Category: Blog

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Quick guidelines for a good name 2017

There is no precise right or wrong when it comes to naming your business, project, product or publication but here are a few things you should probably think about an include in your decision making process. These are things I wish I had considered when naming my biz back in 2000.

  1. Name Brainstorming
  2. First round of searching (just google it.)
  3. Domain name research
  4. Social media account research (and is it short enough for twitter?)
  5. Trademark research
  6. SECURE IT ALL

Brainstorm it

There are so many ways to brainstorm a name and it varies based on how many people are involved. That’s not the main focus of this article so I’m going to skip forward. I want you to think about what comes after this first step so that you get set up well online and across social media.

First round of searching (google it):

  • Does the name you want already exist in use?
  • In your industry?
  • As a major brand that will lead to confusion?
  • Is it REALLY hard to spell?

Domain names search:

  • Always try and buy the .com version of your name. Even if you want something short and cute that uses say .us or another ending, look for the .com and weight the cost of someone else having the .com version of your name. It’s not always a deal breaker but it weights heavily against a name if the .com is not available. There is a workaround … dashes.
  • Dashes are fine in a domain name but no more than 2. Ideally no more than one. It won’t hurt or help your SEO.
  • Domain names should not include “the” in most cases.

Social media:

  • No more than 15 characters because that’s max for twitter. Even if you don’t want to use twitter you should keep it in mind and secure your account.
  • No dashes allowed for social media versions.
  • You should keep the social media names consistent in case you ever automate posts across two or more platforms. So if the name you want isn’t available across the core set of platforms and any relevant to your industry, you might want to consider something else.
  • Even if you don’t want to use them, you should have at a minimum: Facebook page, Twitter account, Instagram account. There’s value in people being able to tag and link to your account which should link to your website. Snapchat I’m close to recommending for all businesses … but Instagram and Facebook are taking what works there so it’s not become a hard and fast rule yet. LinkedIn would also be good but it’s a pain to set up.
  • There’s a LONG list of other social media you should look at and consider also have depending on your business, your target markets and more.

Trademark research

  • Basic 1st pass can be done by anyone: http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/
  • If you’re really serious and/or think there’s any chance you might be in an iffy area, you probably want to hire a lawyer that specializes in Trademarks.

Before you do ANYTHING publicly!

  • Domain names MUST be purchased and social media accounts registered before you send any marketing out to anyone EVER. This is this thing called domain name squatting where someone sees and unregistered name and takes it and can hold it hostage. This has started happening some with social media as well. I have a few times purchased domain names and passed them along to people without markup who made the mistake of mailing postcards without first buying their domain name.

Extras

DBA? 

Depending on where you live, you may also need to register as a DBA (doing business as) or get other areas of your legal house in order particularly if this is for a business and not just a major product done by your business.

When writing about your business/product/project/publication:

Name of a business, publication, product or entity does not need to include dashes unless we’re talking about something like “Co-op” but in text it doesn’t need to be something like Spirit-of-Cooperation unless it’s actually the domain name and has the .com at the end.

Why yes, Fascination Design DOES offer naming assistance & account setup. 🙂 Give us a shout and we can help you get it all set up right.

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Are your email newsletters (eblasts) legal?

Did you know that there are laws regarding email newsletters?
 
Some of the basics you must have are:
  • A visible and operable unsubscribe mechanism is present in all emails.
  • A legitimate physical address of the publisher and/or advertiser is present. PO Box addresses are acceptable in compliance with 16 C.F.R. 316.2(p) and if the email is sent by a third party, the legitimate physical address of the entity, whose products or services are promoted through the email should be visible.
  • A message cannot be sent to a harvested email address.
That last one includes the fact that you can’t purchase lists that weren’t obtained legitimately. Such as buying lists from a company that scrapped whois data or harvested from a public directory. So if you are buying lists (which is not recommended) you really need to know how those addresses were collected.
What I’m actually referencing above is the 2003 “Can-Spam Act” (which is a horrible name for an act but easy to remember.) If you want to read over in detail, visit:
https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business
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Getting a direct link for customers to leave a Google Review

As you may or may not know, Google gutted Google+ awhile back and it made it much much more difficult to create a link directly to google for your customers to leave a review.

The new way isn’t as easy but it is doable. There are some new tools that have made it easier. Try this: https://supple.com.au/tools/ google-review-link-generator/

When you’re done just take out the “.au” bit in the extension if you or your client is in the U.S..

