Christening Your Web Business - Tips, Mistakes and Trends You Need to be Aware of

While planning your business, you must be thinking what's in a name? Well, a lot, as far as the success of your business is concerned. The name of business can either make or break your business and can be viewed as the final element of a well designed site. The right name can generate buzz and the wrong name can overwhelm a great message and lead to failure and obscurity. In an ideal situation, the name of your company should convey value, expertise and uniqueness of the services and products that you've developed.

Some analysts and naming experts believe that the best names of a business are abstract, where you can create any image of a blank slate. On the other hand, there are some others who prefer their business names to be informative so that the customers know immediately what your business deals with. Some think that newly coined names are more memorable and others think that names that use real words are more likely to be remembered. In reality, any name can have an effect on the customers if it is backed by a proper marketing tactic. Read on to know some facts on choosing a name for your business.

Biggest Trends in Selecting a Business Name

If you're presently working on naming a business or re-branding an existing name, here is a list of the latest trends and few tips to choosing a savvy one.

• Newly coined words.
Instead of borrowing some foreign terms and words and keeping them as names of your business, companies like Acura, Skype, Zynga and many more invented their own names by coining new words. However you need to be careful while adopting this strategy as if you're planning to create a massive ad campaign with the aim of making your brand a household name, your business might be hurt with obscurity. This is primarily because such names don't have a meaning. However, these names can work well for a catchy design being short and amiable to visual manipulation.
• Combining 2 words.
The best example of this trend should be Facebook! This is a brand which is easy to say, easy to remember and easy to spell as well. This strategy can work wonders for about any kind of business.
• Misspelled words.
Utilizing an already existing word but eliminating a letter gives the name a modern twist. Think of the names Digg and Tumblr. However, you should keep in mind that the customers will be able to pronounce your name, but they may be less intuitive to recognize you online.
• Acronym or initials.
Have you heard of the famous retailer IKEA? They can be the perfect example of using initials in naming a business. Naming a business with initials might confuse people as they won't know what your business is all about and when looking for brandable domain names for your 3 or 4-letter acronym, you won't get them available.

Mistakes to Avoid While Naming Your Company

Naming a business is more like laying the foundation stone of a building and a single mistake can have a costly impact. Here are some mistakes to avoid.

• Employing the strategy of playing with parts of speech. When an owner is forced to come up with an interesting name for his business, he might just choose an adjective and weld into its noun form, then colliding the 2 words to making a new word. The results are often awful sounding names. So, avoid mixing chocolate syrup with ketchup!
• Using words that are too plain. If you're the first company in such a category, you can go on. But once you have enough competition, you require giving a different name. Can you imagine Yahoo being names generally with GeneralInternetDirectory.com? That would be hardly memorable and wouldn't create an impact on the users too. So, the idea is to be Unique!
• Making the name a clichÃ?©. Once you start thinking of names, your thought will generally turn towards metaphors. Although there's nothing that is inherently wrong in such names, but they seem to be too overworked. Instead, if you look for some combinations of positive words, you will probably be better served.
• Making the name too obscure. It is indeed great to have a special name for your business but in case the reference is too obscure and tough to pronounce and spell, the customers might simply pass you as something irrelevant. So, be careful if you're choosing a name too obscure.

Your branding process, whichever might be the strategy that you adopt, should reflect the nature of your venture. Just because something is new and modern, it doesn't mean that it will be appropriate for you, even on the internet. Consider the demographic which you're serving or the type of business you have and then try your best to craft a domain name that speaks a lot about your business values.