What's In A Name? When It Comes To Your Business, Plenty!
Whether you're striving for a new niche or just want to sound more professional, your company's name should reflect your business. So what are some of the things every business owner should consider when naming their company?
The following list outlines some of the most important considerations and pitfalls to avoid:
Do not choose a name that is too similar to another company, one that may have a trademark on it. For example, "The Drake" and "Drake Marketing," which are in different industries but both have the same name within their respective industries.
When picking names for social media pages, don't choose ones with too many capital letters or numbers because these can be difficult for users to spell on mobile devices.
A descriptive name helps businesses easily identify what your business is all about. For example, if you're a web design company and you're thinking about naming your business "Web Genius," it's quite likely that consumers may find that confusing with the popular search engine "Google." Consumers will not understand the difference between "Web Genius" as a website and "Google" as an internet search engine.
If you decide to use a double entendre or choose a name that plays on words, make sure it's grammatically correct and the spelling makes sense. For example, the site http://www.buytrucks.eu/ has a double entendre in the product name "Buy Trucks." Internet users could be confused as to which company they're going to visit if they're searching for this particular company.
1) Be consistent with your branding and website URL
2) Ensure that you have trademark protection for your brand from other companies that may try to use the same name
3) Ensure you have all of your websites under one domain, meaning you can easily add links between them under the same domain name (for example You Tube.com vs. Facebook.com vs Twitter.com)
4) Ensure your website is mobile friendly, making sure images are responsive and text is readable on smaller device screens.
5) Ensure your logo is industry relevant and use a less commonly used font (As an example Google uses Open Sans font on their logo and this is often overlooked).
6) Your branding should be consistent across all platforms including: social media, websites, company brochures, email correspondence and personal branding.
7) Your brand name should be easy to spell and remember.
8) Ensure you have a simple snappy name that works for all of your purposes.
9) Ensure you have an easy to remember unique domain name (ie: Facebook.com/DrakeMarketing vs Facebook.com/DrakeCodex)
10) Ensure your business name has good SEO visibility on the internet.
11) Ensure you have compelling content and visuals to accompany your content. Think about what you typically see when you go to search engines and compare that to what the consumers will see (for example If you're a Dental office and a dental patient searches for a dental provider, they have images of people smiling with fresh white teeth, which is highly likely to be comforting for the consumer because it makes them feel confident that they're in good hands!)
12) Ensure your brand receives attention from potential customers online through a variety of social media platforms. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube etc...
13) Ensure you have a mobile friendly website that works on a variety of devices.
14) Ensure your brand has enough diversity so that your demographic may be interested in what you do. For example, if you're branding feels quite female centred, more than likely that's the demographic you're looking for.
15) Ensure your visual brand is consistent, using the same colours across all platforms (for example white background with darker green text to form a logo).
16) Ensure your visual brand is consistent across all platforms including: social media, websites, company brochures, email correspondence and personal branding.
17) Ensure your brand is relevant to what you do based on your industry and business type.
18) Ensure that you're using the same colour palette online that your visual branding has on paper (for example if you're using a white background with green text on paper, don't use a black background with orange text online).
19) Make sure all content you publish on social media and websites is current and doesn't date within 6 months (ie: If you write an article in the month of June, make sure it doesn't reference Christmas because by the time Christmas rolls around, it will no longer be current and up to date).
20) Ensure there are no broken links within your website or social media pages.
21) Ensure that your website SEO is up to date.
22) Ensure that you're using the correct keywords in your domain name, Social Media names and company profile headings (ie: facebook.com/DrakeMarketing not facebook.com/DrakeCodex).
23) Ensure you have an active social media following for the type of company, product or service you provide (eg: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest). Once you have an active social media following then ensure your content is being shared across all platforms.
24) Ensure all links within your website are relevant to the content on your site. If you want to include a link within your site or blog about "buy trucks" that doesn't have anything to do with your company's content then obviously a consumer will be confused as to what they are clicking on.
25) Ensure that the language you use in your website is up to date and accurate (ie: Ensure the English is correct throughout, for example: avoid any grammatical mistakes, eg: grammar, writing etc...)
26) Ensure all text is in clear, consistent font sizes. For example, if your text is in Arial 12pt typeface then ensure it's consistent across all platforms (eg: if this was on a mobile device it would be readable if used in conjunction with other text within the site).
27) Ensure your blog and/or website has a content management system that allows for ease of editing (eg: if content on posts must be changed every 30 days, then ensure it's easy to add this update for the one year period).
28) Ensure your blog and website is mobile friendly.
29) Ensure there is a unique password for each social media account you use.
30) Ensure you have an email list of all of your active social media accounts (eg: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc...)
31) Take care that your site speed is appropriate and always works on your audience's internet connections (ie: if you're targeting a younger audience then ensure the site works quickly on their older internet connections).
Conclusion:
Drake Marketing is a Digital Agency that utilises all the above marketing strategies to provide our clients with a tailored marketing plan based on their business goals and objectives. We help businesses develop their brands, grow their websites, provide them with measurable digital marketing reporting and support them in their digital marketing strategy.
We have gained our reputation as the best digital marketing agency in Sydney because of this knowledge and experience. If you would like us to help you establish a Digital Agency presence please feel free to contact us for more details.
We also offer a FREE consultation so give us a call so we can discuss your business goals and objectives today! Call 1300 063 003 or Email: info@drakemarketing.com.