Since 2014 more than 700 new gTLDs (generic Top Level Domains) have gone live. In theory that opens up tons of marketing possibilities. However in practice I see that it is not so easy to sell loads of new gTLDs. Customers do not see the forest through the trees (Dutch proverb translated).

But there are some fairly simple strategies that you can implement that with a little effort should pay off.

Strategy 1.

Sell at high prices. Because higher pricing allows you to invest more in marketing and makes you more profits. Don’t be afraid that you charge too much for now. Most of your customers do not know the prices of new gTLDs yet and therefor have no insight in cost prices, prices of competitors etc etc. Most registries of the new gTLDs charge already fairly high prices compared to gTLDs like .com or many ccTLDs. It means both percentage wise as absolute wise you can charge high prices. 40% or more is what I think is absolutely fair

Strategy 2.

Give huge discounts. If you use Strategy 1 you can afford to give a big discount of like 30% for the first year of registration. Renewals can be charged at your normal price. You still make money in the first year.

Strategy 3.

Make sure one or more new gTLDs show up in the first five results of your whois. Customers buy domains that are free. In the new gTLD space most good domain-names are stil free. Your customer will buy those if you give them the choice. Also make sure your whois has the option to show all the domains you sell. Find a registrar that supports all gTLDs and ccTLDS.

Strategy 4.

Send newsletters to your customers. This sounds like a trivial strategy but I have found out that many companies say they have no demand for new gTLDs. When I ask them if they have let their customers know by sending them a special newsletter on new gTLDs many of them say “no”. Newsletters are very cheap and it is easy to create a professional newsletter with for example Mailchimp.

Strategy 5.

Personalise your newsletters. This strategy is a little more complicated but very effective. Of course your already put the first and last name of your customer in your newsletter. That is standard and simple (I hope..), but you can make your newsletters much more effective if you include a proposal for new gTLDs for the domains the customer already owns. If you are more experienced or can rent a developer to do it for you also add a “Buy Now” button in the newsletter. This is extremely powerful.
So let’s say your customer has mygreatdomain.com your offer could be to register:
mygreatdomain.bio
mygreatdomain.xyz
mygreatdomain.nyc
mygreatdomain.tips
mygreatdomain.expert
etc etc etc

You don’t have to email your whole customer base right away. If you can handle only a limited amount of questions or orders then just send as much emails as you can handle and simply repeat weekly. Combine this strategy with Strategy 2.

Strategy 6.

Make a special landing page that includes the new gTLDs and your offers for them. Advertise this page on your homepage with a banner or try out online advertising.

Strategy 7.

Use the special promotions that most registries offer to sell their new gTLDs. Your registrar should be able to help you with this. There are almost continuously new promotions available and the requirements for them are very mild. Using a specific banner and creating a landing page is normally sufficient. Most of them provide marketing materials for this.

Strategy 8.

Upsell! Use the opportunity to sell hosting, spamfiltering, whois privacy and ssl certificates etc etc with every new domain name. Research shows that churn reduces dramatically when you sell 3 or more services to a customer.

Strategy 9.

Focus. There are many new domains that have a certain target audience. Try to sell your customers from New York a .nyc, those from London a .london. But also .bio can be used to sell to organic farmers or as a biography for people. There are thousands non-governmental organisations that would qualify for a .ngo or .ong and with a .tennis domain you can focus on all tennisplayers. The options are almost unlimited.

Strategy 10.

Bundle. Create packages for certain themes like food and drinks business. For example create a special package that includesjouwtent.menu
− yourplace.restaurant
− yourplace.bar
− yourplace.bio
− yourplace.catering
− yourplace.beer
etc etc

Strategy 11.

Trademarks. Probably a few of your customers have trademarks. You can make sure they are signed up in the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) and let them use the sunrise phases of a new domain launch to protect their domains. You can charge a much higher price for your services in this phase and add real value for your customers.

Strategy 12.

Premium domains. A lot of registries have a premium domain-name program where they sell generic domains at a premium price. You can make a lot of money selling those premium domains. For example hotels.amsterdam will go for over a million Euro. Imagine your margin if you sell this domain.

Strategy 13.

Early Access Program (EAP). The registries Donuts and Rightside who both will launch a few hundred new gTLDs have an EAP program. It simply means that 7 days before the launch of a new gTLD you can already buy it at a premium price. Every day up until the launch date the price will be lower and the chances you can buy it as well. If you provide this service to your customers you would be able to get more revenue and you offer them a great service.

Strategy 14.

Domain Protected Marks List (DPML). This is a service that is available for trademarkholders that have been validated by the TMCH but do not want to register all the domains yet. A few registries like Donuts, Rightside and Minds and Machines offer this service where you simply block the registration of your trademark in al their domains without the need to register the domains. This is cheaper than just registering the domains but since it is still a few thousand dollars it is a great upsell opportunity for you.

Strategy 15.

Ask money for pre-registrations. It is useful to collect pre-registrations before a domain-name goes live with domains your customers would like to register. If this is free a lot of customers will simply let the offer expire when the domain goes live. But if you ask like 1 dollar for a pre-registration you maybe have less pre-registration but you already make 100% margin and the conversion rate will be huge since you customer already paid you. Of course you have to make sure that you manage the lists very well to avoid negative feedback. So have a policy for refunds when the domain-name was take faster by somebody else and how the handle double registrations.

Strategy 16.

Focus on renewals. The easy money is made when your customer renews the domain-name forever. Make sure your renewal process is very efficient and you have done a lot of upsells. The longer the customer stays the better it is for you and the probability is higher that he will buy more from you.

All these strategies are simple to implement and they guarantee you a lot of extra business. You have no excuse to not make more money now!