Some businesses are asking what’s the use in setting up a Website when everybody’s on Facebook, MySpace or Twitter? Why not just set up a Facebook or MySpace page and use that as a business Web address? After all, on any given day there are up to 110 million people on either Facebook or MySpace building trustworthy relationships–why not stay there instead of trying to lure them to your own Website? While it seems as if these folks are just creating customer profiles and waiting for smart marketers to present products and services which can be peddled in those networks outfitted with the necessary e-commerce and communication tools, taking this position is like saying its wiser to live in a hot new nightclub than to get your own home. Continue reading “Are Websites Still Relevant?”
Is Your Business Missing out on LinkedIn?
It’s true that Facebook is all the rage, but LinkedIn is still a great place for businesses to connect with talent, suppliers, markets, investors, share ideas with other entrepreneurs and the leadership of fortune 500 companies and so much more. Best of all it’s also a great place to connect with a professional customer base!
Here are three steps businesses and entrepreneurs should be taking to connect with future employees, suppliers and customers Continue reading “Is Your Business Missing out on LinkedIn?”
Branding Across Borders
Cross-cultural marketing of your brand or product is easier and cheaper today thanks to growing Internet access around the world. Moving between .jm, .nz or .jp is easy, but buyers usually start searching within their country-coded domains before they search abroad. A country-coded domain (other than your own) can help improve your search engine results in foreign markets and improve your conversion rates.
Here are three steps to consider as you take your brand Continue reading “Branding Across Borders”
Expand Your Reach: Country-Coded Domains
Entrepreneurs that dream big know that having a Website is not enough to get your brand and ideas out there. If your product is as vital as say… food, medicine or a tourist destination, you might want to add to your to-do list a strategy to go international by obtaining one or more ccTLDs- country-coded domains assigned to other independent countries (e.g. Jamaica uses .jm, and the UK uses .uk.)
3 good reasons for acquiring a ccTLD outside your home country (Caribbean or otherwise) are-
1. Send your brand where it could be more profitable
It’s simple, if you want to get paid in pounds, euros or yuan – go where you can get it! Acquiring myhotcaribbeanproduct.co.uk, .eu or .jp will get you more play in search engines queried abroad that at home.
2. Protect your brand in a shrinking world
If you’ve got a great product with cross over appeal (and who doesn’t?), save yourself the headache of dealing with international domain squatters who can hold your URL at ransom for big bucks later on. Websites such as Sedo’s is a weeping ground for businesses that underestimated the value of their brand or that they would want to open up shop elsewhere in our shrinking world. A domain that you can purchase for $20 today, could cost you $2000 tomorrow.
3. The grass looks sexier from the other side
It’s no mystery why marketers and businesses are scampering to secure domains in places like Tuvalu, the Federated States of Micronesia and Montenegro – with extensions such as .tv, .fm and .me your message could be made clearer and hotter in your own home market. It’s true that few in your home market will be thinking about Tuvalu if they saw hotcaribbeanthing.tv; but they sure would be logging on to “watch” it –and that’s the point!
Until next time when we’ll talk about some things to know before you go ccTLD.