Why Branding Begins With Your Domain Name.
By: kevin@amglobalgroup.com
Domain names are the starting point for your online presence. In one simple and concise line of text, potential customers will know what your company sells, what demographic you’re targeting, and your work ethic. Choosing the right domain name to reflect these qualities is one of the most important decisions you can make when taking your business online.
Why does my domain name matter to my brand?
Imagine you’re standing around chatting with your friends on the weekend and someone says, “You can get great deals on retaildiscountclothes.com”. Chances are, by the end of the conversation you have entirely forgotten the name of that online discount website. The reason is, a website that is so terribly generic as retaildiscountclothes.com will always be doomed to be forgotten.
Sometimes, websites have no character or easy-to-remember phrases so they become plain boring, unimaginative or forgettable. However, if you were to hear a friend say they got a deal on walmart.com or oakely.com, it’s more likely you would remember the site by the time you reached home and searched the web. These names stand out because they’re part of a Brand. When you think of Walmart, Oakley or Levi’s, you tend to have a distinct expectation of what kinds of products they sell because their brand name is associated with their advertisements.
Branding is the key to your success, both online and off, when you sell products or services to the marketplace. Your domain name should be your first impression to target your customer base.
Ways you can make a memorable domain name.
You can choose whichever domain name your imagination desires. A name could be made up with little or no meaning associating them to your brand. Think about the following examples: Google, Bing, Yahoo. Each one of these names are short and roll off the tongue in a way that makes them memorable.
You can browse online or print dictionaries for existing words that reflect your unique brand like a historical reference such as Atlas or Spartan.
Free online domain name generators are also a great place to get new and unique ideas.
Keep it short, sweet and to the point.
Research has shown the most effective domain names for the top Fortune 500 companies have short, concise, and easy to pronounce domain names. This gives your brand a higher probability of being recognized and remembered.
When creating your domain name, it’s good to aim for something that’s between 6-14 characters in total. However, sometimes the domain name you want may not be available or beyond your budget to purchase. In such a case, try abbreviating your name or redirect your longer link through a shorter one. One example is found in “Barnes and Noble”. Their primary domain name is barnesandnoble.com but they also registered bn.com which will redirect you to the same page.
Keep your domain name relevant to your business
It should be obvious at this point that your company’s domain name is the key to your online marketing campaign. When you specialize in selling retail goods, you want to choose a name that reflects what you offer. If you sell many kinds of household goods and electronics you can use the example of “productjungle.com”. It’s short but concise because you sell all kinds of products. If, for another example, you specialize in selling computer parts and accessories, a name like pizzaforum.com is completely irrelevant to what you’re offering. Unless, you would like to sell pizza and computer parts all-together.
That being said, and because all things are possible, if you decide that your company is in fact going to sell both computer parts and pizza, you will still need a more suitable name that allows for that kind of future growth, so be prepared ahead of time.
When it is all said and done, you want to reflect your brand accurately with a suitable domain name that customers will want to click on.
