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Although some of the younger demographics are passing up Facebook in favor of tools like Instagram and Snapchat, Facebook still dominates the market.

With 1.09 billion people logging in daily (a 16% increase year-over-year), it’s still the most popular social network around. Not to mention, Facebook owns 77% of all social logins.

If you want your business’ content to reach consumers, having a presence on Facebook is a given. But to make the most of your Facebook Page — to attract and engage visitors, drive them to your website, and convert them into leads (and, eventually, customers) — you need to optimize your Facebook presence.

We know that learning all the nuances of various social networks can be a tricky and time-consuming feat, especially considering how frequently they add, remove, and modify features.

To help you stay ahead of the curve, we’ve put together a handy cheat sheet that businesses and marketers can use to make the most of Facebook. The list is divided into three main categories depending on your goals for using Facebook:

1. Tips for Your Facebook Business Page
2. Tips for News Feed Visibility
3. Tips for Advertising on Facebook

25 Tips and Tricks for Marketing on Facebook

Tips for Your Facebook Business Page

1) Create a business Page, not a personal profile.

First thing’s first: You need to create a business Page — not a personal profile — to represent your brand. Pages look similar to personal profiles, but they include unique tools for businesses, brands, and organizations. Your fans can Like your Page to see updates from you in their News Feeds, which is something they can’t do for personal profiles. 

Not only will this maximize Facebook’s business potential for you, but it’s actually against Facebook’s Terms of Service to use a personal account to represent something other than that person, like a business. If you’ve already created a profile for your business, you’ll want to convert it into a business Page, which you can learn how to do easily here.

Setting up a page is simple. Just visit this page and follow the step-by-step setup instructions.

2) Claim your Page’s vanity URL.

Once you’ve created your business Page, it’ll get a randomly assigned number and URL, like http://ift.tt/1flWj41. To make your Page more shareable and easier to find, you’ll want to create a recognizable vanity URL (e.g., http://ift.tt/u9KwfS).

To create a vanity URL, visit this page, then follow the instructions. 

3) Add a great cover photo.

Facebook’s page design lets you feature a 851 x 315 pixel cover photo at the top of your business Page. You’ll want to optimize that cover photo to capture the attention of new visitors, encourage them to explore and learn more, and provide an effective mobile experience  — all the while ensuring you’re following Facebook’s Page Guidelines.

Learn all about do’s and don’ts for your Facebook cover photo in this blog post.

Here are some more awesome examples of business Page cover photos to get your creative juices flowing.

4) Add a recognizable profile picture.

Pick a profile picture that will be easy for visitors to recognize — like your company logo, or a headshot of yourself if you’re a solopreneur or consultant. Being recognizable is important for getting found and Liked, especially in Facebook Search. Your profile image is pictured at the top of your Facebook Page and is also the thumbnail image that gets displayed next to all your Facebook Page updates, so choose wisely.

When choosing a photo, keep in mind that Facebook requires your profile picture dimensions to be 180 pixels by 180 pixels (even though the image will display as 160 pixels by 160 pixels on desktop computers).

5) Optimize your “About” section — especially the preview.

Your “About” section is one of the first places people will look when they arrive on your Page. A preview of it is located on the left-hand side of your page beneath your profile picture, and people can also navigate to the full section by clicking on the “About” tab at the top of your page.

Be sure to optimize the preview section on the left side of your page with brief yet descriptive copy to give visitors a sense of what your Page and your business is about before they decide to Like you. This copy will get pulled from the “Short Description” you provide within your full “About” tab.

Here’s an example video marketing software company Wistia:

And another from a restaurant called Tahaza Hummus Kitchen:

To edit your own “About” tab, click on it, hover over the section you’d like to edit, and click the pencil icon. 

6) Earn the “Very responsive to messages” badge.

If you respond quickly to most users who send you messages on Facebook, then you can earn what Facebook calls a “Very responsive to messages” badge. You’ll earn a “Very responsive to messages” badge below your Page’s cover photo if you have a response rate of 90% and a response time of 15 minutes over the last seven days.

