Creating Promotion-Friendly Brand Names

July 3, 2005

Branding is a monumental part of growing a business. And while I don’t have massive amounts of experience with developing brands, I do have a great deal of experience with promoting companies and brands online through press releases, articles, web copy, etc.

From an internet marketing perspective, I’ve worked with many brand names that are disastrous to promote and some that are sheer joy.

Here are some points to ponder about how your brand name may hold up in terms of online promotion.

Brand Names and Press Releases

The title and summary of a press release are where the most messages are conveyed. Most people will only see either the title or summary and will never click through to read the entirety of the content so I feel it’s important to include the company (brand) name in one or both of these areas.

You’ve got about 100 characters to work with for a press release title and perhaps 250 for a summary. Very long names hog up valuable real estate, leaving little room for a compelling hook.

It can be difficult to find short and sweet company names today with so many great domains already taken. But from a writer’s perspective, I promise you won’t regret a shorter name once you have to try to work it into a title or into body copy repeatedly.

Brand Names and Article Titles

No doubt everyone understands the importance of a catchy headline. Brands that are versatile in meaning or work as verbs are much easier to turn into catchy headlines. It’s fun to write headlines like “The Rotten Side of Apple,” or “How Often do you Google Yourself?” But trying to work in ATLAnta Home Mortgage Refinance Company Inc. can be very limiting.

Brand Names and Web Copy

At the same time, ATLAnta Home Mortgage Refinance Company Inc would probably be beneficial in terms of search engine rankings with so many rich keywords that can be placed throughout the website content. There are many times when a keyword rich company name allows you get more keywords into the body copy naturally.

Not everyone will be an Apple or a Google or a Volkswagen. So do you go for the search engine rankings with a keyword rich brand name or please humans with something fun and unique? It’s important to remember that search engines are designed to give humans what they want.

Regardless of where search engines are in their current technology, they will always strive to give human beings the best results so it is always smart to make decisions based on people first and search engines second.