“It certainly erases the negative impression that Enterprise users had when they tried to visit Packet.com before we owned it. While they would often find their way to .net, it was a poor experience and lowered the value of the company in the eyes of our biggest prospects. We no longer have that problem!”
“It’s never easy to spend $350,000 on a domain… In the end, we agreed that our brand was an increasing part of the value of the company, and we wanted to ensure we had that locked up as a priority.”
“You may find yourself in the same situation where there are tons of variants of your name. Standing out just gets harder when people confuse you with other companies. That’s why we went right to the source. There are many copycat Sumo names in the market but by owning, we’re positioned as the original. We are the Sumo.com.”
“Premium .com domains are one of the easiest ways for someone to quickly decipher a company’s legitimacy. All internet users can distinguish the difference between a premium domain, and have some level of understanding of the difficulty of acquiring a domain like Remote.com”
“Not only does it brand us very clearly, but it has a much better potential for search and places us in people’s minds as a bigger company from the outset. Feedback has been extremely positive from the industry. Our staff even reports that in casual conversation, people believe they know what Trip.com is, even if they don’t…the brand is so simple it gives people the feeling that they should know us, even if they don’t yet.”
“If you have a US startup called X and you don’t have x.com, you should probably change your name. 100% of the top 20 YC companies by valuation have the .com of their name. 94% of the top 50 do. The problem with not having the .com of your name is that it signals weakness.“
“We started with PerchHomes.co and then moved to Perch.com when we had an opportunity to get the domain. Ultimately, your website domain is a big part of your brand, particularly for a B2C company that is not primarily app-based. At Perch, we’re asking customers to try a new solution for the biggest financial transaction they’ll make in their life. As a new brand, we think a “.com” domain gives us a boost in trust from a consumer who may not have heard a lot about Perch yet.”
“We knew that owning the .com would further signal to our existing and future customers that we’re a serious player in this space and that we’re here to stay for the long haul.”
“As the years went on and our customer base grew, we noticed that more people were referring to us as “Close,” rather than “Close-dot-I-O” or “Close-I-O” and we’d been adopting that name internally as well.”
“Now that we’ve reached a level of maturity and stability in the CRM space, we decided it was finally time to invest in acquiring the .com domain—in part to reconcile that disconnect between calling ourselves Close internally and “Close-dot-I-O” externally.”
“We believe in premium domain names. You gain instant credibility from customers, vendors, and investors.”
“We always get great reactions when people learn about our name and company. It really does give people the understanding that our brand stands for service and quality.”
“We always wanted Hive.com, but we originally launched as HiveTeams.com… I believe that a credible domain name is absolutely critical to success, especially for a B2B business. It was a top priority for us. We saw a 40% increase in traffic immediately after securing our preferred domain.”
“To me, premium domain names represent pre-existing goodwill with your potential online audience. Therefore it is also important that the group behind that domain name have genuine intentions to live up to the name. At least to me, this is a premium domain names main value. Certain industries don’t require as much trust as other ones. With regard to digital currency, trust is of paramount importance and therefore there is a huge premium value attached to these premium digital currency domains for that very reason.”
“People are trusting us with their finances and TryDave just didn’t seem to give me the same confidence as Dave.com.”
“The price will only go up if you launch and are successful. We’re all in with this company so we wanted to buy it as soon as possible.”
“We saw our customers confusing us with some of the other companies in the industry, and wanted to remedy that issue. Our service is so different and unique in comparison with the competition that these confusions might cost us a lot of opportunities.”
“Brand is key. Having a one-word category killer name as our brand has been everything for us.”
“If I tell you I own PacificPillows.com at a cocktail party you’re probably not going to remember our brand. But if I tell you Pillows.com you will remember.”
“Building successful businesses online shares some similarities to restaurants in that the food (content) is what speaks loudest in the end, not the cosmetics (design) or location (domain). Having a fantastic location and great atmosphere though goes a long way to bringing everything together. The restaurant location (domain) is an important part of a winning formula.”
“We really wanted a name that established instant credibility with customers….which is how we got to Cubicle.com.”
“Owning the keyword name Cubicle.com has definitely positively impacted the business! The largest benefit has been that it provides the business with instant credibility. Customers are often weary of making large-ticket purchases online, so having the Cubicle.com domain name provides them with a higher level of comfort and trust, which leads to a higher rate of conversion.”
“From that experience, I understood the value of a premium domain is huge, particularly in the early stages when you’re hustling to gain credibility. At HealthCare.com, we were able to get meetings early in our company history which led to substantial business development deals with large companies such as AOL Health, Drugstore.com and Everyday Health. Also, when you made customer calls, I can’t quantify it but the phone calls returned and emails opened is going to be higher.”
“It’s been quite a wild ride. Since acquiring the name in 2006, our business have been transformed. First, the organization is perceived to be an authoritative website. At conferences, people often ask how we got the name and I share the story. This alone has created some positive word-of-mouth for us.”
