The story behind Trainual began long before the software was even created. Chris Ronzio, Founder and CEO, talks about his entrepreneurial journey.

What is the story behind Trainual?

The story behind Trainual began long before the software was even created. I started and ran a national video production company in high school through my early 20’s. Through running that business, I learned why standard operating procedures are so important. We failed on a major project and I realized that having a system to keep everything organized and everyone on the same page is key to a successful business.

I sold the business and started an operation consulting business where I helped tons of clients perfect the systems in their business. It was during this time that I worked with my team to create Trainual, a software that could house all of the processes and systems we were organizing. Once my clients started wanting Trainual more than my consulting services, I knew I had something. I stopped consulting and dove headfirst into Trainual with my small team and launched to the public in 2018.

Two and a half years later, we’re a team of 38 serving over 4,000 companies in over 120 countries.

When did you start thinking about your brand name and how did you settle on Trainual?

I honestly landed on the name Trainual during a brainstorming session with my wife. I was trying to be clever and I literally mashed together with the words ‘training’ and ‘manual.’ Nobody close to me liked it at first, but I’m happy to say it’s grown on everyone!

How did you get the domain name Trainual.com for your brand? Why did you select that one exactly?

Because I basically made up the word, trainual.com wasn’t in high demand. So it was easy to purchase.

How has owning Trainual.com affected your business? Do you own any other domain names?

Having Trainual.com and not .co or another TLD has made us easier to search. We’ve also purchased a few misspellings of Trainual.com since it’s a made-up word. We want to make sure we capture all the traffic that’s searching for us.

Who is your target customer and how is your brand name helping in reaching them?

Our target customers are business leaders and HR professionals from small to midsize companies. We service industries from all across the board, we serve any business that has repeatable processes to document, regardless of their industry.

How do you keep your brand consistent across different channels online and offline?

We have a Subject on brand guidelines in our Trainual for it! We’ve identified what our colors, tone, voice, and everything in between is and we keep it in one spot (Trainual!) so that all of our team members can access the information when they go to talk about us or post about us on any channel. This ensures consistency across the board.

Has the pandemic affected your company in any way? What has changed since?

We’re fortunate to run a tool that supports remote work really well, and one that a lot of companies are now realizing that they need. The only thing that’s changed are pieces of our marketing messaging, speaking more to the remote workforce and less about scaling and growth.

What do you do to make sure your marketing is effective?

My brother, Jonathan, is our CMO so he runs all things marketing. He and I have always kept our marketing authentic and relatable, keeping up with what our customers are dealing with on a day-to-day basis, and being there to solve their biggest pain points. We have a personable approach that’s very different from traditional B2B marketing. We lean more towards DTC when it comes to our strategy and we stand out by blending in. We aim to create content that people are used to seeing in their social feeds from their friends or favorite lifestyle brands.

What would your advice be to entrepreneurs who are just starting out, in general, and when it comes to branding and naming?

When it comes to branding and naming, the advice I would give is to just get creative and be authentic. As I mentioned before, Trainual came from me literally just thinking of as many words as I could and combining them in different ways. And stay true to who you are and the vision that you have for your company. If I wouldn’t have trusted my gut and taken others’ comments with a grain of salt, we wouldn’t have the brand we do today!

Where do you see your business in the future and how does your brand name fit into that vision?

I see Trainual continuing to grow in pursuit of our mission, that every business has a playbook. A playbook is essentially a company’s training manual — which is the essence of our brand name. It’s a collection of all of their how-tos and need-to-knows, and we want to make it as easy as possible to capture all of that information for any business.

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We hope this will be of use to you in the process of getting your perfect domain name. If you have any questions, need any help or just want to chat with someone about the process, book a free consultation at MarkUpgrade, we are always happy to hear from you.