There are millions of different brands in the world and many of them are in the same industry as you. So, what makes your brand timeless? As your brand name, along with the matching domain name, helps you to differentiate your brand, we asked 9 experts for their advice on the importance of branding and domain in your digital marketing strategy. Here’s what they said.
Shorter, easy-to-pronounce names are easier for us to mentally process. Because of this, research has found that the easier a name, the more successful a brand will be with both investors and customers.
Thomas McKinlay, Founder of Ariyh – Evidence-based marketing
Early-stage entrepreneurs often overthink what name to choose and get stuck at that stage. You shouldn’t. As long as the name reaches minimum requirements, you can rebrand later if your business is successful. These minimum requirements are:
- doesn’t have negative connotations in most languages;
- isn’t too long;
- isn’t too hard to pronounce;
- you have a domain name available that’s not too strange (e.g. avoid .biz, .net).
Ideally, all four areas are perfect scores, but that’s rare, so you shouldn’t let it slow you down. Shorter, easy-to-pronounce names are easier for us to mentally process. Because of this, research has found that the easier a name, the more successful a brand will be with both investors and customers.
While Google says that keywords or brand name within the domain name do not matter when it comes to ranking, it’s important to remember the user; is the brand name visible across digital (and offline) channels, is it consistent, is it memorable or easy to pronounce?
David Sayce, Digital Marketing Consultant at Paper Gecko
Your online brand is absolutely vital, and even more so in 2021. The first impression of a business can be a deciding factor for a potential client or customer just from what appears in the initial Google results page. While Google says that keywords or brand name within the domain name do not matter when it comes to ranking, it’s important to remember the user; is the brand name visible across digital (and offline) channels, is it consistent, is it memorable, or easy to pronounce? Through 2021, businesses need to be more aware of clients and customers and how the business is viewed from the outside. What happens when you type your brand name into a search engine? Are the results positive? Do you own those first-page results? Google’s Knowledge Panel, including Google My Business (GMB), adds to that brand authority, and with GMB, you can keep your own information up to date. My advice: jump on to Google right now. Type in Your Brand name and see how others see you. There are plenty of checks you can do by yourself, too!
An easy to remember and pronounce brand name will go a long way in how easy it is for potential loyal customers to spread the word.
Mihir Bhatt, Digital Marketing Consultant
A brand name is very important for easy recollection and association with the product/service being offered. An easy-to-remember and pronounce brand name will go a long way in making it easy for potential loyal customers to spread the word. A matching domain name (preferably a .com) is almost a given. For a personal brand, however, it is recommended that they choose their own name as the brand. People are increasingly moving towards trusting real people when being influenced. The name is although just the first step, the brand’s identity needs to be grounded in authenticity so as to effectively connect with the digitally experienced audience of 2021. This was also the subject of my recently published book Existential Digital Marketing, where I developed a philosophy and marketing strategy for building authentic brands on the internet.
Do your best to make it a name that explains what you do/what you’re about.
Eddie Briseño, Community-Driven Content Marketer
My experience in brand naming was with my political brand for (at the time) presidential candidate Andrew Yang, so we had some constraints. The name had to be brand-safe around Yang, and it had to communicate some degree of values. We originally had the name YangGangHub, but were looking to rename it. So I actually dug up the document that I handwrote with my teammate in order to search for our new name, which led us to Humanity For Yang.
If I were to offer any advice to someone searching for a name, I’d say:
- Don’t overthink it (the brand makes the name, not the other way around)
- Make sure it’s available
- Do your best to make it a name that explains what you do/what you’re about. Longer/more descriptive names are becoming more popular
Now a brand name and domain have to be same from both technical and consumer point of view because a.) SEO plays a huge role in modern-day businesses and b.) If the brand and domain names are different, customers will get confused about whether they have visited the right website or not.
Nilanjay Ghura, Online marketing specialist
For me, a good brand name is something that can be easily remembered. People try to come up with some meaningful names, which is totally fine, but if the customer is not able to memorise it easily, then that will be an obstacle to the company’s growth.
I have never seen a person (other than a brand/content specialist) asking someone…why Steve Jobs named his company Apple or Bill Gates named his company Microsoft. People focus on the product/service and whether it satisfies their requirements or not.
