Since last year, more than 700 new gTLDs have gone live. In theory this produces plenty of new marketing opportunities. In practice it appears to be pretty difficult to sell many new domain names. Customers can often not see the wood for the trees.
Yet, there are a number of more or less simple strategies, that with some preparation, could lead to good results.
Strategy 1
Increase your margin. A higher margin gives you room to invest in your marketing. You do not have to be afraid that you will fall out of grace as your customers do not know the new gTLDs yet, not even to mention the cost prices. Moreover, the most registries maintain fairly high prices in which case you can certainly enjoy a higher margin percentage wise. You can easily add 40% margin or even more to a new gTLD.
Strategy 2
Give a lot of discount. If you are applying strategy 1, then you can easily give a discount in the first year for example. Set your margin for 40% on a new gTLD and sell it for 30% discount for the first year.
Strategy 3
Put one or more new gTLDs in the top results in your domain checker. Customers buy domains which are available. Good domains are often still available in the new gTLDs and will thus be purchased. Make sure that you can supply the whois results for all domains you are offering so that your customer can choose.
Strategy 4
Send newsletters to your customers. This seems obvious, but we often hear that there is no demand for the new gTLDs. When asked if a newsletter has been sent in the past, that answer is often ‘no’. Newsletters are relatively cheap and with MailChimp, for example, you can simply and professionally send a newsletter.
Strategy 5
Personalize your newsletter. This is a bit more complicated but can be extremely effective. Obviously you must use your customer’s name in the newsletter, but you can make it even more personal by using his current domain names. Propose for him to register them within the new gTLDs too and go one step further: place an ‘order’ button as well.
If your customer has the domain nicename.com then suggest that he also registers the following:
- nicename.work
- nicename.tips
- nicename.xyz
- nicename.club
- etc…
Use between 10 to 20 domain names. You do not have to mail your whole customer list but choose a manageable amount every week. Combine this with strategy 2 and an ‘order’ button so that your customer van register directly.
Strategy 6
Create a special web page with all of the new domain names and their prices. Place a banner on your homepage directing to that page.
Strategy 7
Take advantage of the special promotions from the registries. Ask your registrar for all of the possibilities about these promotions. There are continuously good promotions which you can use without further commitment like guaranteed sales results.
Strategy 8
Up-sell!! All of these domain names are nice but try to sell hosting, web design, spam filtering, SSL etc to your customer with the domain name.
Strategy 9
Focus. There are many different domain names with a specific target audience. Try to sell a .frl to Frisian customers and .amsterdam to customers connected to Amsterdam. With .bio you can approach organic farmers or even stimulate a biography. With .ngo you can contact NGO’s (Non-Govenrment Organizations) as there are thousands. .hockey and .tennis can be used to approach sport’s clubs. For people like yourself, .ceo or .experts is a good choice.
Strategy 10
Bundle. In hospitality, for example, there are still many domains available which you can bundle in a package. Combine a special package for:
- yourbusiness.menu
- yourbusiness.restaurant
- yourbusiness.bar
- yourbusiness.bio
- yourbusiness.catering
- yourbusiness.beer
- etc…
Strategy 11
Brand names and trademarks
. Approach your customers of which you know they have a registered brand name or trademark. Advise them to register at the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) and encourage them to participate in the Sunrise phase. For your services you can charge a fee which will amply exceed the margin of the domain name.
Strategy 12
Premium domain names. Many registries have premium domain names. These are often sought after generic words which are sold at a higher price. If you can organize this for your customer then it will create more margin and revenue for you.
Strategy 13
EAP. EAP stands for Early Access Program. Amongst others, the registry Donuts, with more than 200 new gTLDs, and Rightside, who will also be managing a ten-fold, both have a so-called Early Access Program. In short it means that seven days before a new gTLD goes live you can register it according to an additional tiered system. This means more margin and more revenue if you can organize this for your customers.
Strategy 14
DPML. DPML is for trademark owners who have registered at the TMCH and stands for Domains Protected Marks List. Donuts has this service in which you can block your domain name from being registered by others. For a fixed fee, a few thousand dollars, you can block all extensions supported by Donuts. This is a lot cheaper than registering all of these domain names and prevents others from registering them. For you this extra up-sell can create good margins. The registries Rightside and Minds + Machines have a similar solution.
Strategy 15
Charge pre-registrations. It is useful to ask your customers a list of domains which they are interested in before the domain goes live. If it were to be free then many customers could drop out before the gTLD goes live. By charging €1 for a pre-registration, for example, you might have less pre-registrations but have 100% margin without having to do anything. Moreover, the conversion rate will almost always be 100% once the gTLD goes live, as the customer paid for it. Of course you have to manage the list well as you do not want to disappoint your customers.
Strategy 16
Focus on renewals. The easiest money can be earned when customers automatically renew their domains. Make sure this process or sorted well and you can earn money effortlessly and if you have done a lot of up-selling then the renewal rate on the domain name will also be higher.
All of these strategies are simple to implement and the revenues are high. You do not have a single excuse anymore to not make money and complain about the bad economy. With a little bit of effort it is quite simple.
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