Most small businesses these days know that they need an online presence. How can you tap into that need and build up local clients that can lead you to bigger clients over time?
Small business needs an online presence
I was at my local dentist recently and he is very much in love with technology. He has all the latest high tech gear in dentistry including equipment to mill crowns for you while you wait. I was interested then to talk to him about his website.
His website is probably typical of many with each page pretty much disconnected from the last and no real overarching theme. He was missing critical things like contact information on every page and yet the dental office will text me in advance to remind me of my dental appointments.The website stood in stark contrast to the high tech dental office that still retains a local friendly atmosphere.
He was quite embarrassed about the website and said he kept meaning to get it redone. However when I asked what he wanted changed, he was more concerned with putting up the latest case files than making it a high quality business site. Clearly this highly intelligent technophile needs more information and education on domain names and website development.
Educating local businesses
It stuck me that one way to educate and thus create an appreciation of domain names and website development is to join small business associations and offer to speak at such meetings. There are business clubs, breakfast networking meetings and so on. Offering to talk about these subjects for free should help raise awareness and pay off in business gained over time. Since you are a small business owner yourself, you will be talking to your peers.
From talking to some small business owners local to me, it seems that the best way to market to them is to combine the domain name with website development as a package. If you already have the website development skills, then you are ready to go.
If you do not want to develop their website or do not know how to, you can partner with a local development company. Before you approach such a company, make sure you have a quality portfolio of relevant generic domain names for your local businesses. Even if they already have their business name as their domain, you can push a generic name to help with their marketing efforts and for SEO purposes.
If you develop their website, be prepared to support the website for appropriate remuneration on a continuing basis or contract with someone to do it for you. If you partner with a good website development company, then you can make domain name sales without the ongoing hassle of website maintenance.
Local education becomes global education
Such a local effort to educate businesses, if done well, will spread by word of mouth and benefit you by bringing in new business and benefit the industry by raising awareness of the value of domain names.
This is the kind of grass roots revolution or movement that can lead to solid growth for you and for the industry and in giving back to the community through education, it helps fight the stigma that domaining can get stuck with.
In my view, it is these kinds of efforts that can evolve domaining into a mature industry and I am sure there are plenty more ideas along these lines out there.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
“Small business needs an online presence”
“Clearly this (dentist) needs more information
and education on domain names and website
development.”
Unfortunately domain names and websites are
like Home Alarm systems.
You don’t get one until you’ve been robbed.
Then you understand the need.
Many, if not most, small businesses don’t “get”
the need of a good domain especially the benefits
of the generic domains that could help bring in
business.
Read Elliot’s blog from today where he talks
about a tech company that has a product called
Juice Pads which is a wireless recharging system
for portable media.
The media actually call refer to these pads
as Charging Mats.
Even though there were two earlier competitors,
the folks at Juice Pads had the sense and
foresight to register several relevant generic
domains including ChargerMat.com
and ChargerMats.com.
The competitors just regged their company names,
it seems.
In terms of educating these business owners to
the value of domains,I think it would be helpful
to refer then to those that do “get” it.
Regarding your dentist I’d like to share with you something Andrew from DomainnameWire blogged
about some time ago.
He was in great dental pain.
He wanted to make an emergency appointment
but couldn’t remember how to spell his dentist’s
name.
It was a difficult name.
Then he remembered the URL on his dentist’s
business card.
The URL: JawPain.com.
He made the appointment.
Great points Patrick. Having a memorable domain name certainly pays off.
Any tips on marketing domains to end user companies?? I like this idea, but sounds like a lot of effort. You guys got any tips on selling to end users like small businesses? For example, if you originally owned JawPain.com and you were trying to sell it — how would you have gone about it except for listing on sites like Sedo? Thanks!
LittleDevil, unfortunately proper marketing of domain names takes a lot of effort. I know people who send letters or make phone calls to companies but cold calling is very tough. Finding the right person within a company is critical also.
If you don’t want to expend a lot of effort, what about taking out an ad in the trade press? It would not be cheap but that’s probably the trade off from not putting in a lot of effort.
Anyone else have any ideas?
Patrick, great reply.. Sooner than later, everybody will learn and know about domains. Nobody knows when that time will be though
Best,
Mike
Mike,
Do you think though that the plan to release all these tlds will confuse end users? Domainers will speculate wholesale but I worry about diluting the message to end usesers. Fodder for another post perhaps?
“Anyone else have any ideas?”
Here’s some:
1.You could try contacting the related Business Association(s) and let them know you have a
relevant domain that their members may be
interested in.
i.e. American Dental association for JawPain .com.
If the association has a newletter you can take
out an inexpensive classified ad or advertise on
their website.
You could offer a sales commission in lieu of
paying for the ad. They may be receptive.
—-
2.You could send out a Press Release featuring
your domain name and point out how other
companies have benefitted from generic domains
with examples. A la JawPain .com.
If the Press Release is picked up you could then
refer the End User(s) you contact to the release.
-
3.You can try and get an experienced domain broker
to represent your domain.
i.e. Kevin Leto of BigTicketDomains.com.
Kevin is experienced in contacting End Users.
Patrick, nice ideas. Definitely trade magazines, press releases, thought leaders in a field etc
I like the press release idea though writing press releases is an art.
How about finding a few of the top websites in the area and offering to write some articles perhaps along the line of the press release Patrick mentioned? Some websites are looking for good content especially from unique perspectives.
Awesome ideas Barry and Patrick. Thanks for the tips
LittleDevil, I would be interested to hear if any of them help you get a sale. Let us know how it works out