Now a brand name and domain have to be same from both technical and consumer point of view because a.) SEO plays a huge role in modern-day businesses and b.) If the brand and domain names are different, customers will get confused about whether they have visited the right website or not.
I am huge a believer of “Smooth User Journeys” because that’s the best way to ensure business growth.
The market for domain names is even more crowded because so many have already been taken, and the resulting need to compromise on a domain name can increase the risk of confusion due to variations of spelling, abbreviation and acronyms your competition may already be using.
Jim Harrison, Award-winning creative director, brand strategist and speaker
If finding a winning name isn’t difficult enough, matching it with an equally useful domain name can be downright frustrating – and very expensive. The market for domain names is even more crowded because so many have already been taken, and the resulting need to compromise on a domain name can increase the risk of confusion due to variations of spelling, abbreviation and acronyms your competition may already be using.
Ultimately, it’s a case-by-case choice about how much to invest in a domain name. Small start-ups all the way through Fortune 100 companies struggle with this question, but if a company or client is entering a highly competitive, highly lucrative market with a brand, the requirement for a compelling name and a matching & concise domain name becomes absolutely essential. That’s why it’s not unheard of for companies entering huge market segments to spend five or six figures just to purchase the rights to a domain name. It’s a smart business decision, even at that high cost, because the ability to differentiate is critical to any business, and the memorability and ease of use for good URLs are equally important.
A great name sets the tone for a brand. To me, the best brand names are simple, generally relevant to the products or services you offer and, most of all, memorable.
Ryan Cormier, Executive Director at Agency Habitat
Take MailChimp, for example. Does the name explicitly imply that they do email marketing? No, but the connection is there. And chimps are just cute, so it’s fun and memorable. Plus, the MailChimp team has done an amazing job applying that lightheartedness across everything they do — their chimp mascot is iconic. Beyond that, most people’s first guess at MailChimp’s URL would probably be mailchimp.com, which exactly right.
With constant change happening in the digital world, it’s more important than ever for brands to create easy pathways for customers and prospective customers to find them online. Government oversight and regulation are going to continue to shake up the social media landscape, as well as paid media. Privacy laws are only going to get stricter.
What does this mean for brands? They need to make sure that they own their customers, not relying on platforms and services they can’t control to successfully and profitably operate their business.
A business name and the creativity of the URL is so important. It’s an early part of the user experience and has the potential to be very engaging.
Zane Sebasovich, Subscription Growth Manager
Other than that, I’m not sure I know enough about domains and hosting to add any real value. But there have been a handful of domains I’ve seen that still surprise me, in a good way.
When marketing a certain brand, product, or service, a domain name that is short, catchy and memorable is much better.
Arslan Ashraf, Co-Founder at Data BI
A domain name that is the same as your company name is appropriate, but it can be slightly different. When marketing a certain brand, product, or service, a domain name that is short, catchy and memorable is much better. It can be the name of the brand, a keyword that describes your product or service, or a one or two-word abbreviation that cannot be translated directly but is similar to a brand or product. It’s very important to remember that a domain name should be close enough to the brand name so when your customers search for it, the brand name should appear easily without showing other irrelevant results.
Especially if you’re a start-up and don’t have a crazy amount of funds to promote your brand, having an appealing and interesting brand name can help break through the clutter, create curiosity for your brand, and can help tell a story.
Puneet Malhotra, Business Growth Catalyst
I think in this era of start-ups, having a brand name that tells a story and has an immediate impact is critical. Especially if you’re a start-up and don’t have a crazy amount of funds to promote your brand, having an appealing and interesting brand name can help break through the clutter, create curiosity for your brand, and can help tell a story.
Matching the domain name to the company’s brand name is absolutely essential for any business, especially start-ups and medium-sized companies.
David HACH SOEUR, Marketing/Luxury Branding Consultant & Content Creator
Matching the domain name to the company’s brand name is absolutely essential for any business, especially start-ups and medium-sized companies. This shows credibility to the public by extending the brand association linking the brand itself to any of its true extension accounts. However, some established brands can have more flexibility in choosing their version of their brand name on social media (e.g., Chanel’s official Instagram account is “chanelofficial”).
We hope you enjoyed reading all the above, we certainly did! If you want to say hi or have any questions about naming, branding, and domain names get in touch, we’re always happy to hear from you.
brand name branding digital marketing domain name domains marketing marketing strategy naming
Previous Next