Mine looks like this:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Fascination+Design&ludocid=7593044085283186827=0x0:0x695fe95dab2f688b,1

OR

https://www.google.com/search?q=Fascination+Design&ludocid=7593044085283186827&lrd=0x0:0x695fe95dab2f688b,1

In case the above google review tool above ever breaks, here are the key elements:

  1. The query for your exact business name (Ex: “Fascination+Design”),
  2. the CID #
  3. and google’s LRD number

Google-Review-Link-code

Here’s some help for finding your google CID:

And the LRD # is the piece of google’s code that causes the review to pop up on the screen. If you drop it from the end, you simply get a google search page. This LRD code is consistently as follows:

  • &lrd=0×0:0×695fe95dab2f688b,1
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Soliciting feedback from friends & family

In a field that is very subjective  such as design (or art or writing) it’s best not to ask people if they “like or don’t like” something during the creation process.

Instead ask:

  • “is there anything that is unclear or confusing?”
  • “were you able to find information you were looking for or expecting to see?”
  • “how does this make you feel? Confident? Frustrated?”

It’s also a good idea to understand the difference between valuable and invaluable feedback. If you ask your cousin Bob what he thinks and he says “I hate the green” and cousin Bob always hates green, it is a personal preference and not a good reason to change your website.

It’s not the same as having 10 different people say they dislike the color pallet as their first response. That you should pay attention to. (But not if you asked “don’t you hate the color pallet” when collecting the feedback. People will want to be agreeable when there’s nothing at stake for them.)

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Paid, Owned, Earned marketing approach {article worth sharing}

The Marketer’s Approach to Balancing a Paid, Owned, and Earned Social Media Strategy – via SumAll http://blog.sumall.com/journal/marketers-approach-balancing-paid-owned-earned-social-media-strategy.html

Some Key takeaways:

“…The ‘paid, owned, earned’ approach. The idea is essentially that all marketing falls into three different categories.

First there is the media that you pay for. This is traditional advertisements and promotions.

Then there is media that you own – think blog content, visuals and other offerings that you or your team will create.

And finally, there is the Holy Grail of marketing– earned media. This is the fabled word-of-mouth that everyone is always talking about.”

. . . . .

“… without doing or collecting things worth talking about, brands just end up talking about themselves. Not only does nobody listen to, or interact with shameless self-promoters, it actually turns users off to your brand.”

Hilary’s Note: This second takeaway is one I see small businesses doing all of the time. They think that marketing is standing on the soap box and just shouting that they exist and expecting people to care. And it’s even worse when they won’t acknowledge that they could at least talk about the benefits or unique qualities of their product or service.

In the case of some products or services it doesn’t even have to be words. With clothes or jewelry for example, a good photo, as they say, is worth a 1000 words (though some descriptions for SEO reasons are also important when online.)

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Be your best self in business
& stop trying to be something you aren’t

I want to scream anytime someone says :
• “I want to be like xyz company because they seem to be making money”
It’s very unlikely your business will really flourish with this mindset.

You can’t just say “oh that business looks like they’re making money I want some of that pie” particularly if you don’t know how they got where they are today … or don’t want to put the time or money into it. OR worse, you want to make money but think that they charge too much so you want to be like them but cheaper without sacrificing quality … and without first reviewing what business expenses might be. I have heard it SO many times in my life it’s not even funny anymore.

You need to be your best self in business:
• “I have these core values and my business provides a valuable product/service for this need/desire/problem”

But I want to make a boatload of cash!

Money isn’t magic. Money also isn’t evil. Money is certificates of appreciation for something you sell or offer that someone else values. Money is a standardization of value instead of trading goats for crops and vice versa. Whether it fills a basic need, a desire or fixes a problem, people pay because it fulfills something in their lives. Physically or emotionally.

See also: Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs.

What makes you you?

Trying to be someone else means that you are less unique and have less to offer the world. And therefor people are less likely to give you those certificates of appreciation we call money. This doesn’t mean your business can’t be similar to someone else’s just that it needs to focus on what makes you unique. USP or Unique Selling Proposition.

Yell it from the rooftops!

So what about marketing? No matter how awesome your service or product is, “Build it an they will come” is not a reliable business marketing plan. Whether you market traditionally (magazines, tv or radio) or via more current method (social media, website, streaming radio) you need to have a USP and some effort put into spreading the word.

Do you still really want to BE amazon.com or Google or Apple or Microsoft or other large national organization?

If so, you really need to just go apply for a job with them.