Before you name your business and choose your domain name, you might want to consider the following tips:

1. Unique

Check out your competitors’ websites to make sure that your domain name stands out. If you are having a hard time coming up with a memorable name, use generators such as NameStation, NameBoy or DomainSamurai to get started.

2. Make it short

Domain names can be up to 67 characters, but it is recommended to stick to 10 characters or less. The shorter your domain name is, the easier it will be for your visitors to remember.

3. Easy to spell/pronounce

When someone hears your domain name for the first time, they should be able to understand what your website is all about. Avoid complicated abbreviations, stay away from using slang, hyphens and numeral substitutions.

4. Use .com

Select a .com name, if possible, because it signifies a top-level domain address. And, .com is by far the most widely accepted extension for a domain name.

5. Copyright

Do not purchase domain names that could possibly be infringing on an existing copyright. When in doubt, visit the U.S. Copyright Office to find out more.

While reading Made To Stick by Chip and Dan Heath, I found reinforced insight in their section on “Appealing to Self-Interest” (Chapter five) and their take on “WIIFY” (what’s in it for you). They stated that WIIFY should be a central aspect of every speech—and I agree!

Inspired by the Heath brothers, here are three ways to add more WIIFY to your B2B marketing strategy:

1. Spell it out for your customers or prospects. Succinctly, connect the feature you describe to how it will benefit them. Why go through four bullets before you say what’s really in it for them? It should be first.
2. Remember that “you” is the most engaging word in the English language.  Consider a project you’re currently working on. Is it “you” focused? Can you work in some more “yous?” Try it. It’s always about your customers and prospects, not you. As the Heaths say, even subtle tweaks can make a difference.
3. Lastly, let your customers and prospects imagine what it’d be like to use your product or service. Here you can use “you” again, but add some more punch to how they’ll benefit by letting them imagine how they’ll feel during or after using your product/service. Will they feel less stressed? Will they save money? Let them picture themselves using it and they will.

Want more? Read Made to Stick. You might also like Chip and Dan Heath’s newest book titled Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard.

How many times did I say “you” in this blog post?

Any of my fellow Canyonites will tell you, probably in an annoyed or animated way, that I’m a cell phone junkie. My iPhone has become such a permanent fixture in my life that I spend more money on bedazzling IT than myself.

Being the phone junkie that I am, I love to know what’s new and exciting in mobile technology. Normally I feel fairly ahead of the curve on mobile phone-related news, so imagine my surprise when I experienced my very own mobile phone first—an advertisement delivered via text to my phone.

Text- or SMS-based marketing campaigns are something our industry has been implementing for awhile. But, I’ve never been on the receiving end of an ad via SMS before. I have to tell you—I was super annoyed. It felt intrusive to me. It also made me wonder if SMS marketing campaigns will ever truly take off in B2B, or even B2C space.

However, there have been some successful national text-based ad campaigns and, I did some research and found that many mobile marketing companies make this point:

97% of recipients who receive an ad via text are going to view it within twenty minutes.

Can any other marketing vehicle do that? Certainly not print. Maybe e-mail marketing…but 97% within 20 minutes? That is quite a stat.

I’m sure there is a right fit for an SMS-based marketing campaign, but I haven’t experienced it yet. What do you think of this marketing tactic? Have you ever experienced a SMS ad?

‘I love my cell phone so much it was almost included in my Canyon bio picture.’

The new season of Mad Men is here and I am ecstatic! I am really looking forward to all the ad campaigns and new clients. I can only imagine it will be great in season 4. Do you remember some of the ad campaigns that Don Draper and his creatives at Sterling Cooper worked on during the past three seasons?

So far, we’ve seen well-known actual brands such as Kodak, Utz, Playtex and a few others. What really happened to those brands and those campaigns back in the day?

I did a little digging and found a slide show on Fast Company that compares real-life campaigns and their very similar fictitious versions depicted in the show. Check it out and let me know your thoughts!