Testing the tag line: How you can use social media to test business ideas

I’ve been emailing back and forth with a girlfriend in real estate who is about to get her car branded up. She’s a clever cookie – so she got her branding mock-up done and then sent it out to a bunch of people to get their opinions and thoughts on what she’d missed or could change.

One of my suggestions was that she needed a tag line on the rear window. Since then every car with a tag line on its rear window has been jumping out at me and I’ve been busily snapping photos and sending them to her.

She’d brainstormed some ideas – but when we sat down today we mulled them all over. I wanted my friend to leave with something concrete – so I said she wasn’t leaving until we had three tag lines to test. Effectively trapped in my kitchen, we both just started rambling to get our three tag lines to test.

Why would someone want to use Jane as their real estate agent? What were her best features we wanted to emphasize? What did we want to avoid? How were we going to get something that didn’t sound super cheesy, but was something you’d remember and would make you contact her?

We also googled for our inspiration, steering clear of other real estate agent’s tag lines. We got started with #2 below on a list of websites with taglines for charitable organisations.

In the end we came up with six tag lines to test – knowing which one we were both super pumped up about, but wanting to hear the opinions of others.

1. The go-to girl for real estate

2. The agent for the home you cherish

3. Not your typical real estate agent

4. Jane Crawford – A fresh approach

5. I can put a value on your home – but never on our relationship

6. Jane Crawford – exceptional agent, mediocre runner (and a whole series of these e.g. cook, gardener, etc, changing them often)

So how could we test them? Sending them out to Jane’s friends was a good start, but we also wanted unbiased opinions from people who don’t already adore her. Thank you, Facebook. We posted the tag lines asking for feedback on a real estate group and also on my Facebook page. A couple of hours later and 50+ comments were received. Voila instant feedback.

Overwhelmingly we had our suspicions on what we thought was the best one confirmed and Jane’s car is now going to be branded on its behind with “exceptional agent, mediocre…” with the last word changing every few weeks to tie in with her other marketing (letterbox drops, Facebook page, newsletter, etc).

A fun few hours spent with a fun result. So, next time you brainstorm, maybe lock yourself in the kitchen (or wherever you need to) until you’ve got at least three ideas – and test them immediately.

Kirsty Dunphey is the founder and director of Elephant Property. She is also an author, avid blogger and property investor.