Last year, around the same time, I created my venture Triquetra Content Services, a content writing and content marketing endeavor. Although the initial response I received was great but then I could slowly see that people were finding it difficult to remember the name of the venture or even find it on the internet. Even my e-signature or physical business cards couldn't do the trick of being on top of their minds. This kind of made me go crazy, as I couldn't see what the problem was.
You, on the other hand, might have guessed it already. The problem was, the name. Triquetra. While content services gave it a clear direction and spelled out the purpose of the venture, Triquetra (the main portion of the name) failed to strike a chord, and rightly so.
You see, I am very emotional when it comes to the symbol of the Triquetra. It is the Celtic symbol of three promises, intertwined with each other. I considered this symbol lucky for me and also thought that it upheld the three values I promised my clients:
Quality
Timeliness
Affordability
But alas! This idea in my head did not really make a lot of sense to my target audience. I was asked by some friends and well-wishers to change the name, maybe. But I was hell-bent on keeping it.
I even included an animated button on the website which would take the visitors to the particular section that explained the symbol and its significance when it came to my service offering. Nothing worked. It hurt even more when my closest friends failed to remember the name, let alone my valued clients.
Thankfully, my clients communicated with me personally, so they remembered my name and that I was the one providing the service, which saved my business from tanking.
The domain was a problem, too. I bought a domain called triquetracs.com (cs for content services) which people read as triquetracks which led to misspelling, and brought in wrong search results.
The time had come. One year was a long time in which I struggled with the domain name and to keep the sanctity of the name I so loved.
You could compare my situation to that of 'Pied Piper' from the popular TV series Silicon Valley, where the owner, Richard Hendricks wouldn't give up on the name Pied Piper, in spite of his friends and colleagues advising him against it. However, unlike Richard Hendricks, I wasn't so lucky to get my brand growing.
Finally, I bid adieu to my dearest Triquetra and said hello to what many told me would be the absolute best when it came to branding. My own name. So, I bought a domain for my name: www.proma-nautiyal.com. It was pretty easy to find as, thankfully, I am the only person with that name in this entire world.
My clients know me and so do my friends. Most of my business comes in through word-of-mouth and having my name as my brand makes a lot of sense.
Hence, this was a good lesson learnt and I wanted to share it with all of you who might be on the verge of making your lucky mascot your domain/business name.