“I also believe that a good name give prospective customers the confidence to do business with us because they feel we are *the* company to work with.”
“ABCSearch is a trusted brand in the search industry, but many advertisers haven’t heard of us. This gives us more credibility and includes all of the digital media technologies we now offer.”
“I think the biggest factor about having a domain like that, alongside all the other benefits -it’s memorable, it’s easy to spell and so on – is the fact that it lets us punch above our weight. So if we’re looking to sponsor something, or if we’re looking to work with another company, or even from the customer’s point of view, having a domain like Wish.co.uk adds a lot of legitimacy to the brand that we wouldn’t have if we had a relatively generic brand name.”
“I knew that if I could get it for under a million dollars, I would have a good deal on my hands. Personally for me, I judge a domain based off the industry it’s referring to. The value of the industry. The CBD oil industry is exploding right now and to have the authoritative domain for the entire industry would be powerful.”
“We will still operate the brand BuyLegalMeds.com, but CBDOil.com not only has authority, but it has a lot of trust to the consumer when they visit a site like that.”
“Very simply, authority. When you buy online, subconsciously you make a judgement on the company behind the website. Having the exact match domain gives you instant authority, which would take a lot of marketing dollars to achieve with a newly regged name.”
“McGowan says the benefits of the new name have been multi-tiered, but the number one change has been people’s perception of the business.”
“There is a natural assumption the biggest, oldest companies have the premium generic domain names,” he says.
“In terms of the domain name investment, the name paid itself back within four months.
“People assume it’s the biggest and the best car loans business now”
“A lot of our inquiries are driven through AdWords, but we’re now getting the same number of leads for much less. Our click-through rate went up and our conversion rate alone has increased by 30%.”
“We’ve also noticed when the sales consultants are talking to the customers our name now is now seen as the authority in car loans because of its natural association with CarSales. Our settlements and conversion rates from us speaking to customers increase, customers would give us more information from the outset and they’d speak to us on the phone for longer.”
“When you can, you should invest in the best possible name and spend the most money that you can afford. Relating it back to the retail world, think about it like a store location. Having a premium domain name is the equivalent of buying the best house on the best street with the best foot traffic.”
“In our meetings, the phrase ‘We understand your brand name’ was mentioned to us many times. It is doubtful we could have secured not only the meetings, but the attention and interest we experienced if we had hit the market with anything but the FrenchRiviera.com label.”
“According to the founders, the response so far to the new name has been fantastic. They have no buyer’s remorse. Scientists emailed them to congratulate them on the rebrand and confess that they felt better about the company with the easier to pronounce name. The founders discovered that journalists appear to take them more seriously as well.”
“When you think about, when you were talking about PalmSprings.com – the kind of revenue that it does make – you know day after day, week after week, year after year that revenue comes in. And I truly believe it is because the trust factor that people place in a name. I mean if you are going to go to Ford – Ford.com, Mattel – Mattel.com, Palm Springs – PalmSprings.com, Nashville – Nashville.com, it just has that trustability. And when you go to a grocery store and you see the shelves are piled with 25, 30, 50 different cereals brands and more than likely I mean you are going to look at a brand you have seen on TV, something you trust. And in a lot of ways that is really what we get inherently in those domain names – is that trust factor. Now what is that worth especially on a global scale? That is worth so much. It all starts and ends with us with the domain name. Hopefully it is a name that it is something that you have a passion in. Something that you would enjoy doing every day and I would really believe it all revolves around the premium domain name…The category killer name.”
“We looked at various methods of appraisal when we were considering buying challenge.com, but the deciding factor was that ultimately we didn’t want our competition to own it, so that’s the main reason why we paid a premium ($500,000) for it.”
“I want the best name possible as a starting point and then create my brand from there. With a domain name like Tenants.com, you have immediate authority”
“Without question, the domain name opened many doors and opportunities for our company.”
“And Looking back, it probably was one of the things that helped us establish ourselves, because it did deliver this impression that it was a strong company. Ring.com was like a strong… whether you even realize it or not… not even realizing it, I think it delivers credibility. When you say to someone Ring.com at meetings or whatever, it felt powerful.”
“No denying that owning this domain gives us some weight and respectability.”
“Owning the domain name Cookies.com has had a significant impact on our business. Not only does it have high brand recall, but it also adds a lot of credibility to the story when working out deals with partners and suppliers. Customers trust the brand and that helps to convert shoppers into customers. A lot of people are delighted by the name.”
“The Headsets.com domain has been the smartest thing we ever did, I think. It gives us credibility as a market leader”
“Our domain name is really important, we wanted it to be intuitive, memorable and straightforward. Invest.com is all of these. It demonstrates our commitment as a long-term player in the world of investing.”
“While we were operating very successfully with other domain names previously, acquiring pennystocks.com has given us a great boost. Our prospects are seeing how legitimate we are”