What Does Your Dot Com Say About You?

A couple of weeks ago, my brother was driving down the highway when he noticed a decked out truck loaded with LED lights. The vehicle wrap indicated that the truck belonged to a company specializing in the lights. The wrap talked all about how technologically advanced the company was.

My brother was intrigued. He's the kind of guy that when he's not patrolling the seas with the Coast Guard, he's hooked on the latest tech gadgets and technology.

From a marketing perspective, the vehicle was a success.

Except for one minor detail.

The contact information? It was an @aol.com email address - not a company email address.

Of course the first thing my brother did (when he was done laughing) was to call me.

"I've got a great blog for you," he said. "Here's this company promoting itself as being so technologically advanced - but they have an AOL email address?"

And so here we are. What does YOUR dot com say about you?

Branding Yourself

First of all - let's address the whole "email address" thing. Yes - having a company email address is going to cost you a few extra bucks a year. But for less than $50 in most cases, is it worth NOT properly branding yourself?

I see it all of the time. Restaurant owners. Car dealerships. Even law firms. How the heck do you expect people to take you seriously as a progressive business if you don't even have the name of your business in your email address? Nothing screams "I work out of my parents' basement" like an AOL email address.

Picking A Business Name

Want to know what else I see all of the time? Businesses that think they are getting creative by having a funky spelling as part of their business name. For example - "Beere On Tap" or "Clothing Bi Dezign". I get that half of the people searching are lousy at spelling. But INTENTIONALLY spelling your business name wrong? You're just setting yourself up for digital search failure.

And what about when picking the actual URL for your company name? I get it, I get it. Someone beat you to buying your business name. But the solution isn't to make your URL LONGER. How about getting more creative by SHORTENING it?

Let's take our business, for example. Our website is www.TheSilentPartnerMarketing.com. Even THAT is arguably too long. But if it was already taken, I probably would have gone with an abbreviation of it - such as SPM.com (which someone else already owned, in this case). I wouldn't have gone with something likewww.WeAreTheBestMarketingFirmYouveEverSeenInYourLife.com.

I recently heard a radio commercial in Massachusetts by a company that spent the entire :60 spot teaching people how to say the name of their business. I still have no idea what the business does. Hint: if you need to teach people how to say your name...chances are you're wasting the opportunity to sell them on your unique selling proposition.

Picking A Geographic URL

Another common mistake I've seen when picking out a dot com is when a business puts a geographic location in the URL to try and maximize their search engine optimization locally.

The biggest problem with this? They've now made themselves location-specific, and when they decide they want to expand regionally or nationally, they've pigeon-holed themselves.

The same mistake can be made when it comes to picking a specific industry. For example, if you name your business Automotive Expertise - you probably won't find easy sales when it comes to trying to close a deal with a law firm or a restaurant on the consulting side.

The Bottom Line

You are your brand...and your brand is YOU. Make sure that from a marketing perspective, you have a consistent and cohesive message. You'd hate to lose a sale because people thought you were still operating like it's 1999.

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POSTED BY

Kyle Reyes is the President and Creative Director of The Silent Partner Marketing, New England's #1 Marketing Agency. We're a boutique marketing firm focused on helping businesses grow in an age of exploding technology. You can find him on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.