Choosing the Right URL for Your Business: Get Specific!

In this day and age, it’s clear that websites are a vital part of any company’s marketing program. With the explosion of the Internet, the selection of available URLs that exactly match your name has almost become impossible. Unless your first choice is something as specific as wesellgreatfoodatmoderateprices.com, you’re likely to be caught
reformulating or adding words and numbers
until you find something that’s free.

This can be problematic for marketers that are fixated on the idea of their URL being a dead match to the name of their business followed by “.com”. Again, unless your business is actually called We Sell Great Food at Moderate Prices, somebody has probably already snatched up the URL you had in mind; the entire world is competing for these addresses, after all.

While this may seem disheartening, it can actually be a blessing for your marketing program. Adding a suffix to your company name not only gives you the more specific content that you’ll need to snatch up an available URL, it strategically provides for a more expressive address, something that serves as a testament not just of who you are but of what you do.

For example, you may own a photography studio called 3-2-1 or a salon called Crystal, but how many new parents would know to visit 321.com for baby pictures? Would a woman needing a haircut know to try crystal.com? Even a simple addition can make an immense difference: think of how many more customers you would attract with 321photography.com or crystalbeauty.com. Not only are these addresses more likely to be available, they also give vital information to prospective clients and provide cues to make your URL more memorable. Using qualifying words in your URL also increases your search engine visibility.

At Torque, we’ve crafted several strategic URL’s, beginning with our own. Not only was torque.com an unavailable address, it’s also fairly ambiguous. We distinguished ourselves by becoming torquelaunch.com, in reference to our work doing strategic launches of brands and products. Another example is 33sixchicago.com, the URL for the condominium 33Six. The addition of a city name makes site less anonymous and attracts the focus of a more pertinent audience.

In short, don’t get too caught up in getting a URL that exactly matches your business name. While intuition says that it’s the best option, it can actually make lead to an ambiguous Internet search by prospective customers. A concise, practical suffix, however, is like a blinking marquis directing clients right to your door.

Photography: An Overused and Abused Way to Tell a Story in Today's Marketing Communications

With the availability of artwork online, we’re in something of a visual renaissance (there are literally thousands of stock image sites. Corbis, the largest online stock agency, has over 100 million images, and the boom of microstock houses with independent photographers posting their work has flooded the Internet.). Along with this sheer proliferation has come an unappeasable thirst for photography, which in turn has become the downfall of image-based advertising. Photography tastes have become lowbrow because accessibility has put a tool in the hands of the underskilled, underbudgeted and trigger-happy. Visual clichés abound, and uniqueness no longer seems to matter; a shot of a handshake seems to be all that’s needed to sell an ad. And since photography is so readily available, cheap and easy to do oneself, why go further?

The conditions for marketing today are unprecedented in many ways, but one of the more frustrating and potentially crippling conditions is the perception and misperception of the value of photography. With everybody and their dog shooting with a digital camera and feeling just as capable as the pros, with the acessibility of stock photography sites selling images for $1, with the magic of Photoshop and the need to get everything done in a day, the idea/understanding of meaningful and brand-unique photography has fallen by the wayside.

For as long as advertising has been around, the style of the imagery used for a brand has been a signature (i.e. - Apple’s iPod). The lighting effects, angle, and styling of the models or props become unconscious brand indicators and tell a layered, custom story. Photography used to be a proprietary visual mark for each brand, and it still can be, when done right. The best branding through imagery has been true custom execution with attention to all the details. I’m willing to concede that not every photo within these classic ads was a good one, but they were at least conceived of and executed for a particular brand message.

Now the marketing world is clamoring for shortcuts and budget cuts when it comes to visual expression. I see ads for condoms and Christian novels using the same stock photo, each oblivious of the other. I see lousy digital snapshots being placed in a national ad that easily cost $100K. There is no logic in the choices made, and often a strategic creative directive isn’t behind the image selection or representation of the brand. Companies pay tens of thousands of dollars on research, go through great pains to hire an award-winning branding agency, fight tooth and nail over the appropriateness of the ad content, and then offhandedly default to stock photography. All companies talk vehemently about making their brands distinct, about being the next hot thing that becomes Starbucks, Mini Cooper and Nike all wrapped in one, but it’s easy to forget that distinction comes from your message AND the visual rendition of that message.

A well crafted photo does make a difference. The picture is a visceral part of the brand experience, and people are inherently image-driven creatures, still operating from the same impulses we had when we communicated through cave drawings. How do you make the decision to engage a photograper? My advice is to look at the time and cost it would require and compare it to the media and production costs. While 15% is always a good place to start, the professionals know how to pull and squeeze to fit all sorts of budgets. Once you've made that initial decision to hire a photographer, open yourself to the wide world of possibility.

When is a space more than just a space?

A prospective client comes to your office. He walks through the lobby, glances at the water cooler and stack of old magazines on the side table, sits down in the conference room and barely notices the motivational poster on the wall behind you as you begin your pitch. When he leaves, you think, “Did I give the impression of our company that I wanted to? Did he understand how hip/innovative/professional/charitable we are?” The answer is: probably not.

When you rely solely on traditional presentation-style exchanges to convey information about your business, even a short overview of company history can feel like a lecture or a sales pitch. It’s more effective -and easier- to let your work environment tell a big part of your story for you.

It doesn’t hurt that physical activity (a simple tour) enhances the neural connections in the brain responsible for learning and concentration. Just the act of walking through your office can be the most inspiring activity of all, provided you know how to take advantage of it. (For more information on activity and learning, check out the Brain Gym website.)

Letting your space speak is about being intentional and letting the brand become part of the environment. At Torque, we both welcome and inform visitors with our space. On one wall hangs a series of photos of our staff, suggesting the intimacy of our team and the personal connection people can expect from us. Along another wall is an array of awards that we’ve won for client work – we’re damn proud of the work we’ve done and the fact that the rest of the world acknowledges it. We are also adamant about displaying samples of several current and exemplary projects; after all, we are a visual culture, and branding is all about story-telling. New visitors to our office often linger in the front of our studio for several minutes, asking questions or commenting on what they see. After 10 minutes of natural conversation, they already have a strong sense of who we are, what we’re about, and the quality of our work. By the time we get to the conference room, there is little need for the Dog and Pony.

We apply this thinking with our clients as well. La Petite Academy, a provider of childcare and early childhood education services, noticed a significantly higher closing ratio when parents visited their facility and looked around. To enhance this effect, Torque helped conceptualize a space that would help to tell their story through a series of stations- similar to a collection of trade show booths- each spotlighting one aspect of La Petite Academy.

In summary, when it comes to client interactions, selling and conveying a brand experience, it’s time to break away from the pack. Rather than delivering the same old pitch with projectors and conference tables, consider creating a unique, fun space that will spark interest and create a lasting impression. Get your clients out of their chairs and let them see for themselves who you are and what you have to offer.