How To Come Up With Taglines?

Hi All,

after some help/advice in an area I don't have a lot of experience with. If anyone can provide some helpful (friendly) advice, I would really appreciate it.

Short Copy/Marketing/Taglines/Traditional Biz Help
I have a brief for a new client.

They want some short headlines/taglines with a call to action for their web page. They want them to be clever and humorous, but not silly or offensive. They are an employment agency (US based) and they want to have some taglines and an image rotating on their homepage.

I have come up with some possible taglines already, and they are reasonable, but feel that I could do better.

The Process Problem
- One of the main problems I am having is my process.

We all have them, right? The process, routine or ritual we follow to produce our best work. Normally it's highly individual.

Since I am used to writing online sales pages, e-mails, long copy etc. I normally know where to start out with my research, planning, writing, problem solving and processes etc.

But this is more branding and marketing and because this is new to me, I don't have a very good process in place. The brief is also pretty vague. It's basically, "be funny, get people to click"

It's also tricky as many of you would know, because it's the client who will decide what is "funny" and what is useful. Since it's not my own business, the end-user is not my focus, but the client.

So they need to like it, even if sadly as is often the case, it reduces the performance of the ads and CTR's - I am sure many of you have experienced this type of client. But they are paying for what they want, not necessarily what works best. It's a big difference and ultimately I have to deliver what they want - that's my brief.

Can anyone recommend a good process that you have used for this style of work?

eg.
Should I be brainstorming problems first?
Writing down the first 20 lines I can think of and just get started?
Research other similar taglines and see how they are put together?
Does anyone have a formula they use (joke, problem, give solution 'click')?

So what works for you guys? I would love the assist if you can think of anything.

And just to be clear, so far the client is happy, the work I am turning out is really good, but I want it to be GREAT and I know that some of you have the experience, the insights, the brains, and the kindness to share it.

Thanks and all the best!