a random example), and someone who has never heard of your company arrives at your site. They see your logo at the top of your site that says "Carlile Industries” and they see to the right a nice photo of your office building surrounded by trees and a beautiful blue sky, and just beneath your logo they see your tagline. It reads: "Helping Companies Find Solutions".

Research by the Web heuristics group UIE found that on the Web you can give someone 5 seconds to understand what your company uniquely does and and what services your company provides. If it takes longer than 5 seconds for a visitor to "get it" then you can assume they will loses interest.

Now imagine you’ve come to this Carlile Industries Web site above and you’ve had 5 seconds to read the header at the top of the site; do you know what this company does?

Of course not! You have no idea. Something about solutions… and you know they have a nice office building. The unfortunate reality is that too many Web sites do just this–or worse even less. They don’t communicate clearly and thoroughly what they uniquely do and what benefits they provide to the customer. So, the visitor is left guessing, and more often than not will find another site to visit—maybe your competitor’s instead.

One way to measure how many people may be running from your home page screaming is to look at a Web site log reporting metric called a "bounce rate". In my experience if your home page has a bounce rate of over 50% then your benefits copy on your home page either isn’t resonating with your visitors, or worse it doesn’t exist!

If taglines suck why do companies like Nike use them?

This is a good question which should be asked more often. Taglines are used with already known brand names to help renew and reinforce the brand’s style and message. Usually they are used in quick visual 30 second TV media spots—and they are designed to be short and memorable. Some companies do manage to squeeze what makes them standout in a few words—but these are the minority, and chances are your company is more complex than “Pizza in 30 minutes or it’s free”.

Give up the tagline!

Instead of a tagline what you need to communicate is something that may take one or two, and sometimes 3 sentences, but that clearly states what your company does that is different than your competitor’s company, and what benefits your customers get by working with your company. (In Web marketing parlance we often call this a UVP or Unique Value Proposition.) Often those benefits are derived from your unique differences. Be as specific as possible and avoid abstract words and concepts. Backup claims with real data.

One final tip: it’s sometime helpful to discover your company’s most compelling benefits by answering this question: what is that my customers say they love about my company?

Discovering what is truly unique about your company can take some thought, some time and some hard work, but once you can communicate this, you are communicating what your Web site visitors really need and WANT to know. That is why they should choose your company over company "X" down the street! If you don’t tell them nobody will.