In today’s Boston Globe, Peter Funt writes about the branding of URLs. He describes his experience in a hotel room, standing in the shower using the shampoo and noticing that on the shampoo is the URL (or domain name) of the hotel. Tongue in cheek, he comments about how he could text or tweet a message from the shower to the hotel to request more shampoo. Later in his article he talks about states including the URLs on license plates and wondering if the address is there for people to text or visit the site – surely it cannot be done while driving since that’s against the law in many states. He notes that it looks like companies are branding their Web site addresses rather than their company and appears to be unclear why they are doing it.
Later in the article he further notes that many companies are doing away with call centers and encouraging people, customers, to contact them via the Web. In some cases, companies are charging a fee for call service.
I think this article brings up a significant change in how company are named and branded today and identifies a growing customer service trend. And this affects business across the board, from service to product based companies.
As I understand it, Peter’s position is that URLs are branded not company names and that this isn’t necessarily a good thing. But in the world of search engine optimization and search marketing, branding a URL is important for any company.
To receive traffic to your Web site you need a number of things in place, but before you even get there you need a memorable URL. Memorable meaning that if your business card goes missing (or, worse, in the trash) and people want to contact you they are going to do one of a few things: either they’ll guess and enter various URLs in the browser address box, or they’ll conduct an online search using a search engine and a set of keyword phrases they think describe your business, or they might use a less technical approach (and if people do that they really want to contact you!). Finally, if unsuccessful, they’ll get distracted or give up and move on to another thing or another vendor as a result of their search. What I’m saying is that branding a URL is rather important if people are going to primarily find and interact with you on the Internet.
Back in the “old fashion” days of advertising, it was all about branding the company name and repeat advertising impressions. The reach depended on the budget of the companies as well as the demographics and geographics. Today, the company name is often the URL or part of the URL and it’s still about impressions … impressions of your company name and domain name. No real big change there except that you’re adding your URL to everything – sometimes in place of place of your company name. What is different are reduced budgets, less than effective print advertising and reach.
The Internet has expanded our marketing reach so that we can do business with customers outside our small geographic area. The cost of print advertising has forced many marketers to find more cost-effective and more effective alternatives. Furthermore, the print advertising world is no longer a viable option for marketers, particularly smaller companies.
This brings me to the point of choosing a business name and choosing a Web site name, or URL. Today, if you aren’t top of mind, you aren’t going to get much business, which means you need a name that not only makes sense, but is memorable and for which you can register a domain name. I’m not exaggerating when I say that this is a huge challenge for new businesses today. Those companies that have been around for a while may or may not have the same domain as their company name, but new business owners are truly challenged by the lack of what they’d consider good domain names. It can often hold up the launch of a new company or new company Web site, and I have seen that happen. Without a name, there’s no logo, without a logo, there’s no real identity. Without that identity how can a business have credible brochures, business cards and Web sites?
Before you make any decision, think about how you will do business and with whom. Will your prospects and customers do business with you online? Will prospects search for you online? Is the Web a big part of your marketing plan? If you answer yes to any of these questions, choosing a company name and matching URL could be quite a project for you.
By the way, since new business owners often feel forced to choose a company name based on an available domain name and there are times when that domain name cannot be trademarked or cannot be used because it too closely resembles a trademark name. Therefore, you really should check with an attorney before you commit to names to make sure that all your branding work doesn’t go to waste.
Branding a URL isn’t a bad thing if you want people to find your business on the Web. Companies that are marketing online and either have or want a strong Internet presence do need to choose a domain name/URL that is memorable and accurately describes the business using keywords – the words prospects will use to find your service or product on the Web. Therefore, before you choose your business and domain name, give a long look at how you plan to reach and communicate with your prospects.
