Contractor Marketing - Branding: What's In a Name?
Monday, December 10, 2007
What is the name of your company? The name of your business is extremely important, but many contractors don't take advantage of branding their company. By branding, I'm talking about name recognition. Branding is getting the name of your business on everyone's lips. Your company name should be big, bold, and prominent on everything you might put it on: your yard signs, magnetic truck signs, flyers, yellow pages ad, or your radio commercials.Check out this example (right) - I know what the company does, I can easily make out their phone number, but... what is their business name?
If your business name is branded on your materials, people have a better chance of remembering you the next time they need your services. Open up your yellow pages phone book and look up the services you provide. Notice all the ads in there where companies have strong headlines that say, "Save Money!", "7 Days! 24-Hour Service!", or "No Jobs Too Large or Too Small!" Notice most of them don't have their company name as large as their Benefits or Features headlines. You can easily see the phone numbers, but what are the odds their previous customers will be able to find them again? Or will they be enticed to call another service instead?
My HVAC company has a catchy name - NRG - and it's emblazoned on my thermostat, a refrigerator magnet, and on the outside of my air conditioner. I get a personalized holiday card from them every year. I get a maintenance reminder flyer every 6 months. Guess which name pops into my head every time I need those services?
No matter if you're a business with just one person or you've got 100 employees to cover a whole state, you need to make sure your customers remember your name. It's how you get referrals and repeat business which is the life blood of every company. You'd be amazed to see that a few contractors register with ConstructionDeal.com and list their "Company Name" as "None" when they register with us. Guess how much repeat business or referrals they would get if we let them be listed in our Directory with the business name "None".
Exactly.
