Rebranding can be an important step in helping your business grow and this process should be highly throughout, t’s crossed and i’s dotted!
So you come up with a new name? Great! Now get that exact match .com domain name, because it’s important. Really important! Do not add a hyphen because the domain is cheaper, or go with a .net or .whatever because you will be spending unneeded energy to explain how people find you on the web! Keep it simple stupid.
I can not express the importance of “making sense”, keeping it simple and owning the exact match .com domain name to your brand, product or service.
If you do not know how to purchase a domain name that is already owned by somebody, hire somebody like myself or another domain name buyer broker that does. If you can’t secure the domain, reconsider your budget or reconsider the name! It’s that big of a deal!
Real life example
Hyperloop Technologies, with over $90 million in funding decided it’s name is confusingly similar to a competitor Hyperloop Transportation Technologies and they decide a new company name will help eliminate the confusion.
The new name decided upon is Hyperloop One. Ok, cool!
Simply Hyperloop would have been wise, but SpaceX owns the domain and Elon Musk is the person who put the challenge to others to create the system. Hyperloop.com is out of the question unless a deal could have been struck with SpaceX.
Keeping with the “system” name, Hyperloop, they simply add on the term One. Is that one or 1? Confusion already, and fails the “radio test” but is avoidable with owning both domain names Hyperloop1.com and HyperloopOne.com and redirecting the one that is not the main focus to the other!
The problem for the newly rebranded Hyperloop Technologies and it’s new brand name Hyperloop One?
14 days is the problem! 14 days prior to Hyperloop Technologies securing the exact match domain name HyperloopOne.com brand name, somebody else registered the domain name on March 23, 2016. Move forward those fourteen days and Hyperloop Technologies registers the domain name Hyperloop-One.com on April 6, 2016. The dreaded hyphen. People don’t like to look at you, nor type you!
Since Hyperloop One is Hyperloop-one.com on the web, this is a problem. How many emails are going to go to HyperloopOne.com? How many direct navigation’s to HyperloopOne.com instead of Hyperloop-One.com? What looks more professional: HyperloopOne.com or Hyperloop-One.com?
Ugh! The fresh new name and an ugly domain! A new paint job with a scratch. A new car with a dent. A new pair of jeans with a broken zipper! Still functional, not pleasing.
Will it hurt the company? Likely, but the biggest problem is the domain name creates confusion and are the efforts of constantly expressing the hyphen worth it? Are the potentially missed emails worth it? Is branding your company on a hyphenated domain name worth the risk of competing with others looking more professional having an exact match domain?
Eliminate confusion and keep it simple! Be professional. Use an exact match domain!
In my opinion, this company should terminate their marketing team. Terrible decision to register the hyphen. Surely, they knew before the registration or HyperloopOne.con that they wanted to rebrand.
All it takes to get this message across is to talk to a few hundred million people individually.
Tell you what, Jamie! Sooner or later we all go to Disneyland. Let’s you and me go camp out in the “Goofy” section of the parking lot, distributing leaflets and shaking people 1 at a time by the shoulders. Eventually, we’ll have the human race mostly covered.
It’s frustrating when these things happen but thankfully it is happening a lot less than in years past and many more companies are waking up to the fact that they need to go EMD! I’ll keep talking about it and hopefully we can all help others who need the help acquiring the best domain name for them.
Stand outside Disneyland and hand out flyers to brokers that use a LinkedIn URL and not their own website when leaving comments.
Unless a company comes to you and asks for help there is no use educating them.
@Adam,
What are you insinuating? I don’t comment on Jamie’s blog in order to promote a website.