We all make mistakes.
Some of mine have been spectacular.
I like to share those with you so you can learn from them and hopefully avoid tripping up in the same way.
Take my domain name debacle – and not just a domain but a product too.
Now, I make reasonable checks as anyone would and should when creating and naming a new product. I found nothing with the same name, happily snapped up the domain and set about creating and marketing my new baby.
It sold really well, helped a lot of people and I was all ready to add it to my stable of evergreen products that I continually update and expand when I got a letter from a law firm in California.
Bear in mind that I live in the UK and this was a surprise, to say the least.
As it turned out, my product had a similar name although not an exact match to a product owned by the United States Postal Service. And they were not happy. But, if I took mine down, they would back off.
I did the sensible thing and the thing I would advise you to do in the same circumstances…
I took down the domain and renamed the product. I not only renamed it, I revamped it and made it even better because…why not?
Then I gave it an even better name. Extraordinary Emails (once known as Irresistible Emails) launches tomorrow. So if you have it already, take note. And if you ever find yourself in the same circumstances, take note too. Far better to bow to an unfortunate situation, pivot and emerge a winner.
To help you do that, I’m going to give you some resources to help with that all-important naming of your business, brands and products. I know how hard it can be and also how vital it is to your success.
So let’s kick off with this from Shopify – a business name generator that also instantly checks if the relevant domain is available. Nifty!
https://www.shopify.co.uk/tools/business-name-generator
There’s also this brilliant name generator with lots of different categories that is powered by AI. It’s a lot of fun to use and can throw up some great ideas for you:
https://www.squadhelp.com/Name-Ideas
There’s also this excellent piece on how to check if a brand name is already taken – some of this advice only applies to the UK but is generally good:
And this which checks brand names for the US:
https://knowem.com/checktrademarkavailability.php
I also really like the tips given here for choosing great names:
https://www.articulatemarketing.com/blog/choose-a-great-company-name
Why is your brand or product name so important? Because it has to not only speak to your target audience but stick in their minds.
A name is something people see on your sites, sales pages and in your emails so make it something that really sings.
As for those emails – that’s what Extraordinary Emails is all about and it’s no coincidence I’m launching it now.
Email marketing is one of those things that has withstood the impact of the pandemic. Right now, you still get around 40 times back whatever you put into it.
I thought, therefore, it would be helpful to add a few email marketing tips that are relevant right now so you can make sure yours have as much impact as possible.
Let’s kick that off with this on email marketing during coronavirus with some really good advice:
I also like this on ensuring your emails are customer-focused and empathic:
https://jilt.com/blog/email-marketing-coronavirus/
And to make your emails look super professional, here’s a great signature generator for nada from Hubspot:
https://www.hubspot.com/email-signature-generator
Your TED talk this week is another I have chosen to inspire you at this time and it’s about how to overcome challenges by making sure you stop comparing yourself to others. Very timely:
