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Taglines and Welcome Blurbs
March 13th, 2006 by AndrewOne of my clients recently sought my help in adding their "mission statement" to the homepage of their Web site. Any time this question comes up, I reach for my well-worn copy of Krug’s tome on usability, "Don’t Make Me Think."
Sure enough, here on page 105, Krug writes:
Don’t use a mission statement as a Welcome blurb. Many sites fill their Home page with their corporate mission statement that sounds like it was written by a Miss America finalist. "XYZCorp offers world-class solutions in the burgeoning field of blah blah blah blah blahâ?¦." Nobody reads them.
Yes, Krug used five "blahs" in making his point.
Instead, Krug suggests two things.
First, have a tagline on your Web site. A tagline, he writes, is a "pithy phrase that characterizes the whole enterprise, summing up what it is and what makes it great." It should be positioned at the top of the page near the logo.
Second, if your tagline doesn’t tell the entire story, use a "welcome blurb." Krug explains in this interview with Management Consulting News:
A welcome blurb should be short (shorter than you think, about 30 words maximum) and contain real content ("3,000 products," "200 locations worldwide," "24 hour hotline," "Free shipping"), not "motherhoody" mission statements ("Providing leadership and outstanding service in the world of cold weather climbing technology"). Start with your "elevator pitch," then boil it down even more. People are not going to read very much on your home page; they just want the gist in a short sentence or two. (If your message is complex, make it into a short list of bullet points.)
While Krug is speaking of corporate sites here, his recommendations apply to organizations as well. Ask yourself, "what makes my organization’s mission and activities different from the dozens of other organizations that ‘compete’ in my space?" Now, say that again in fewer words. Now remove a few more words.
When you’ve squeezed out every unnecessary word and still retained the original meaning, you have the makings of a tagline. For nonprofits, I think it’s often more important that the tagline be short and descriptive than pithy and clever. For most nonprofits’ sites, the most important thing about a tagline is to have one.
