Guide: How to Register Trademark For Your Brand in India

How many cups of coffee and scribbles on a paper did it take for you to zero-in on your brand name? A dozen, right? Would you let some Tom, Dick or Harry walk away with that name and identity? Hell no! So to your rescue is trademark registration!

As an e-commerce platform helping small as well as big brands start their own online stores, we at Zepo, frequently come across entrepreneurs asking us about how to register their brands as trademarks. Which is why, today, within the course of this blog post, we’ll take you through on how to protect your brand’s reputation, by way of registering your brand as a trade-mark.

Before we start, what exactly does trade-marking a brand name mean?
Trademark registration of a brand name means nothing but brand name registration. It basically means, “this brand name is ours! And if you dare to use it to sell your products, we can sue you!”
In India, you can trademark any of the following or even a combination of these things:
Letter, Number, Word, Phrase, Logo, Graphic, Smell, Sound Mark or a Combination of Colors
So, what is the procedure of registering a trademark?

Step 1: Search for a “crazy-enough” brand name
You get the point, don’t you? Come up with a whacky and quirky brand name, because all the generic ones are any which way taken. Before zeroing in on one name, you might want to do a quick search to make sure that no one else is already using the name. And your best bet would be to use invented or coined words, in a combination with generic words.

Step 2: Making the trademark application
Now that your name is finalized upon, fill in the trademark application i.e. Form- TM 1. The application costs INR 3500 and is a one time fee.
Along with the application, you will need to submit a couple of supporting documents:
1. A Business registration concern: Depending on what type of a registered business you have, say sole proprietorship, etc. you will need to submit an identity proof of the directors of the company and an address proof.
2. An image of your brand logo in a standard size of 9 x 5 cms
3. If applicable, proof of claim of the proposed mark being used before in another country.

Step 3: Filling the brand name registration application
There are 2 ways to file the registration – manual filing or e-filling.
In case of manual filing, you will need to personally walk down and submit the application for registration to any one of the offices of the Registrar of Trade Marks located in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Ahmedabad. After which you receive the acknowledgement of the application and the receipt, usually within 15-20 days of the filing.
But in e-filing system, the acknowledgement of the application is issued immediately.
And after you receive the acknowledgement, you can start using the (TM) symbol next to the brand name!

Step 4: Examining the brand name registration application
After receiving the application, the Registrar checks whether the brand name complies with the law and does not conflict or dispute with other existing registered or pending brands. That’s why we said, quirky brand name, people!

Step 5: Publication in the Indian Trade Mark Journals
After examination, the logo or brand name is published in the Indian Trade Mark Journal. If no one raises an opposition within 3 months i.e. 90 days or in some cases 120 days, from the date of publication, the brand name proceeds to acceptance.

Step 6: Issuance of the trademark registration certificate
If no one raises any opposition, within the stipulated 90 days period, the Registrar accepts the trademark application! Woohoo! And issues a Certificate of Registration under the seal of Trademark Registry.

You may now be allowed to use the registered trademark symbol (®) next to your brand name, once the certificate has been issued.

The whole process of registration of a brand name usually takes anything between 15-18 months. The trademark once accepted, is valid for a period of 10 years from the date of issuance of the Certificate of Registration. After the end of 10 years, the trademark will need to be renewed.

There there! We can understand if this sounds a little too over-whelming. In which case, just call up a lawyer. The lawyer will be able to help you wade through all this legal jargon.

Although the process of registering a trademark is lengthy and a little heavy on the pocket, it is definitely worth the investment of legally protecting your brand.

However, if you are just starting out, investing in a trademark may not be absolutely essential. What matters most is creating awesome products and putting in all the time and effort into building your brand, from ground up. But, there still is another cheaper alternative to lend you lawful protection against being copied – an unregistered trademark. Do ask your lawyer about it!

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How to Optimize Your Google My Business Listing

SEO is expensive, competitive, and hard. But as a local business, you have something significant going for you: your pool of competition is much smaller than the ones national and international brands have to deal with.
Your website doesn’t need to be found by everyone; you just need to be found by the people who live in your community. If you get that right, the results can be significant. Half of consumers that do a local search on their smartphone end up visiting a store they found there that same day.
When people do a search in Google, they’ll see a map and a list of the top three local listings that are nearby, before they see any other results.