If you’re responsive to messages but haven’t quite earned the badge, Facebook will still show off how responsive you are to visitors. Here’s an example from Zappos’ Page:

If you’re not very responsive to messages, nothing will appear. So, while it’s not the end of the world if you don’t respond, having that badge lets users know your business is listening and cares about their needs.

By the way, there’s a lot you can do with Facebook’s “Messages” tool for businesses. We recommend you explore and make the most out of Facebook as a communication and support tool.

Image Credit: Facebook

7) Add milestones.

The “Milestones” feature lets you highlight some of your business’ biggest accomplishments, like award wins, product releases, major events, or other accolades. Recent milestones will be posted to your Timeline, and users will be able to find them later under your “About” tab.

To add milestones, click on the “Timeline” section of your Page, and click the “Offer, Event +” option in the page update composer near the top of your page.

9) Choose a call-to-action button.

Facebook added a very handy feature in December 2014: the option to place a simple call-to-action button at the top of your Facebook Page. You can learn how to add a CTA button to your business’ Facebook Page here.

You can choose from seven pre-made button options (“Sign Up,” “Shop Now,” “Contact Us,” “Book Now,” “Use App,” Watch Video,” and “Play Game”) and link it to any website that aligns with your business’ goals. It could link to your homepage, a landing page, a contact sheet, a video, or somewhere else.

10) Create custom page tabs.

By default, your page tabs are set as Timeline, About, Photos, Likes and More. But Facebook lets you create and leverage custom tabs — which are basically like landing pages within your Facebook Page, or calls-to-action where you can feature anything from case studies to marketing offers to other promotions you’re running.

They’re right at the top of your page and let you give visitors specific path to do what you want them to do on your Page. For example, if you’re hiring a lot of people, you might create a custom tab for “Jobs” that links to your jobs site, like Zendesk does on their Page:

You can create custom tabs by signing in, visiting your Page, clicking the “More” tab and choosing “Manage Tabs” from the dropdown menu. (Read this blog post for further instructions.)

Tips for News Feed Visibility

11) Prioritize quality over quantity.

Here are two questions we hear a lot: How often should I post to Facebook? Will posting more frequently will help me reach more people?

In short, the answer is no. At the end of the day, how visible your posts are in people’s News Feeds all comes down to the quality of your posts. These algorithms are meant to filter out the irrelevant and the poor quality posts so that the highest-quality stuff is what gets through and gets shown to users.

So don’t overwhelm your customers with content on Facebook, and be selective about what you’re publishing. Spend more time crafting better Facebook posts, and less time crafting a lot of Facebook posts. Remember: It’s a marketer’s job to post content to social that’s interesting, entertaining, helpful, and/or relevant to the audience. This means picking relevant topics, writing delightful copy, and posting compelling images and videos.

12) Post at the best times for your audience.

Another common question: When’s the best time to post to Facebook? Unfortunately, there’s no perfect answer — different businesses may find different days and times work best for them. Timing often depends on what your target audience uses Facebook for, the region(s) you’re targeting, the content of your post (e.g. funny or serious), and your goals (e.g. clicks versus shares), and so on.

That being said, there is data out there on optimal times to post on Facebook: 

• The best time to post on Facebook is 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Other optimal times include 12:00–1:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays and 1:00–4:00 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays.
• Engagement rates are 18% higher on Thursdays and Fridays, and weekdays from 1:00–4:00 p.m. tend to see the highest clickthrough rates. On Fridays, Facebook use spikes by 10%. Since people tend to be happier on Fridays, Neil Patel suggests posting funny or upbeat content to match your audience’s mood.
• The worst times to post on Facebook are weekends before 8:00 a.m. and after 8:00 p.m., according to SurePayroll’s research.

Think of this data as a general guideline, and use it to help you find the optimal posting times for your business. 

13) Post your best blog content.

