We all want to stand out. We want our companies, our products, even our ideas and faces to leave an indelible mark on the people who see, hear or simply experience the niche we have carved out as our own. There is no decision more crucial to this end than choosing our name, whether it be a business name or product name, but more relevant in modern industry is the domain name. Is it possible to be unique and still sit on the tip of every target consumer’s tongue?
There’s no one else like you
It’s tempting and ambitious to want to use one’s own name, or their favorite uncle or their childhood pet, and while Abigail’s Copywriting or Leon’s Organic Candles or Bingo’s Mortuary might definitely be one-of-a-kind, are they easy to remember and hard to forget? It’s easy to imagine big neon signs and business cards and clever logos, but remember that we’re talking about a domain name. Here at the pinnacle of cutting edge technology and marketing, it is almost like we’re going back to listening to Annie Oakley on the radio. We have a small chance to get attention and keep it, without images, without an object, with just one line of plain Courier letters. It is unlikely that our would-be buyers will write it down. It has to somehow waft into their brains and take hold. It has to be unique and new, veiled in old and typical. There are two key ways in which to accomplish this make or break feat. They are familiarity and the reliable human brain. Use one or the other, or if a homerun is the desired outcome, find a way to use them both.
Using ideas your consumer has already learned
Familiarity is one way in which you can have some breadth and creative license. What do your prospective customers find familiar? Is it the name of their town, their neighborhood, the color of the local high school jerseys or the highway where your business is located? They may not know you yet, but there are lots of things connected to you and your venture that they know very well, that they will remember and even subconsciously want to learn more about. There is a marked improvement when we consider Cooper Copywriting, Washington Wicks or Monarch Mortuary.
Reinventing the wheel
The intricate ways in which we can train and manipulate the human brain have been used and abused since the ad men perfected the practice. However, even before and away from marketing and sales, these mental lessons have been used to help students study, to train animals and correct and control many types of human behavior. These are the reasons why some songs are remembered forever and some never catch on. The brain is attracted to patterns and rhythm, rhyme and repetition. Even composition classes in school teach us how to write in a more pleasing way that draws a reader into our story. Your business is a story and your domain name is the very first invitation. Your customers must want to be a part of your story. Imagine the extra morsel of meter in CooperCopy.com, WicksNSticks.org or MonarchyMortuaries.net. These steps can be applied to any light bulb looming over some entrepreneurial head.