Taglines present a 5-word opportunity to capture your prospects’ hearts—before you’ve even had a conversation. They’re Mmm Mmm Good. They help you Think Different.

Unfortunately, if your tagline is overeager or has bad breath, it can repel rather than attract. Taglines and ad copy must capture attention and convey your value & difference without making you sound like a pompous windbag. I find the best way to craft a tagline or ad headline is to apply the “Would I want to take it to dinner?” test.

Before you start brainstorming (or evaluating your copywriter’s taglines, as the case may be), divest in caring about your company and sell all your stock in sounding impressive. In your mind’s eye, hand in that resignation letter. Book a 15-day Celebrity cruise. Remember when you used to sit on the couch in college, mocking every commercial? Do that. Put on your rattiest pair of flip flops. Writing taglines is almost as relaxing as a jacuzzi, no?

Now you are ready to brainstorm. And what better way to brainstorm than to procrastinate by first reviewing a list of 4 mistakes to avoid?

Mistake #1: Trying to make your company sound larger than life. Or, conversely, trying to make it sound friendlier and folksier than it really is.

Many smaller companies make the mistake of crafting a BIG, HUGE, IMPORTANT tagline. A TAGLINE WITH A BOOMING, AUTHORITATIVE VOICE. A TAGLINE THAT NEVER SAYS MUCH. A TAGLINE. A.

Let your company be itself. Neither folksier nor more corporatey than it actually is.

Mistake #2: Not crafting a customer persona.

Not sure whether your company has a voice? Take a look at your customers. Talk accordingly.

How do you do this? By creating a customer persona.

How do you do that? Ask your sales team for a Barbara-Walters-style tell-all interview. If your customers are Ivy-League consultants who speak and act like construction workers, that’s useful information. What TV shows do they watch? What’s their favorite football team? What keeps them up at night? Favorite foods? What would you get one of them for his birthday? Having a composite image of your typical customer allows you to write a tagline or ad headline that hits the mark.

Here’s an example of a real-life customer persona one of my clients had created:

Doug is a 40-year-old Director of Technology. He’s busy, but willing to pay for quality within a stretch of his budget. He used to be an engineer. He values good communication skills and chemistry. He is technical, but not super-technical. He knows his team well. He wants to trust. He wants his vendors to have skin in the game; to share the risk he is taking. He does not have time to play golf along the sales process like his CEO or CIO, but he goes to business lunches often. He is married with 2 kids and lives in Pleasanton. He wants to feel his vendors are interested in him as a person, and are not just trying to make a quick buck. He was a jock in college, and has season tickets to the San Francisco Giants.

Mistake #3: Crossing the line between a “neg” and an outright insult.

See exhibit A, an ad that appeared in the most recent edition of Sustainable Industries magazine. Here’s the offending copy:

“Don’t be green with envy…because other smart people choose to work with us. If you’re an architect, developer or contractor, you too can work with [Egregious] Certified to help certify your green building project.
At [Egregious] Certified, green is what we do for a living.”

Would you want to have dinner with this ad copy? There’s a fine line between negging someone and outright insulting them. When in doubt, leave cleverness out. Puns are another common mistake. For example, green and sustainability industry companies have been having a lot of pun with “green” and “good.” (Sorry.) When you’ve seen the 10th pun on “green,” it seems tired and forced—not playful. Exhibit A’s copy makes both these mistakes.

Mistake #4. Leading with obvious, cliched benefits.

I recently saw an ad whose headline made the following promise: “Saves you time. Saves you money.” Wow! Time AND Money? These ultra-compelling benefits practically hypnotize the prospect into taking action. Can you guess what the company is? An LEED contractor. That does exactly nothing to differentiate them from every other contractor out there. Spin again.

Customers actually aren’t as concerned about your benefits as they are about what you have to offer them. You need to be clear on what makes you different in a way that matters to them, and in a way that makes them want to have dinner with you.

When your ad copy passes the “want to have dinner with” test, you may find yourself eating in literal restaurants much more often.