For businesses, social media continues to be driven by content. It’s a marketer’s job to post content to social that’s interesting, entertaining, helpful, and/or relevant to our audience. Start populating your Page’s timeline with content by handpicking your best, most helpful blog posts.

If you’re strapped for resources but maintain a business blog, you can try connecting your blog to auto-post links to new blog content you publish. Many blogging platforms (like HubSpot) automatically offer this feature within the software — you’ll just need to turn it on and sync it with your Page. You don’t want to put too much emphasis on automation, though. It’s OK to auto-publish some content, but make sure a real human is posting and engaging with your fans, too.

14) Make sure your blog posts’ meta descriptions are complete.

Have you noticed that when you post a link to Facebook, it pulls in a brief description as well as an image?

The description gets pulled from the page’s meta description, which refers to the HTML attribute that explains the contents of a given web page. It’s the short description you see on a search engine results page to “preview” what the page is about, and it’s also the copy Facebook will automatically pull in the populate the description of a post.

Without a meta description, Facebook may pull in the first text they can find, which doesn’t make for a very good user experience. Plus, meta descriptions are your chance to sell your visitors on what you have to offer: informative, valuable content.

Your meta description should be compelling enough to get people to click, and it should be 155 characters or fewer in length. Read this blog post to learn more about writing effective meta descriptions.

15) Remove links from your post copy.

Keep your copy succinct by removing the horrendously long URL you’re sharing from the text in your post.

Your post real estate is precious, and you want to ensure any characters employed are purely for the sake of sparking a reader’s attention. Plus, any user can click on the generated thumbnail or title for that URL to navigate to the blog post, web page, or any URL you’re linking to — so no need to include it in the copy of your post as well.

16) Post your most compelling visual content.

Facebook’s new timeline page design places more of an emphasis on visual content like images and videos. After all, Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than posts without images. One study found that Facebook posts with photos saw the most engagement over any other type of post, accounting for a whopping 87% of total interactions.

That’s why posting compelling visual content is one of the most important things you can do to improve your Facebook strategy. Use this to your advantage posting your best visual content to your Facebook Page, or making more of an effort to make the content you already create more visual. (Click here to download 100+ social media image templates for free.)

A successful social strategy will often include photos, videos, and screenshots of infographics or other graphs. In addition to being fun to look at, it’s important that your visual content be compelling and relevant to your audience.

Another reason to post lots of visual content? It’ll help auto-populate the “Photos” and “Videos” tabs, which are automatically added to every Facebook Page. You want those to be rife with visual content when people click on them.

17) Make sure your images are properly formatted.

Don’t just post images for the sake of posting images. To give your users the best experience possible, you need to optimize your images for Facebook so that they’re the right sizes and dimensions. (Click here to download pre-sized cover photo templates for Facebook and other social networks for free.)

Below are a few of the most common Facebook image sizes, but you can find a more detailed guide here.

• Cover photo: 851 px wide by 315 px tall
• Profile image: 180 px wide by 180 px tall
• Highlighted image: 1200 px wide by 717 px tall
• Shared image: 1200 px wide by 630 px tall
• Shared link thumbnail image: 1200 px wide by 627 px tall

18) Post videos, especially live videos.

The folks at Facebook know that people like watching videos on Facebook. The number of people watching video content is rapidly increasing: Between April 2015 and November 2015, the amount of average daily video views on Facebook doubled from four billion video views per day to eight billion.

Facebook is continuing to tweak how the algorithm measures people’s interest in video content on Facebook, but the main takeaway is to make your videos as visually engaging as possible — especially in the first few seconds.

Why? Because although all videos on Facebook autoplay in people’s News Feeds, they’re on mute until the viewer manually turns the volume on. The more visually engaging your video, the more you can entice people to stick around. Getting people to spend more time watching your video will help your video rank higher in the News Feed because to Facebook, signs of user engagement with a video include spending time watching the video, turning on the audio, switching to full-screen mode, or enabling high definition.

In their continued effort to promote video content in the News Feed, Facebook recently launched Facebook Live, a live video streaming service that lets anyone broadcast live videos from their mobile device straight to their Facebook News Feed. Use Facebook Live to your advantage, as Facebook ranks Live videos higher than other videos and other types of posts.

