diff --git a/src/createTag/createTag.js b/src/createTag/createTag.js
index 01cc5d6..7f04b03 100644
--- a/src/createTag/createTag.js
+++ b/src/createTag/createTag.js
@@ -94,6 +94,12 @@ export default function createTag(...rawTransformers) {
       return tag([strings]);
     }
 
+    if (typeof strings[0] === 'undefined') {
+      throw TypeError(`input string is undefined: Check your template string. 
+        (e.g. \\4 will throw SyntaxError with 'Octal escape sequences are not allowed')
+      `);
+    }
+
     const tagCallInfo = getTagCallInfo(transformers);
 
     // if the first argument is an array, return a transformed end result of processing the template with our tag
diff --git a/src/createTag/createTag.test.js b/src/createTag/createTag.test.js
index 390140d..c812319 100644
--- a/src/createTag/createTag.test.js
+++ b/src/createTag/createTag.test.js
@@ -298,3 +298,16 @@ test('accepts other tags as arguments and applies them in order', () => {
 
   expect(superTag`foo`).toBe('foo1234');
 });
+
+test('invalid template string should throw error message', () => {
+  const getInitialContext = jest.fn();
+  const tag = createTag({ getInitialContext });
+
+  let actual = () => {
+    tag`\4`;
+  };
+
+  expect(actual).toThrow(
+    `input string is undefined: Check your template string.`,
+  );
+});