By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD
Several years ago, I set up a Website for a local nonprofit organization that I helped. I registered three domain names for it: the main one, with two alternatives. The first ended with .org (as did one of the alternates). I also registered the .com version of their main domain name in case someone typed .com out of habit or error. All three pointed to their website.
When the domains were up for renewal and I opted not to renew the one ending with .com. Keeping it seemed like unnecessary overkill.
Then the email solicitations started rolling in. Apparently, there are a number of companies that monitor expiring domain names for one of the potential value.
Upon seeing that the .com version was available and that I had already registered the .org counterpart, they thought that I might be interested in it, offering to help me buy the exact domain name that I had allowed to lapse.
They suggested that I allow them to help me snatch up this great domain name before someone else did, thereby pushing the cost up.
I have to respect their business model that monitored expiring domain names, identified owners of existing domain names with a different extension, and contacted registered the owners via email.
Yet why didn’t they take one more step to eliminate contacting the prior owners who had purposely let the domain name expire?
Given the relatively inexpensive nature of email, it’s not a big deal. However, I am much more an admirer of an elegant marketing campaign over a brute force one. After all, it is the marketers that cut corners and execute their craft badly that make it harder for everyone else to be respected and trusted.
Bad marketing might produce results, but it pulls the industry down. Good marketing produces better results and elevates the industry.
Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.
Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.
He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.