19) Use Facebook Insights.

Facebook Insights is Facebook’s internal analytics tool right that helps you measure and analyze your Facebook presence. The tool provides Facebook page administrators with analytics data about Page visits and engagement, which can help you understand which content is and isn’t engaging to your fans.

Access your page’s Insights here, or by clicking into the ‘Admin Panel’ on your Page. We’ve also published an informative blog post and video that walk you through how to analyze Facebook Insights to improve your content strategy.

20) Schedule posts in advance.

Scrambling for Facebook content is not a new phenomenon. We have meetings. We run late. Things come up. That’s why you’ll want to use a third-party Facebook application like HubSpot’s social media publishing tool to schedule your Facebook posts (and other social media posts) in advance.

First, download our free social media content calendar template to help plan your posts in advance. You can fill it in at the same day and time every single week to prep for the following week’s social media content. Then, use that third-party Facebook application to actually schedule out your posts.

However, just as we advised against too much Facebook automation with blog auto-posting, the same holds true for scheduling. Don’t get caught in the trap of turning your page into a robot, and make sure you’re actively engaging with your fans, too.

21) Add Facebook social media buttons to your blog and website.

Adding Facebook social media buttons will help encourage visitors who are on your website to also connect and interact with you on Facebook, as well as spread your content and expand its reach.

The Facebook Follow Button lets you expand your Facebook reach by making it easy for your site visitors to Like your business’ Facebook Page with just one click. It displays your page’s number of Likes, as well as faces of people who already like your page, using social proof to amplify its effectiveness.

To customize your button, visit this page and follow the instructions.

The Facebook Like Box lets you promote your business’ Facebook Page on your website and blog, highlight other users who have already Liked your page, display your follower count, and feature recent posts on your page. With just one click, people can Like your business Page — without leaving your site. 

To generate a Facebook Like Box for your website, visit this page and follow the instructions.

The Facebook Like Button lets people easily Like your content. When a user Likes a piece of content, it may show up in your friends’ News Feeds because the algorithm takes it as a signal your friends will find it relevant. 

(Note: This button doesn’t allow them to add personalized messages to links before sharing them. To allow users to add a personalized message, use the Facebook Share Button, explained below.)

To customize your Facebook Like Button, visit this page and follow the instructions.

Facebook Share Buttons act similarly to the Like Button by sharing your content on their Timeline and in friends’ News Feeds, except they also let people add a comment or message to the link when sharing it.

To generate a Facebook Share Button, visit this page and follow the instructions.

22) Subscribe to Facebook’s Official Blog for future announcements from Facebook.

Give yourself a competitive edge by staying on top of the latest announcements from Facebook such as new features and tools by subscribing to the official Facebook Blog.

Tips For Advertising on Facebook

23) Choose the right advertising tool. (Probably the Ads Manager.)

Facebook offers users two different tools for creating a paid ad: the Ads Manager and the Power Editor. The Power Editor is usually best for larger advertisers looking for more precise control over many campaigns. If that doesn’t sound like you, the Ads Manager works great for most companies. Figure out which is best for your business based on your company size and the number of ads you plan to run at once. 

24) Use Audience Insights to learn about your audience.

The best Facebook ads are high-quality, relevant ads that fit seamlessly into the user’s environment on Facebook. Learn more about your customers and prospects using Audience Insights, which you can find inside the Facebook Ad Manager in the left-hand navigation.

The tool will help you target your ads more effectively and learn about your audience — even if you are not advertising to them. How? The data can help you build stronger buyer personas, create more compelling content, and uncover some gems for your competitive research. (Read this step-by-step guide to Audience Insights for more detailed instructions and tips.)

25) Test multiple versions of a single ad.

Running a single campaign won’t give you much to work with in terms of finding your audience, optimizing your ads, and determining if Facebook advertising works for your business. You need to be able and willing to run multiple campaigns to test and experiment with different parts of a single campaign.

