Domain.Me Marketing plan 2015

final

Agenda

•  2014 analysis –  .ME highlights – Behind the numbers – Marketing structure in 2014 – Market overview

•  .Me marketing plan – Target market – Marketing mix

2014 ANALYSIS

.ME highlights

792.542 .ME

domains

190 registrars

Growth 6.69%

400.000 EUR for premium program

Change in the market new TLDs in 2014 => change in B2B relationship top shelf on the registrars home pages becomes even more crowded place – difficult to achieve promotions

3,5 Million new TLDs registered On Dec 31st, 2014

Portfolio growth

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BEHIND THE NUMBERS

Registrants per country

•  US + PA = 51% (same as 2013)

•  UK 6% from 7% in 2013

•  CN 5% from 3% in 2013

•  JP 4% from 2% in 2013

Registrars per country

•  US 68% from 73% in 2013

•  CN 3% from less than 1% in 2013

•  IN 3% from 1% in 2013

Content on .me

Content on .me

Languages on .me

.Me examples

Big brands using .Me: –  Facebook

–  fb.me, –  sling.me, –  rooms.me

–  Wordpress –  wp.me, –  jetpack.me

–  Mercedes –  mercedes.me –  benz.me

–  Time magazine – ti.me

Personal use: –  Carlos Espinal - thedrawingboard.me –  Ted Murphy – ted.me –  Tony Conrad – tonyconrad.me –  Stu McLaren – stu.me –  Steve Rubel – steverubel.me –  Danny Brown – dannybrown.me –  Lea Verou - lea.verou.me –  Tucker Max – tuckermax.me –  Peter Hershberg – hershberg.me

.Me examples

For Middle East: –  SUPERMAMA - supermama.me –  ShopGo – shopgo.me –  Yamsafer – yamsafer.me –  UTURN – uturn.me –  GlamBox – glambox.me –  Tfour – tfour.me –  Rawy – rawy.me –  Mishari Alafasy – alafasy.me

Communities: –  Deviant art – fav.me –  Tearway – tearaway.me –  Reset.ME – reset.me –  See Me – see.me –  Latina Mom – mom.me –  Etsy – etsy.me –  Go Learn – golearn.me

MARKETING STRUCTURE IN 2014

Marketing strategy

•  Raising brand awareness through quality content: – On our blog – Through different formats (blogposts, slide share

presentations, infographics, video…) – 3rd party blog posts (influencer marketing)

•  With the focus on lead generation => through registrars

•  And customer retention through the loyalty program

Communities Campaigns

Marketing Strategy Structure

IP addresses, language register.me

newsletter

events parked pages

registrars

blog

SEO

Registered .me domains

3rd party blog posts

www.domain.me

Loyalty program

Press releases

infographics

video photos

Registrar relations/

promotions

MARKET OVERVIEW

Market Overview

•  Having almost 800,000 .Me domains in portfolio on a market where the biggest domain is .com with 120 million domains (offering millions to registrars as marketing development funds)

•  New TLDs open every day and grow with registries using different marketing tactics to promote

•  10 top registrars hold 65% of the portfolio

•  Distribution channel dictates the market

gTLD breakdown by zone size

* Verisign Industry brief Jan, 2015

The market – new TLDs

TLD* Domains % Share

.xyz 745,729 21.12%

.berlin 154,951 4.39%

.club 152,763 4.33%

.⺴⽹网址 (xn--ses554g) 101,605 2.88%

.realtor 89,011 2.52%

.wang 87,543 2.48%

.guru 78,013 2.21%

.nyc 63,326 1.79%

.ovh 55,573 1.57%

.london 52,828 1.50% Total (all) 3,531,164

* Data on December 14, 2014

The market – “old” TLDs

domain Quarterly

Growth Q3 2013

Quarterly Growth Q3

2014

Yearly growth 2013

Yearly growth dec

2014

Size of DUM Dec

2014 .com 1.35% 1.00% 5.43% 3.28% 115,198,249 .net 0.44% -0.51% 1.91% -0.82% 15,048,755 .org 1.06% 0.14% 2.53% 1.03% 10,476,691 .biz 9.89% -2.62% 16.05% -8.65% 2,400,539 .info -5.27% -2.20% -18.51% -7.28% 5,502,756 .mobi 3.81% -7.64% 15.95% -28.01% 847,936 .asia 2.77% 1.68% 4.65% -36.64% 276,792 .tel -3.00% -2.65% -11.72% -37.44% 133,815 .me 4.75% 0.26% 11.63% 7.53% 796,497 .us 2.25% -1.33% 3.57% -1.35% 1,779,838

gTLD 1.07% 0.59% 3.80% 2.04% 148,626,990 * Data taken on Dec 1st, 2014

.ME MARKETING PLAN

Business overview

Vision •  To become the number one personal domain

choice! Mission statement •  To help people and businesses to express

themselves online and control their online identity!