In local searches like this one, users get plenty of information on those top three choices right away – they can see both how other customers have rated each of them and exactly how far away they are. For most consumers, that’s enough information to make a decision and head out, without ever bothering to scroll further down.
For local businesses - seo starterpack, that means that while making sure your website is optimized for search engines matters, making sure that your Google My Business Listing is optimized matters at least as much.

1. Set up your Google Business Listing (if you haven’t yet).

The first step is to set up (or claim) your Google My Business Listing. Go to Google’s My Business page and click “Start Now” in the upper left corner. Then fill in every relevant field that Google offers. You want to make sure the profile is as complete as possible and that every piece of information is accurate.
 

2. Choose a relevant, specific category.

The category you choose will help Google decide which searches your local listing belongs in. You have to choose from the list of available categories, you can’t create your own. If there’s not a specific category that describes what your business is, settle on a more general one that still describes it accurately.
If possible though, you want to go for the most specific category available. “Grocery Store” is a more competitive term than “Gourmet Grocery Store” or “Indian Grocery Store.” The latter categories are more likely to land you in the top three for relevant searches, especially if you’re in a city with a lot of grocery stores.

 

3. Load quality, high-resolution images.

Photos help your listing to stand out and give potential customers a glimpse of what to expect.  Make sure you use high-quality images that make your business look good and show off your products (if you sell physical products).
Consider hiring a Google approved photographer to create a 360-view virtual tour of your business for customers. According to Google, listings that have a virtual tour and photos generate twice as much interest as those without.

4. Make sure your information matches everywhere else.

One thing Google’s algorithm looks at to verify the legitimacy of a listing is a consistency in how it’s listed across different websites. While that seems simple enough – your address is the same each time you enter it somewhere – it’s easy for little differences to slip in. Maybe you wrote out the Road part of the street name one time, and shortened it to Rd another time, for instance.
Pick a standard way to write out your address, a consistent phone number to use, and make sure all your listings match both each other and the information you provide on your website. And work on getting your website listed in as many relevant directories as possible.

5. Use a local number.

In addition to keeping your phone number consistent between your different listings, it’s also important to use a phone number with a local area code. That’s one extra signal to Google that you are actually local. Make sure the number you use for your Google My Business listing is also displayed somewhere on your home page or whatever landing page you link to from your Google listing.

6. Avoid penalty-inducing offenses.

Any work you do to optimize your website or local listing will be for naught if you incur a penalty. Google suspends business listings for a range of offenses. Getting suspended is stressful, confusing, and bad for business, so it’s best to avoid doing anything that puts you at risk of it.
Read through Google’s guidelines for Google My Business listings so you have a full understanding of what not to do. Some of the main things to avoid are:

• Using a URL that redirects to your website’s URL, rather than the actual URL itself.
• Trying to awkwardly add keywords into your business name field.
• Having multiple local listings for the same business location.
• Using any address for your business that isn’t a physical storefront or office space where you meet with customers.

Use common sense and don’t try to play the system or get extra listings and you’ll probably stay on the right side of Google.

7. Encourage reviews.

You’ll notice that the local businesses listed in the map snippet of a local search usually have star ratings next to their name. Google wants to provide the most useful information to its users, and users want to find the nearby business that seems the best. In both cases, it benefits your business to have a high star rating.
Ask your happy customers to take a few minutes to give you a review on Google. Include an encouragement on promotional materials you hand out or put up in your store. A gentle nudge or a reminder of how much it means for your business can make your loyal customers that much more likely to take the time to say a few kind words about you.

8. Make sure your website and content is optimized for search.

All the usual SEO advice that helps strengthen the authority of your website in the eyes of Google matters here too.  So don’t focus on optimizing your local listing to the exclusion of optimizing your website as well.
Make sure that you:

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11 SEO Techniques and Strategies for 2017 (Infographic)

11 SEO Techniques and Strategies

With every upload to the internet, there is only one subliminal message echoing through the void expanse of websites: Keep up.

Naturally, it is not expected of you to ‘keep up’ with everything the internet offers-it is not possible. However, if you are someone who contributes to the mass of knowledge that is the internet, then your aim should be to put your content out there, right in everyone’s faces and make them WANT to read it.