Test your targeting first, using a simple advertisement and basic image, suggest the Brian Carter for Convince & Convert. “There are usually at least five to ten ways you could target your prospects,” he says. “Find the one or two audiences that convert best at the lowest cost per lead.”

In order to reach and test on a wider audience, you’re going to have to invest a reasonable amount of money on your campaign. The folks at BuzzSumo suggest that number be in the thousands. The reason for this? Facebook ads reward you for testing more ads and targets. Whereas cost-per-click doesn’t change much when you’re advertising on Google or LinkedIn, Facebook ads cost a lot less if you’re diligently testing them.

Then, you can test the creative side of the ad, including images, headlines, and body text. Try testing 20–25 variations on your proven targets: “You aren’t really doing Facebook ads well until you’ve created 15–20 ads,” says Carter. 

Read this blog post to learn more about creating, optimizing, and analyzing your Facebook ads.

What other Facebook marketing tips and tricks would you recommend for making the most of a business’ Facebook presence?

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in September 2011 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

 

The monthly or bimonthly newsletter is a well-known pillar of nonprofit communications. Organizations use this content piece to educate supporters about their latest achievements and projects, keep donors engaged over time, and lead them to deeper levels of support.

With the outrageous number of messages that the average person receives online, organizations need to optimize their emails or risk ending up in the trash folder. Here are several tips to make sure your nonprofit newsletter reaches supporters and keeps them engaged.

1) Establish the Right Frequency

The frequency of your nonprofit newsletter can make all the difference between staying in subscribers’ inboxes and ending up in their trash—or, worse yet, being unsubscribed from altogether. The key is to send consistent, relevant content often enough to stay top of mind without annoying readers.

Unfortunately, there’s no single correct frequency for all newsletters. Every organization’s subscriber lists have different makeups, so you’ll need to perform tests to understand how often to communicate with your audience. A good starting point is to send an email at least once a month, or once every two weeks. You can then continue to conduct tests on samples from your subscriber list to determine an emailing frequency that generates the highest open and click-through rates.

2) Focus on Subject Lines

Without a great subject line, all of the hard work you put into crafting a fantastic email can go to waste. A generic “January/February/March Newsletter” likely won’t cut it; it’s crucial to invest the time and effort to come up with an intriguing subject line for each of your emails that will make readers want to click.

Your subject lines should be clear, descriptive, and tell readers exactly what they need to know and why it matters. Brevity is also key. Always aim for under 50 characters, but given that the majority of email opens occur on mobile, you may want to focus on subject lines that are 20 characters or less to account for smaller screens. 

In any case, you want to deliver the most important information at the beginning of your subject line so that it can’t be missed. With such little real estate, make sure to cut out any words that don’t add value or let readers know why your email is worth their time. Also consider playing with subject lines that create a knowledge gap, intriguing readers to click through to learn more.

Here’s a snapshot of three nonprofit emails that all play with some of these tactics. The first and third emails listed here create a knowledge gap in their subject lines that makes readers want to find out what they’re talking about. The second email’s subject line is succinct while delivering the most important information right away.

Also notice how these emails all approach their “from” name differently. Whether you use your organization’s name, throw in the word “team” or “staff,” or use the name of a staff member, test different sender names to see which performs best.

3) Prioritize Attractive Design

Your email design should be clean, simple, and easy to read. Its design should guide the reader’s eye linearly from top to bottom, and it should be easy to quickly scroll and read through on a mobile device. For this reason, opt for a single-column layout. This will keep smartphone users happier, since readers on smaller screens would have to scroll horizontally to see a full multi-column email. In any case, you should be delivering responsive emails that adapt beautifully to any screen size in order to accommodate readers who are on the go.

All of your nonprofit newsletters should reiterate your visual branding elements, such as fonts, logo, and signature colors. When you keep these elements consistent across your communications, you reinforce your brand identity, boost your professionalism, and help readers recognize your messages.

