ARE DOMAIN VALUES LIKE PROVING LIFE ON MARS?
February 7th, 2008 Posted in Business Sector, General Domain News
The Christian Science Monitor just published an article by Chris Gaylord that is touting the increasing investment value of domain names. It’s a nice article, fairly simplified, but covering some key points from the big players in our industry. Although the article explained adequately the process of “direct navigation” (or what I prefer to call “browser surfing”), and other aspects of buying and selling domains, it didn’t approach the real reason why the article was important in the first place: Why businesses should buy domain names
It’s been a goal of mine and others in the domain industry for over two years to try and reach the business sector to educate them on the value of owning the keyword generic descriptive domains of their products and services. I was talking to one of my clients yesterday, and the topic of selling domains to companies that really should OWN the domains came up. My client described to me the frustration he felt trying to sell domains that fit an occupational niche, but those professionals in that occupation didn’t “get it”. They were more concerned with branding their company’s name, and the idea of having a generic description of what their company offered to their market in the form of a domain name didn’t pop up any lightbulbs over their densely muddled heads.
If the domain auction sites and other domain aftermarket companies started investing in reaching out to Fortune 1000 companies and beyond, then collectively the “domain message” would get out, and probably start an avalanche of worried marketing VP’s who suddenly realize that not owning the domain names that describe their own products would be a disaster, especially if their COMPETITORS owned these domains. I’ve said it a hundred times before, so here’s the 101st time: “Nothing makes a company more worried than finding out their competitor owns the generic descriptive domains of the products/services they provide.”
Want to see a good example of marketing smarts? Type in “Books.com”. Hey! You’re now at Barnes & Noble! Nice job! Good marketing call by B&N! Now type in the singular, “Book.com”. It’s amazing, isn’t it? B&N owns that domain too! Imagine the tens of thousands of people who arrive at their site by direct navigation each month. Those domains have paid for themselves 1000 times over.
Now for the pathetic segment of my online marketing example. Borders and Books, a B&N competitor, seemed to be swallowed up by online book sales giant, Amazon a few years back. Borders Group now has announced that they’re breaking free of Amazon.com and doing some marketing through Ripple and Ancestry.com and a variety of other websites in some digital marketing kiosk mumbo-jumbo. Back to the subject — Borders.com still points to Amazon.com. Their exciting new domain name to begin to take over the online bookbuying consumer is…. “VISITBORDERS.COM”.
That’s right. Not “newbooks.com” or “buybooks.com” or something vaguely generic to help describe their company’s products online in an advertising campaign worth watching, but just a “hey, come visit Borders” type domain name.
Somebody in the Borders Group marketing department should stand up at their next meeting and shout “Hey, lameheads! Wake up! Get us some power domains to promote this company online!” Then they can try to convince the lameheads that domain values are real.
However, the lameheads may believe that there is life on Mars before they understand the value of domain names for their company.
QUESTION: What is a domain name in marketing power for a company?
ANSWER: The right domain name is an “appreciable marketing asset” necessary for the company’s position on the internet.
