What’s In a Name?
One very important marketing tool is your company name, though you wouldn’t think so if you looked at some of your competitors’ names.
Just why is this such an important marketing tool? Well, I can give 4 important reasons right now. And I could probably pull a few more reasons out of my hat if I tried. But here are the four I KNOW will make a difference in your marketing plan.
1. It needs to be available as a domain name. Since 72% of people in the United States now use the Internet instead of the big,expensive-to-advertise-in yellow phone book, you have to be easy to find on the Internet. You MUST have a website or at least a minisite ( I’ll explain the difference in another lesson.) for your business. And your business name should be the same as your website’s domain name. For example, your company is David’s Lawncare so the domain you want is davidslawncare.com (you could also buy the .net domain and redirect it to your .com domain, but at the very least, you need to have the .com domain since this is the most often used extension by people searching the Internet for your company.) If the domain isn’t available and you haven’t already invested a great deal of effort or money in branding yourself, you may consider changing your name to one that is available as a .com domain. It isn’t very cohesive to have a business name of David’s Lawncare and a domain name of “betterqualitylawncare.com”, because your potential customers will never mentally connect the two.
2. Your name needs to CLEARLY communicate exactly what you do. Anyone who sees your name on the side of a truck, or in an ad or on your uniforms, must know what your service is without trying too awfully hard (people don’t like to have to figure things out for themselves – so let’s help them). When you see a sign that says “Mike’s Automotive” do you know what service that company performs? Automotive what? Mechanical repairs? Auto body repairs? Wheels and Tires? Automotive accessories? Do you see my point? Make it easy for someone to decide that you can solve their problem – don’t leave them wondering if they should even call you.
3. Your name needs to be easy to say and write. Why? Because, when your customer’s neighbor asks him who does his lawn service, you want your customer to be able to tell him your company name without fumbling around. This way, when his neighbor decides to “look you up” (either on the Internet or the phone book) he’ll be able to find you. If your company bears your last name (as many do) and your last name does not have an obvious spelling – you can put it together here – “Rennich’s Lawn care” or was that “Renick’s Lawncare”, do you catch what I’m saying here?
4. Your name needs to be easy to remember – without confusing it. Your prospective customer sees your name on your truck and then 8 hours later tries to find your name on Google. If your name is “AAA Superior Lawncare Service”(VERY generic and obviously created for the now outdated Yellow Pages phone book) your prospective customer may not remember if it was 2 A’s or 3 A’s or was it Superior or Quality Lawncare? But if your name is “1-800-LAWNCARE” and your phone number is 1-800-LAWNCARE and your website is “1800lawncare.com” (by the way, this one’s already taken, sorry) then just how hard will it be for your prospective customer to remember you, and find you when they need your service? Gone are the days of creating a generic name just to show up at the top of the Yellow Pages listing. Nowadays many people (and probably a very large percentage of your target demographic) search phone numbers and services on the Internet. And guess what – Google doesn’t care what your name starts with, Google only cares if your webpage has significant relevance. And the online “phone books” usually list in order of distance from the inquiry source (your prospective customer’s home).
So, if you haven’t already invested a significant amount of money in your current name, and your current name doesn’t quite stand up to the above measuring sticks, you may want to put some creative muscle behind a new name.
When looking for your domain names, there’s lots of tools at domainnamesoup.com. It takes a little bit of getting used to, but there’s an exhaustive list of tools
Actually, just your company name as a domain name isn’t enough, as a matter of fact most potential customers will not be searching for your company by name. They will be searching by keywords and location. Chances of ranking high in those searches with your company name are slim unless you really know what you are doing. The first thing you think about when choosing a domain name is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) . Go ahead search you city and lawn care or landscaping and see if any company named websites pop up near the top.
Thanks Randy. You are correct about how people search for ANY lawncare company. But if someone is looking for YOUR contact info because they have seen you around their neighborhood all season, make it easy for them to find you. In light of your comment, may I suggest that as cheap as it is to register domain names, a lawn care company could easily register several domains that are keyword rich for their services in their locality and just redirect all of them to their company name website.
By the way, you have a nice website. I’ll be checking it out frequently.