Check out how Shining Hope for Communities begins their newsletter with a header image displaying their logo. A high-quality header image is also a great way to quickly capture your reader’s attention as soon as they open your email.  

4) Make It Scannable 

Your readers are typically on the move, especially if they’re reading from their mobile device. Combine this with the fact that the average attention span maxes out at eight seconds, and this means that most people will only spend a few moments reading your email. To sustain their attention and increase your chances of readers clicking through to your website, your messages need to be scannable.

Here are a few tips:

Use bullet points and subheadings where possible. This visually organizes your information and helps readers quickly scan and pick up the main topics. Also determine which information is most important to include in this email. Remember that you can link out to more details and facts with a “Learn More” button, so avoid packing your nonprofit newsletter with unnecessary text.

Use enlarged font sizes. Your text should be legible across mobile devices. To accommodate for small screens, HubSpot recommends using 14 px as a minimum font size for body copy, and 22 px for headlines.

Weave images throughout your newsletter. Not only do high-quality images enhance the overall look of your email and keep readers engaged, they also help break up walls of text and make your newsletter easier to skim. Consider using images of your donors, fundraisers, volunteers, beneficiaries, or photos from the field to delineate each section of your email. 

Keep in mind that some desktop clients and mobile email apps block images by default. To get around this issue, make sure to add alt text, or alternative text, to your images. When images are disabled, the alt text appears in their place, giving readers context that would otherwise be lost.

Balance your text-to-image ratio. Emails with a lot of images may trigger some of your donors’ spam filters, so be sure to balance your images with live text (rather than only using images that display the text). Opt for a 1:1 ratio.

Use whitespace. Whitespace is the blank space between graphics, text, images, and other visual elements on a page. It’s a key component of effective design that draws readers’ eyes to important items in your email—like your CTAs, key text, or images—as well as keeps your newsletter from feeling cluttered. Think of it as giving your readers’ eyes some “breathing room” between your different content pieces.

A well-crafted, beautifully designed newsletter can be a powerful tool to keep supporters engaged with your work. As you optimize different elements of your email, it’s important that you continue to run tests to find what content, delivery schedule, and design work best with your subscriber list. Some extra attention can improve the overall open and engagement rates of your nonprofit newsletter and ultimately power your success.  

For marketers, the domain name system (DNS) can be a little tricky to navigate.

If you’ve ever been tasked with buying a domain name, you’ve probably heard of terms like hyper text transfer protocol, subdomains, top-level domains, and more. Now, whether or not you remember the function of each part is an entirely different story …

So before we dive into anything technical, let’s start with a quick deconstruction.

Example: www.hubspot.com

This address is made up of three main parts: before, between, and after the dot. Before the dot, you’ll find the subdomain (www). Between the two dots, you’ll find the domain name (HubSpot). But what we’re going to dive into below concerns the text that comes after the dot: the top-level domain (TLD).

Back in the 1980s, the internet was introduced to a handful of generic TLDs: .com, .org, .net, .edu, .gov, .int, and .mil. Since then, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has expanded the domain name system, and introduced a new wave of TLDs known as Brand TLDs.

What’s a Brand TLD? Who has one? And how are they using them? Keep reading.

What Are Brand TLDs?

A Brand TLD is like any other TLD (think: .com, .org, or .net), but instead of a generic term, it is the brand’s trademark (think: .bmw, .apple, or .google).

A Brand TLD is proprietary, meaning only the brand can register second level domains such as drive.bmw, mac.apple, or search.google.

In terms of security and innovation opportunities, there are many considerations. It starts with understanding that the DNS is the very foundation of the internet. Without the DNS there is no Internet. Everything runs on the DNS. Owning a proprietary space at the root of the DNS offers opportunities for innovation, security, trust, and control that are entirely new. Never before have brands been able to own a proprietary slice of the Internet at the root level.

In terms of SEO, “early use cases indicate no negative search impact, and even potential benefits,” according to Neustar. “New TLD holders should (as now) focus on building highly relevant content on their .brand and .generic to earn search visibility,” they went on to explain.