SWOT analysis Helpful to achieve the objective

Harmful to achieve the objective

Inte

rnal

Strengths -  Personal meaning of the domain in

different languages -  Tech background – safety and security -  Big brands on board

Weaknesses -  Domain as a “Product” -  Price/distribution control -  Small team – lack of people -  Cultural differences with different markets -  Global awareness of .ME

Exte

rnal

Opportunities -  Good relationships with some registrars -  Blogging community rise -  Rise of personal branding importance -  Number of available domains to register

Threats -  New TLDs opening every day -  Lack of distribution control

-  Registrars promoting new TLDs -  Change of laws and regulations -  Possibility of loss of trust in ccTLDs

SWOT actions Helpful to achieve the objective

Harmful to achieve the objective

Inte

rnal

Use strengths -  Use personal meaning of the domain

as an advantage -  Promote tech background and safety

and security -  Promote big brands already using .ME

Response to weaknesses -  Domain as a product and price control -

Work with registrars to define the price and product

-  Small team and cultural problems - Outsource agencies

-  Global awareness – create content and work on campaigns to raise awareness

Exte

rnal

Use opportunities -  Work on relationships with registrars -  Promote in Blogging community -  Promote the importance of personal

branding (raising awareness) -  Promote number of available domains to

register

Response to threats -  New TLDs opening every day – promote

to the end customers to raise awareness, gain better relationships with registrars, and trust

-  Promote good examples

Target market

1.  Blogger – working on personal branding –  Avid learner – reads a lot about personal branding,

SEO, tutorials on plugins, website builder services, web site security, tips and tricks

–  Likes gifting and promotions 2.  Developer – working in different projects

–  Programmer or designer/photographer –  Wants to be a startuper, influencer –  Identifies as geek

Marketing objectives

•  Connect .ME brand with positive values through campaigns and content creation

Raise awareness

•  Create content about personal branding, controlling your own data and offer good examples of .me Educate

•  Create funnel to drive traffic to our website and direct visitors to register a domain

•  Work with registrars on promotion to end-customers and show .me cases

Acquire

•  Give additional value through loyalty program

Retain

Grow number of visits to website and maintain conversion of 8%

Increase number of creates per month

Maintain renewal on 65.5%

Increase .ME portfolio by 6.2% in 2015 (plan)

Marketing mix – pricing & place

•  Pricing and distribution channel: – Base price 10 eur – Create promotions and special deals with registrars to

promote – Position .ME on the top shelf (being in the right location

can be a deciding factor)

•  Promotion – Through registrars – Through communities of end-customers – On events/conferences

•  Content creation – to raise awareness and educate – Blogposts, 3rd party blogposts, newsletter, infographics,

presentations, video material, photo sharing and contests

– Through own website, social media, paid ads

Marketing mix – promotion

#1 Target market – Marketing mix – product

•  A domain is not perceived as a product, and most commonly people don’t see the value in domain unless it’s not connected with a service

•  Work with services and registrars to create a product around personal branding – Bundle with website builders – Bundle with hosting – Bundle with email

#2 Target market – Marketing mix – product

•  The domain as a product is seen as a marketing tool and as a SEO tool

•  Create the message and content around: – Good examples of .me usage – SEO tips and tricks –  Importance of marketing message in a domain – Stability and success of .me registry

Marketing mix – process

Acquire - Key processes: –  For events – sponsorships,

becoming a part of a community around each conference, offer professional insights

–  For online presence – create content and measure conversion

–  For campaigns – drive traffic to website and CTA to register, measure keyword ranking

Retention - Loyalty program processes:

–  Find and contact brand ambassadors

–  Measure impact –  Grow reach –  Reward interaction

Raising awareness

Content creation goals

1.  Increase inbound leads to the website 2.  Be seen as a thought leader in industry through

education and engagement 3.  Build relationships and excite influencers 4.  Move leads through our sales funnel with relevant

content 5.  Retain through loyalty platform

Digital strategy

Owned media

Paid media paid search & ads influencer campaigns social media tweaks

website blog content creation social presence design

Earned media sharing, mentions, reposts, reviews Earned over time: -  loyalty program -  brand ambassadors

Campaigns connect different activities: •  Content on our blog •  Influencer campaigns •  Promote on social media •  Share on specific

communities •  Pay ads •  Retargeting

Social media tweaks twitter chat, quizzes, games, contests

Marketing budget – media planning description

owned media (web properties) website maintenance and SEO

blog editorial content creation

community management design

paid media (advertising) paid search and ads

influencer campaigns social media tweaks

earned media (sharing) rewards loyalty program

loyalty program maintenance

•  Through permanent work on owned media aiming to earned media, but using carefully planned and performed campaigns to get the best result from paid media

Monitoring/measurements

•  For raising awareness –  Keyword ranking on SEO

•  For content creation and education –  Website visits and conversions –  Interactions on social media

•  For acquisition –  Per registrar/promotion/campaign

•  For retain –  Loyalty program impact – sharing, interactions…

Brand health survey Dec 2015