If Helen of Troy has the face that launched a thousand ships, your business can have a name that launched a successful online store. Most business owners will tell you about their struggle to come up with an appropriate name for their new company. This is especially true for new businesses that are new to terms like domain registration and web hosting.
Now if you’ve never named a company, you’ll soon learn that it is equal parts time-consuming, infuriating and sometimes maddening. However, choosing the right name is important – so important that 77 percent of consumers make purchases based on a brand name.
Naming a business for the internet is hard, so we’ve created this quick list of useful tips to consider as you brainstorm with your team.
Think about the name’s meaning. Your company’s name will appear on most, if not all of the business assets and marketing collaterals, including business cards, letterheads, promotional materials and more — this includes your website.
Your name must identify your company and your products and/or services. If you have a service-oriented business, see whether it will be easier for your customers to recognize the services you provide. Examples like “All-day pet walkers,” “Global airline ticketing” or “Fast liquor” all points to the services that are available at that company.
If you’re a freelancer and are still planning to have a separate company, start by creating a brand around your work.
Make it short, simple, and easy to remember. You heard this one before, which points to it being utterly crucial when naming your business. Many top companies have short, simple, and easy to remember names – including Google, Samsung, Amazon, Walmart, etc.
Sadly, many small businesses go for obscure business names that won’t give word-of-mouth advertising advantage. See if customers can’t remember your name, can’t spell it or even properly share it to others, it will make promoting your business a chore.
Use geographic names carefully. Businesspeople likes using their city, state or region as part of the company name. If this is your plan as well, it might benefit you well. However, a geographic name could hinder you later. Say for instance you started a phone trading shop in India named indiamobile.com because the business was focused there, if your business grows beyond India, you’ll need to find a new name — globalmobile.
Be wary of trends. Your new business name should evolve with time, so naming it solely based on current trends can negatively impact your branding in the future. Right now, many businesses do away with .com and simply go for substitute domain names like .tech, .business, .online. While these aren’t bad on their own, the top domain .com variety of your name may be snatched by others, by then you’ll have to claw and fight to get it back.
Of course, we won’t end this article without looking at registrars where you can accomplish domain registration and even host your upcoming site. When looking for a registrar, consider their reputation, pricing options, and support availability. These ensure that you can buy your new name in the best pricing option available from a reputable company that offers good support.
Keeping these tips in mind will set you up to get yourself the right company name. Best of luck!