However, it’s important that marketers that are considering a switch continue to monitor the impact that these new TLDs have on the brands currently employing them, as it’s too soon to determine the long-term effects.

Why Now?

ICANN is the governing body that sets rules for the internet. In 2008, ICANN approved a program to radically expand the domain name space with the introduction of new TLDs. In 2011, ICANN began accepting new TLD applications from entities across the globe. Any entity could apply to own and operate a new TLD, however, the application fee was a steep $185K.

In 2012, ICANN announced they received 1,930 new TLD applications of which approximately 1,400 were unique, separated into five categories: Generic, Geographic, Community, Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), and Brand. Just over 600 brands applied in Round 1. (You can check out the complete list of brands here.)

What does the program status look like today?

By February 2014, new TLDs began to rollout. As of May 1, 2016, there were 17.2 million new domain names registered across 978 delegated new TLDs. In comparison, this represents approximately 13.5% of the entire .com population (around 125 million), which took 30 years to reach.

As of December 2015, there were a total of 314 million domains registered. As 2016 progresses, we expect to see the remaining 300 to 350 new TLDs delegated to the internet. In fact, ICANN just recently announced the program’s 1,000th delegation, stating that there are nearly 50 times as many generic TLDs now as there were in 2013. It’s expected that the pace of change will accelerate as public awareness and usage grows.

ICANN has committed to future rounds to allow brands and other entities to apply for additional new TLDs. Industry insiders expect Round 2 to be heavily participated by Geographic and Brand TLD applications.

Why Many Big Brands Are Making the Move

According to Neustar’s FAQs of New TLDs list, “new Brand TLDs offer a unique and significant opportunity to drive brand affinity, build trust, enhance security, and engage customers.” And that’s largely why we are starting to witness leading brands deploying initial use cases.

Business leaders are engaging and beginning to understand the new Brand TLD capabilities that can improve business performance. To help illustrate these benefits, let’s take a look at a couple of key selling points:

1) Cost Benefit

Naysayers about these new TLDs complain that applying for and operating a Brand TLD will add significant cost burden to the business, and offers little benefit. And they’re partially right: the initial investment is up there. However, it’s important to consider what it means for the future of brand digital identity management.

For this reason, you should quickly unpack the relative value of a Brand TLD compared to current domain market conditions and status quo domain portfolio practices.

What are domain names worth?

Due to scarcity and the power of language, one word domains can be valued in the millions of dollars. On Wikipedia’s list of most expensive domains, you will find market values ranging from $35 million for insurance.com to $3 million for loans.com.

One-word domains — also referred to in the industry as “category killers” — are extremely valuable. Why? Because they are short, memorable, and mean something to audiences.

Now compare that to the cost to acquire and operate a Brand TLD priced at a few hundred thousand dollars and offering an unlimited number of one-word branded properties that are authentic and trusted. The comparative cost vs. benefit to acquire and operate a Brand TLD is nominal.

What does it cost to protect a brand?

It’s not uncommon for a brand to hold multiple domains for defensive purposes. However, doing so results in significant costs — including registrar outside counsel and internal administrative costs. Layer on legal fees to monitor, file, and administer rights protection such as UDRP (Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy) to recover infringing domain names, and the cost of brand protection is massive.

Then, consider the efficacy of defensive domain activity spend today — and in the future with thousands of TLDs to guard your brand against. It becomes unsustainable from a cost and efficacy point of view.

Brands who own a Brand TLD will educate audiences to trust websites using their Brand TLD. As this education permeates the market, the active use of a Brand TLDs will begin to reduce the expenditure required to protect your brand.

2) New Capabilities

When it comes to Brand TLDs, there are as many use cases as there are business problems. For brands choosing to make the investment, it’s important that they are designing and deploying use cases that specifically address their unique priorities and objectives.

To give you a better sense of how brands are benefiting from the variety of use cases, let’s check out three potential initiatives.

“customer.brand”

“customer.brand” is a customer-centric initiative that can help brands create advocacy-generating experiences.