Of course, if it was that easy, everyone would know everything and the search engines would become pointless. Today, only the smartest search engine optimizers with latest SEO techniques and strategies, and the best content writers reach the pedestal where they are the number one hit on the SERPs.

We are here to help you get there.

Pay attention to our following tips to learn the advanced SEO strategies in 2017, and start working on it before this year ends:

1. Mobile is the future

Something that almost everyone understands. It makes sense too. Do you think people in the future will walk around with desktops? No, because its ridiculous.

The vast population of people who are on the move use mobile devices for all their internet purposes. Many even use it at home. A lot don’t even own laptops.

Start working on a website that is mobile friendly or custom-made for it. Not doing so is guaranteeing yourself a setback.

Our personal advice: Go responsive instead of making a special website for mobiles. RWD is not a joke, and will be a better option.

2. The rise of voice search

Some movies do very little to limit our imagination of future technologies. Being able to speak to machines and having them work for us was among the top of the list for the R&D of various companies. Today, it is possible. Those who use ‘Siri’ on their iPhones are no strangers to this fact.

The time has come to include a recording button on your website to entertain voice requests and serve people better. This will free the user to put their fingers to better use like holding the morning coffee on the way to work, etc.

After all, who wants to type so much?

3. Make your site super-fast

Not everyone has access to high-speed internet. There are more complaints about slow internet speed than there are users. In the midst of all this, if your site has the audacity to load slowly and take its own sweet time through the tough hustle in the lives of the users — Don’t even bother optimizing your sites. Without speed, there is nothing.

Optimize the formats and responsive sizes of the media that you have uploaded onto your website and eliminate loose links and pointless data that slows down loading time.

Remember: its a race.

You can use these tools to check the webpage loading speed: Pingdom or GTmetrix

4. Make your website mobile friendly

Do I need a mobile friendly website?

Have you ever asked yourself this question? The truth is, a major section of target audiences are surfing internet through their smart phones; if you haven’t done it already get it right now.

Google has already programmed an algorithm on April 21, 2015 that the sites which are mobile friendly in nature will be given higher priority and rank them better in search results. They have given clear guidelines about how to make a website mobile friendly.

Use the Mobile-Friendly Test tool by Google to see if pages on your site are mobile-friendly or not.

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How to Convince your Clients Regarding SEO & the Techniques you Perform

As a SEO Professional you will know all the major importance of SEO and what you have to do for a website to generate and increase traffic. But what about your clients? How do they know about the improvement?
If your traffic for your website get increased day by day then you can say your website is improving. But you cannot expect the tangible results immediately. It may take months or years to improve. But what about clients? Why they have to pay you if they are not getting their website improved?
If a client is simply asking just for a website without SEO but need their website to rank in search engine. IS this possible? No!
You have to make your client understand that SEO only can help their website to improve in the search engines. So how can you do that?
Let’s see today how you are going to make them understand of the importance of SEO for their website.
As a SEO Expert you will know all technical terms in your industry, but the client is not going to know if you are explaining about the SEO techniques through technical terms. This will be just buzzwords for them. So always be clear and precise about what you talk to your clients regarding SEO.
Don’t bring up every SEO techniques and explain it to them. Just it’s good to focus on the result you are going to do on doing SEO. Explain in a simple way so that he can understand the benefits he is going to get him through SEO.
What if you are explaining the importance of SEO and he gets  no idea of it? In place of the importance you can explain with an example. You can say it with your favorite analytics tool and show them how much traffic, conversions are achieved for the website your are doing now. You have to explain performing SEO will increase their website ranking in the Search engine ranking page. This will lead to the sales of your website.
Explain them SEO is user friendly, cost effective and a long lasting process. Show them up with some of the proposal you have for your company. Here are some of them.
Here is the set of SEO techniques i perform for my clients.

On Page Optimization:

The action that you perform on the site is On page Optimization. Some of the effective on page optimization includes Keyword Research, checking for the long tail keyword, phrases, targeted search volume for the keyword you are choosing, URL optimization, unique meta tag creations, header tag optimization, Alt tag optimization, SEO friendly URLS and structure, internal links, external links, multimedia dazzling, permalink structure, creating sitemap, robot, submitting it to the search engines, Configuration of Google Analytics, Google Ad words, tag manager , effective content for all types of keywords.

