One of the biggest keys to the success of a business is consistency. Your brand, mission, design, products, services and interactions should all paint the same picture about your company. This notion is often forgotten when determining which domain to use.
A domain name is an extension of your brand and identity. Your marketing efforts are similarly based on your identity and if they don’t go well with your domain, you’ll lose effectiveness.
For that reason, a good way to narrow down your domain options is to consider how you intend to market your business. The ways you reach potential customers and what they respond best to can make a major difference in how one domain name would work vs. another.
How can your marketing help determine your ideal domain name?
1. Social vs. search
Will your primary means of getting people to your site be through social media or other “reaching out” type of marketing? Or will you focus on being more prominent in search so people can find you easier?
Exact match generic URLs would help with SEO (though not as much as they used to) and may indicate more trust and authority than a brandable name via search. On the other hand, if you’re directly interacting with a lot of people or otherwise putting your brand out there, having something nicely brandable may benefit you more.
2. Offline marketing
Is your business going to be strictly offline or heavily reliant on offline marketing? Having a domain name that’s easier to spell, type and say may suit you better. Also consider the memorability of the domain, especially if people may be seeing or hearing it while away from a computer. You want people to be reliably able to remember it and type it in without any typos or misspellings.
3. Who you’re marketing to
Who will your customers be? What appeals to them? For instance, if your business will be children-oriented, then clearly a name like Professional Widgets won’t work for you. On the other hand, Goo Goo Gaga would be a poor name for an investment firm which would target an older more serious crowd.
4. Your marketing tone
Even within an industry, the kinds of names that work well can vary quite a bit. Different marketing tones can lead to different domain names working better. A good example is the car insurance industry:
Esurance plays up its online ease of use.
Progressive used a name indicative of its revolutionary quote comparison service.
State Farm goes the traditional naming route, which helps convey its more established and trusted presence.
The names are varied but all of them work well for their respective companies.
5. Display advertising
Whether online or offline, is your focus to wow visitors with a nice display ad? How your name LOOKS may be highly important in this case. Does it look elite, or does it look awkward?
Ultimately, the thing to realize is that no one can tell you a right answer on the best URL to use without knowing about your business. Likewise, you shouldn’t make your domain name decision without having your business planned out a little more. You’ll better understand what kind of name would suit you best and will have an easier search.
We can help you figure out which domain would fit best with your marketing and identity. Contact us to get the right domain for your business.