Summary
Most of us think about marketing as simply promotional activity, but even the name of your business and your logo should be working to attract your ideal customer. That’s why we’re only just talking about your name and logo at this stage of the ‘Getting Started’ module.
In this lesson, you’ll need to be reflecting on the work you’ve done so far – especially on who your target customer is and what is unique about your business.
First, we’ll look at choosing a business name that’s going to be memorable and catchy, as well as practical. Then, we’ll take a look at the do’s and don’t’s of logos and how you can create one.
Choosing a Cleaning Business Name
Don’t rush this; choosing the wrong business name will come back to haunt you. As you start growing a customer base it will become increasingly risky to change your business name and you don’t want it to limit you in the future.
To avoid this, we recommend checking your ideas against four measures; make it easy, memorable, original and logical. Here’s what we mean:
Make it Easy
This one is so important. Your business name will likely also become the url for your website and be used in your email address; that means you will be spelling it out to people a lot. Make sure it doesn’t sound like any other words, or else you might lose leads where people spell it wrong trying to get in contact. It will also save you some awkward correcting on the phone; a name like ‘Must B Kleen’ might look fun but explaining that it’s “just the letter B” and “clean spelt k-l-e-e-n” will become exhausting over the years.
Make it Memorable
Being memorable is important for any word-of-mouth referrals you’ll get, as well as helping previous customers remember to get in touch with you next time they need a service. There are two ways to achieve this. The first is to keep it simple; we recommend keeping your business name to a maximum of three words, so it’s easy to recall. (You’ll also thank yourself later as it’ll fit neatly onto business cards and other marketing material.)
The second, which isn’t for everyone, is to make your name a little bit fun. A good example of this is the Bearded Bros Removal Company, who are popular removers in Brighton due to their memorable name being seen on their vans!
Make it Original
So the most obvious reason for this is to avoid any legal battles you might encounter by sharing a business name with another business. Always, always Google the business name first. Also check Companies House and local and international patents first.
A less obvious reason is that having the same name as another business is going to make it harder for customers to find you online. You will have more competition on the search engines (we will be looking at this in the module ‘Marketing Next Steps’) and potentially attract online traffic intended for the other business. This mistake will cost your business actual money in wasted marketing spend.
Make it Logical
Get feedback from family, friends and even strangers (you could ask a local Facebook Group) on what springs to mind when they hear or read your business name. What does it imply about your quality, price and the service you offer?
If you choose to explicitly include the service you offer (such as ‘Carpet Cleaning’) you need to be confident that you will always offer that service in the future.
Choosing an Effective Slogan
Slogans are not essential, although they offer another opportunity to get across your key selling points in your marketing materials.
Try to choose only one or two of your selling points to focus on, and make sure they are going to appeal to your ultimate ideal customer. Here’s a great example:
Oven & Carpet Green’s slogan focuses on two of their selling points; they are environmentally friendly and good value.
Creating a Cleaning Business Logo
Getting a logo designed doesn’t have to be expensive. We recommend sourcing a local graphic designer to work with you on it, as you’ll be supporting your local community and it could even result in some referrals if they pass your name on to their friends or family. Finding a local graphic designer should be quite easy, simply post in some local Facebook Groups a quick description of what you require. You should find some freelancers get in touch with you pretty quickly! Alternatively, you could find a freelancer on a website like Fiverr, but we always advocate trying locally first.
Before signing off the final logo, give it a test on some draft marketing materials to see how it would look if you adopted it, and be sure the colours are easy to read on a white background and use as you’ll use these colours across your marketing well into the future.
With plenty of research under your belt and a business name and logo to promote yourself with, you are inching closer and closer to being ready to get marketing. Only a couple more lessons before we begin growing your business!