Off Page Optimization:

The action you perform off the page is off page optimization. Some of the effective off page optimization includes blogging, web 2.0 submissions, article submissions, directory, classified submissions, image and video optimization, social bookmarking, search engine submissions, info graphic, PPT, PDF submissions, Business Listing, content optimization, static and dynamic web page optimization etc.

Pay per Click:

This is a paid campaign, if you are not doing paid campaigns, it is not a problem for your page to rank. Through this paid campaign you can get the result easily and also rapidly. For immediate promotion of your website you can try this out.

Social Media Marketing:

Sharing your content in the social media is the effective method of promoting your website rapidly. Some of the social media marketing includes marketing in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest etc…
Any ideas or tips guys regarding the topic? Please do share it in the comment section below.

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Local SEO Marketing – Step by Step Guide

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Few Off Page SEO Techniques that will Build your Online Reputation in 2017

Few Off Page SEO Techniques that will Build your Online Reputation

You can find new inventions and innovations booming day to day in Search Engine Optimization. The Off page technique that was effective yesterday would be out of date tomorrow. This blog is just an assumption, anything may happen in future.Every Webmasters are updating their knowledge by going through the SEO blogs and articles that are listed every day. There are more than thousands of Digital Marketing blogs written every day according to a recent research. 
As a SEO Professional ,i have listed a few 

Off Page SEO Techniques that will build your Online Reputation in 2017

1. Blogging
2. Creating Social Media Profiles
3. Social Bookmarking
4. Link-Baiting
5. Image Sharing
6. Video Sharing
7. Local Listings
8. Business Reviews
9. Press Releases
10. Article Submissions
11. Question and Answers Submissions

This Off Page Techniques can increase to build your online reputation, apart from that there are off page techniques like Classified Submissions, Directory Submissions, Search Engine Submissions etc you can do for improving the position of your website, but it wont help for the online reputation.
Doing this above listed off page techniques effectively and genuinely will build your online reputation in the year 2017. If you are overdoing it, then you will see the reverse of what you expect.

Before starting off page techniques for a website, plan and execute which is the off page technique to do for the particular website to build the online reputation of the website. If you process the plan in the perfect way, then there is no doubt that you are going to reach the targeted audience and be first in every keywords in the SERP’s. Perform both On Page and Off Page techniques effectively for the success of your business.

Hope this would be helpful for many to execute the right off page techniques for your websites, if you think any other off page technique would work for building your online reputation in 2017, please do drop your off page techniques in the below comment section. 

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The Ultimate SEO Process Checklist – Infographic

SEO Activities Explained – SEO CheatSheet :

Find below infographics explained SEO process and activities in details with step by steps includes,

1. Research
2. On Page SEO
3. Off Page SEO
4. Social Media
5. Content Marketing
6. Web Analytics

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How Important is Social Media Marketing in Today’s Business Scenario?

In the present marketing status, having a website alone is not enough. With the boom in digital world, entrepreneurs have started capitalizing more on social media especially Twitter and Facebook. The idea of branding by online means has been improving with newer and newer ideas in business.

Now there are many online businesses started solely on the basis of social medias. 

 The most common advantages found in this marketing strategy are-

1.Social media provides personal contact with many people:- Helps in close interaction with people. You can have lively customer relationship interacting with them by replying on their tweets and comments.

2.Provide opportunity to respond to problems immediately:- When it comes to product and services obviously there arises queries, doubts and complaints from different customers on different perspective. Social medias have turned out to be an important platform where companies can easily respond on the customer problems. Even studies have proved that customers go shopping online preferring those companies which respond to their complaints.

3. Help to drive traffic for our business by increasing brand awareness:- Many companies have proved the strategic branding technique through social media which in turn results in increase in traffic.

4. Can increase the range of followers by amazing many number of people:- Keep your presence well alive with newer and fresh ideas. As such there is no such magic in these things. Whoever build up newer and creative ideas can reach out for maximum shares and follows. Obviously these social medias are the best medium to share your companies or your wards creative thoughts.

5. It directly interacts with customers resulting in increased sales:- The social profiles give better options in increasing sales. This is a mere marketing strategy to keep in hand those potential customers or regular followers by providing coupons and bonus on their purchase.

6. Easy to engage with your own interacting knowledge:- Social media interactions are one area in marketing where you can handle your interactions without great discussions from experts. Spend some valuable timings which can turn out productive.

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