“Let’s do it.”
“I’m lovin’ it.”
“Mmmm, mmmm, good.”
“In 15 minutes, save 15% or more on car insurance.”
You can probably name all four of these companies just based on their slogans, and probably pass a test with 100 more. You’re bombarded with slogans every day of your life.
These national brands create jingles that stick in our minds. These slogans work because you already know the company, and you’re bombarded with the jingle every day of your life. You hear it on the radio, on TV, you see it on billboards, in magazines, on the internet.
However, this doesn’t work very well for an author brand. It doesn’t matter how big you are, authors just don’t have the advertising ubiquity to make a jingle stick.
You need a slogan, but it should serve a dramatically different purpose.
You’re slogan doesn’t need to be clever or catchy. Your slogan’s only job is to remind and reinforce the value that you’re bringing into a reader’s life.
Your brand will be successful because you bring value into your reader’s life. At the end of the day, that’s why readers will follow you and keep following you, you solve a problem they have or make their life better in some way.
There’s no shortage of aspiring authors in the world and no shortage of books to read. A reader will only follow you because you’re bringing real, consistent value to them right now.
You might solve a tangible problem, like helping them to understand their finances. You might solve an emotional issue, like helping them to understand their stress as a wife and mother. In either case, members of the public follow a particular author because they can say, “I let this person into my life because they help make X better.”
The more narrowly you can define your X, the more successful you’ll be.
Your entire brand should support that X. Your website, your blog, your social media, the links and articles you shareàwhat’s the one thing of value that you’re consistently bringing to your audience?
Your slogan, therefore, is just a quick reminder for your reader of the value you’re bringing into their life.
In my case, if I were to state it in a clunky sentence, my value to you (I hope) is: “I help Christian writers understand their calling and reach audiences for Jesus.”
Ideally, that’s what you’re picking up from everything that I do. Individual blog posts or social media posts might approach that value in different ways, but it all basically reinforces that one idea.
My slogan, therefore, is “Jesus follower, publishing expert, dad.”
I’m reinforcing and reminding a reader of the value I’m going to bring into their life if they follow me. If someone followed me a long time ago and has since forgotten why, that’s a quick reminder, “Oh yah, this is the Christian publishing guy.”
This not only helps preserve your audience, but it also helps your audience to become evangelists on your behalf. If someone wants to tell a friend about me, I’ve given them a few easy buzz words to share. Whether they know it or not, when they recommend me they’re effectively saying, “Follow Brad because he’s going to bring X value into your life.” My slogan helps them define the X.
To write a great slogan, you first need to understand what your value is. In fact, your slogan is a great bellwether for the development of your brand.
If you can write a succinct a slogan, you probably have a really good understanding of what your brand is about and the value you bring to the reader.
Right now, write a single sentence that defines the value you bring to a reader’s life. Not a laundry list of things, but one specific way you’re going to improve someone’s life if they’ll let you in. If you can’t do that, then spend some time in prayer and consideration until you can write that sentence.
After you have that sentence, you can distill it into a few keywords that will help the reader remember who you are and why you’re a great resource for their life.
That’s your slogan.
It doesn’t need to be catchy.
It doesn’t need to be clever.
It needs to be clear, concise, and remind the reader of your specific value.
This blog post is an adaptation of a podcast episode I hosted for the School of Kingdom Writers. Learn more about their podcast and subscribe here.
To connect with other Christian writers for peer support and additional training, join the Kingdom Writers Guild on Facebook.
I help Christian writers understand their calling and reach their goals.
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