Whether you are starting a new company or have been in business for years, you probably already know that the name of your venture will have a LARGE impact on your marketability. If you are too generic you’ll get lost in the marketplace, but if you are too wild you may not be taken seriously.
Your brand name is usually the first impression you have on a potential customer, so don’t you want it to be positive? The fate of the sale between your business and that consumer hangs in the balance during those few tense moments. Will you survive? Will they remember you?
How a good name can help
A good brand name does three things for your business:
- Identifies who you are
- Illustrates what you do
- Makes you memorable
This stuff is marketing 101. While there are highly successful companies and brand names that don’t do some of these things, you’ll be better off if you can build those qualities into your brand.
Do research online (or is that the first step?)
Aside from checking through all the legal channels around selecting your brand name, you also need to do some searching online.
If you’ve got the perfect name but it is a highly tarnished brand online, you probably don’t want to move down that route. At the same time, if you can’t get a good domain name that relates to your brand, you’ll be better off going back to the drawing board.
Get it right the first time
As you develop your marketing and web strategy, the internet (and your domain name) will be a key factor in everything you do. Starting things off with an unremarkable domain name (or with a variation of your name using .biz or .net) is going to be a big headache in promoting what you do, so you’ll want to get it right the first time.
Due to the remaining availability of good domain names, many entrepreneurs will make selecting a good domain name the first part of their branding process. It is always possible to switch to another domain name later in the process, but it can be a painful experience for you and your customers as you switch the technology over, change your branding, marketing materials, etc.
You have to be online
Phonebooks are landing in recycling bins just as fast as they can be distributed, while search engines and social media continue to rise in use as people look for the companies and brands they want to interact with.
Will your brand be there if someone is looking?
Remember: if they can’t find you online, you don’t exist.