Back in 2014, hundreds of new Top Level Domains (nTLDs) rolled out into availability. This means that the .com, .gov, and .org extensions that are typically used for business domains were joined by a multitude of other, more specialized extensions such as .attorney, .cars, and .recipes.

As a channel partner, it’s crucial to know how these new units will influence your presence online.

However, it is up to savvy registries to amplify this message and engage marketers in order for them to get at the head of this new domain landscape and maximize the changes for their organizations.

Currently, it looks like most companies don’t understand the significance of the new nTLD launch and the potential impact for their business. Furthermore, the majority of branding professionals appear to lack the distinct, necessary data they need to make educated decisions. The outcome? Channel partners don’t raise the subject to executives, and action is not taken.

Registries have the power to transform this.

By putting concrete intelligence in the hands of marketers, companies can consider the advantages as they explore moving their digital real estate and altering or adding top-level domain names to their branding mix.

The biggest benefit to look at is the capacity channel partners will have in creating a user experience more personalized to the consumer. Whether it’s uber-customized down to the individual or just tailored to a certain region or demographic, TLDs can expand brand awareness by delivering an association between the domain extension and the company’s product or service.

This leads to opportunities for website marketing campaigns and digital strategy that are efficient and innovative. These new internet extensions allow better targeting toward customer segments, as well as a focused approach of categorizing and tracking customers by location (.chicago, .texas), by interests (.books, .basketball), by family (.mom, .family), by work (.engineer, .plumber), by education (.mba, .cpa) by political affiliation (.republican, .liberal), and countless other groupings.

Companies can concentrate on generating a user experience uniquely targeted to what the consumer is searching for, as opposed to landing on a generic home page and trusting they stay on the site long enough to find the information they want.

The major impact is that these TLDs could alter the expectations users have when searching for a product or service. Yet if adapted early, companies can reap the benefits, including improvements in click-through rates, which will confirm that websites with specialized domains receive the most applicable outcomes for the most competitive terms.

So much is happening so fast, it’s hard to keep up. But the bottom line is that if registries can capture the attention of marketers, the result will have a huge impact on global organizations. Channel partners will better understand how TLDs can play a larger part of their digital strategy, and ultimately, this will positively influence the success of the company. The alternative is that many businesses will fail to act and their profits will be damaged because they didn’t have the imperative digital resources required to keep pace with the competition. Moreover, registries also need to understand that their success is dependent on their channel partners, since the power has shifted to channel partners as shelf space is limited.

I welcome you to reach out to me and connect via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/samfrida.