Why Slogans Suck

I rarely see a good slogan for a hypnosis practice. Why? Because I don’t think people have a very good idea about how to use them.

They use them to set the tone and the personality for their business. While that’s not bad as a rule, most folks wildly overestimate the amount that people are paying attention.

And there’s a far more important task–grabbing your potential client’s attention and telling them they’re in the right place.

Grabbing Attention Is Key

And slogans rarely do that. Usually when I hear them, I think of how WWII was pitched to America, “Making the world safe for democracy.” In fact, as a rule, I advise against any slogan that reminds me of that phrase. “Reinventing Your Positive Mind,” “Caring, Considerate Hypnosis For A Better You,” or my favorite, “Get What You Want.”

That last one was the slogan I came up with when I first started my hypnotherapy practice.

Blech.

People Will Leave In Seconds If You Don’t Have Their Attention

Why don’t I like those? Because they don’t really serve the purpose that needs to be served by the small amount of space available on your business card, on the top of your website etc. They’re ‘feel good’ slogans. People won’t read on unless they see that your business applies specifically to them.

The job of a slogan or a tag line is to sell them the idea that they’re in the right place and should find out or read more.

Imagine you’re looking for hypnosis to, gee, I don’t know, get rid of your terrible habit of spending too much time reading my blog posts. Imagine you found two hypnotists that looked equally good except for their slogans. One slogan was “Reinventing Your Positive Mind,” and the other was “Helping People Stop Reading Keith Since 1842.” Which one would you go to?

See what I mean?

Because You Breathe What You Burn

There’s an exception to my “Safe For Democracy” Rule. Sometimes hypnosis is an explanatory sale. What I mean is, sometimes, people don’t know that hypnosis can help with what ails them. You have to explain it to them.

Today I was walking through a store and a slogan that was on some candles practically jumped out at me and slapped me in the face. “Because You Breathe What You Burn”. In one brief statement, they’d told me what was unique about their product and what the problem was with their competitors. I had never thought of breathing smoke from candles as any kind of problem. Were I a candle burner, that would speak to me.

Your Marketing Materials As A Hitman

And that’s another thing your marketing materials should aim to do. Eliminate folks that aren’t your ideal customers (I don’t mean “eliminate” in the mafia sense). Your marketing should call out to your ideal potential customers and fall flat for those who aren’t.

Once you do that successfully, you can get the tone of your message just right. Your target market should go, “Yeah, this is for me” when they read your stuff. And your materials should kill the interest of folks that aren’t your ideal potential customers.

So What Do You Do?

What you do is read every part of your marketing with your ideal client in mind. Ask yourself if what you’re communicating speaks directly to them and their specific, immediate need. Yes, there are places to put your education, your guarantees etc. That’s for after you have someone’s attention. Put the stuff that speaks most directly to them up front.

That’s my two cents,
Keith

PS: Do you have any really good (or really bad) examples of slogans you’d like to share?

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