Brands can leverage new Brand TLD technology to power customer engagement, motivate peer influence, and harness customer intelligence data. For example: An affinity brand like Nike could permit their best fans to use, under certain terms and conditions, a “customername.nike” web presence.

Here brands can harness user-generated content and capture customer data to better serve that customer. Brands could even reward customers with points accumulated by the traffic they generate through social influence.

“channel.brand”

“channel.brand” is a channel initiative to leverage Brand TLD technology to distribute consistent content experiences across their points of sale with the intent to lift channel performance.

For example: Insurance firms use brokers to sell and service customers. If each of those brokers had their own “brokername.amfam” domain, it’s likely that they would not only feel supported by the organization, but they’d also be able to encourage trust from their clients.

“marcom.brand”

“marcom.brand” is a use case for marketers to create simple, elegant, memorable campaign messages, and deliver engaging web experiences that fulfill the message and brand promise.

This is the simplest use case to implement — and the easiest to measure ROI for. To determine the success rate of a campaign on http://ift.tt/1TZuMG4 vs. one using prius.toyota, you’d simply compare campaign KPIs such as response, engagement, and conversion rates.

Considering the Brand TLD is easy to communicate and remember, it presents an excellent opportunity for brands to see increased campaign performance.

(Note: Marcom is an all-encompassing abbreviation for “marketing communications.”)

5 Examples of Brands Getting Involved

In the first quarter of 2016, we saw a big jump in the number of brands deploying use cases for Brand TLDs. Most brands are undertaking simple test-and-learn initiatives, but several are more aggressive with full digital transformations.

Here are a few examples:

1) America Automobile Association: aaa.aaa

AAA launched a Brand TLD site to help website visitors find a club in their area.

2) Bloomberg: bba.bloomberg

Bloomberg is using bba.bloomberg to forward visitors to their login portal for Bloomberg Anywhere — a digital service to keep financial professionals current with the latest business news, data, and analytics.

3) BMW: next100.bmw

BMW designed a website using its Brand TLD to celebrate its 100th anniversary.

4) SEAT: ondinauto.seat

SEAT — a Spanish automobile manufacturer — has set aside nearly one hundred Brand TLD domains to represent its various car dealers. This serves as a great example of the “channel.brand” use case we mentioned above.

5) Canon: global.canon

Canon has begun redirecting traffic from their original domain canon.com to global.canon.

(For even more brand TLD examples, check out brandTLDs.news.)

Should Everyone Make the Switch?

A digital paradigm shift is underway with the expansion of the domain name space. And it’s important to remember that we are in the very early days of this. As the next round is processed, the domain name space will only continue to expand.

A Brand TLD serves as an effective way to secure a brand’s place in this increasingly complex digital ecosystem, where consumers demand authentic and trusted web properties to transact with businesses.

A Brand TLD is not just another domain like your current flagship URL. It is also not just another tool to build a website and engage with audiences. Brand TLDs provide a platform to increase digital trust and innovation at the root of the internet’s infrastructure.

But is a Brand TLD right for your business? Is it really worth the investment? Is it necessary for businesses in every industry? In short: It all depends. And it’s probably too soon to make a definitive determination.

Here’s what we do know: 41% of Brand TLDs were applied for by Fortune 500 companies — mostly financial services, retails, technology, and transportation. For a more detailed look at the current Brand TLD landscape, check out the following chart.

Image Credit: Neustar

Regardless of whether or not your brand falls into one of these verticals, it’s important that you’re (at the very least) aware of the changes going on. At Authentic Web, we recommend you take the following steps to help you begin thinking about the shift:

1. Dig in to understand the market activity and digital implications.
2. Set up a small and empowered working team.
3. Seek out advice from industry experts.
4. Learn from early use cases and ideate on your own.
5. Audit and grade your own domain name lifecycle change management processes.
6. Develop a plan to differentiate and lead in your market.

What do you think about Brand TLDs? How have you seen them used? Do you think it’s the right move? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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