How To Choose A Unique And Original Brand Name For Your Blog Or Business
Wondering how to choose a unique and original brand name for your blog or business?
Choosing a blog or business name can feel pretty intimidating. It can make you feel quite vulnerable, after all, you’re creating something new and you have no idea of the reaction it could produce in others.
But it also doesn’t have to feel so overwhelming. Here are some things to consider when you are trying to choose a unique and original brand name for your business.
How To Choose A Unique And Original Brand Name For Your Blog Or Business
Now you might have already chosen your brand or blog’s name, or you have a few ideas, or you have none…
No stress! In this post, I wanted to run you through the steps that have helped me in the past generate blog name ideas and how to choose business names, as well as what to look out for in the process, including:
- How to choose your brand’s name if you have no idea where to start
- When and why to choose your personal name as your brand name
- How to make sure you choose a great name from the start
Let’s go!
Your Personal Name or Unique Brand Name? How to choose between a brand name or a personal name.
Now after reading that last sentence you’ll probably have a clear gut reaction of which way you’re going to go!
Now, will you use your personal name? Using your personal name is popular these days and works really well to create authenticity and relatability with your audience.
It’s really up to you which way you’d like to go – there’s no right or wrong.
Here are the main differences to get you thinking:
Personal Name
- Building a personal brand
- You are essentially The Brand
- Authentic and relatable
- Flexible products and services
- Great for solopreneurs
- Great if you would like to develop a speaking career
- Your personal brand won’t state what to do or who you serve
- Harder to sell a personality-based business
Brand Name
- Building a blog business brand
- The brand you create is The Brand
- Can seem impersonal
- Not as flexible if you’re niche, products or services change and evolve
- Easier to sell
- Easier to step away from and allow a team to run
There’s no reveal without risk. And there’s no creativity without being revealing.
– Danielle LaPorte
Brand · Blog ·
Business Name Ideas
How to choose a brand name even if you have no ideas
If you have no idea where to start, or what to call your brand, blog or business – feel free to download the naming worksheet that I’ve created, and start brainstorming! You can get it in our secret blogger’s vault for free.
I recommend when you’re choosing your brand name; choose a unique or original name – it’s the most crucial step is standing out online.
Write a list of all the words that relate to your niche, adjectives, verbs, phrases you like, words that convey your brand’s mood and tone, words that explain what your brands about.
Consider:
- What value does your brand provide to others?
- What three words do you want people to associate with your brand?
- Which brand or blog names do you love? Is there anything about them that strikes you as similar?
Then play around by mixing and matching the words together to create some unique combinations!
Once you’ve hopefully found a name you love or a couple of ideas or phrases that you’re drawn to it’s time to check them against our naming criteria to find the best name for you and your brand from the start.
Future Proof Your Brand Name: How to choose a great name from the start
If you’ve chosen to use your personal name as your brand name, awesome you’re all clear to skip this step.
Over the years I’ve come up with about 5 brand names for different ventures that I’ve pursued. For me, naming comes fairly easily. I do my naming exercises and tend to have I gut instinct about one immediately and I know that’s the name.
But, just recently I learned the hard way to do a little extra checking to make sure you have the right name from the start! For me, my name’s undoing was SEO (something you might not think to check before choosing our name) but more on that soon.
Choosing a great name from the start is important! Renaming down the track is such a pain because you have to update everything:
- from your logo
- to your social channels
- to your domain (not to mention transferring your site to your new domain)
- and possibly looking at all that brand goodwill and seo you’ve built up.
A lot of effort you could be spending by growing the right brand from the start!
Consider the following about your desired brand name:
- Does this name reflect your niche?
- Does this name attract your desired target audience?
- Does this name have any negative feelings that could turn your audience off?
If your brand name has made it this far, awesome! It sounds like it’s a great fit. Now we’ll just check that it’s a good strategic pick too…
Intellectual Property Check
Now it’s time to check the brand name is a good strategic pick too. It’s important to check rights and make sure the name isn’t someone else’s Intellectual Property.
- Does this name infringe on any Trademarks?
Now if you’re creating a blog this shouldn’t be anything to worry about… yet.
But one day you might like to turn your blog into a business. You might like to create your own line of products, have a book deal or start your unique empire.
Who knows where this journey could lead! And if it all does go well, you don’t want to be worrying about infringing on someone elses Intellectual Property – it’s not nice, it causes unnecessary stress, and it’s just plain bad for business.
To find out, just do a quick Trademark search:
- World Intellectual Property Organization
- United States Trademark Search
- Australian Trademark Search
- European Union Trademark Search
Or type into Google “(Your Countries Name) Trademark Search”
If it produces no results, awesome. But if it does, it’s probably best to pick your other name.
Keyword Research
Something else important to check before naming your blog or business is to investigate the name as a searched keyword.
- Is your brand name a high ranking keyword
Now you may be thinking, if lots of people are already searching for my brand name – this is a good sign right?
Well yes and no… See this actually means it’s a popular search term – which might be great for traffic, but the thing is, this potential brand name already has competition, which you may or may not be able to rank for.
Imagine you do a ton of work on your website, only to find out that your brand name is your competitors’ keyword. Which they are ranking in everything for already.
The worst-case scenario in this event is that readers and potential customers may do a google search with the intent of finding your website (because they can’t remember your URL).
This is called a Navigation Intent and this should be taken seriously because as your brand grows so will your navigational searches.
So if this happens, and your brand isn’t number one or isn’t on page one of Google (or other search engines), you’re just sending your readers and potential customers straight into the arms of the competition.
They were looking for you, but couldn’t find you and so google has offered the best alternative they could find…
Do a Google search for your potential brand name
Type this name into Google and it will bring up the top-ranking results. Now if your ideal brand name is highlighted in their title and description it’s a good chance that’s one of their keywords.
- Do you see your competitors in your niche?
- Are the search results quite unrelated to your niche?
Do a search in the Google Keyword Planner for your potential brand name
- What’s the search volume like?
The lower the better the competition, the better. That way your brand name is unique and original. You need to know how to do keyword research if this is new.
A phrase that people are already searching for in high volumes is a warming sign for this potential brand name
- Is that domain name available?
Enter your domain name of choice into the box below to see if it’s available:
How To Choose A Unique And Original Brand Name For Your Blog Or Business – Conclusion
When you’re choosing your brand’s name; choose a unique or original name – It cuts through the competition and will make it so much easier for your brand to be found online!
I’ve created a Naming Worksheet that you can download to help you choose a unique and original brand name.
I hope those naming steps I’ve developed in my own journey are of value to you as well! Remember, have fun with it and remember to ultimately choose a unique name.
Let me know in the comments if you have any advice of your own for picking the perfect brand name?
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