I have a great love for domain names because they are extremely powerful and can be used for so many things, in so many different ways!
I am 32 years old and I have never once dialed a phone number based upon the number displayed in an ad. Not Once!
Ever since domain names were displayed in ads, I have used them.
Why?
I can remember them if the domain makes sense with the ad and don’t have to take instant action before I forget the number. I don’t have to bother talking to anybody. I don’t have to write down "the number". I don’t have to wait on hold.
What amazes me since I never call any of these phone numbers displayed and only visit the domain names if I am interested in the product or service, are the companies who still run ads without a domain name included!
Domain names allow for the site owner to use "more than one" domain name if they choose. You can have your main domain and market with a different domain name to send people to a specific page on your site. Using this different domain name can allow for tracking how effective this specific ad is. Where the people are coming from and how they found you. What time they found you and much more!
Specific domain names do not even need to be advertised to get visitors into your site and the traffic is still targeted! Try that with a phone number!
Domain names can allow you to speak Directly to your customers with the wording in the domain to take action. Try that with a phone number!
Trusted! Owning a great domain name can bring near instant trust!
Vision! It is hard to explain a product or service over the phone. Using a domain name to send your customers to a video or image of your product is priceless.
Options! Sending your customers to your website allows for near endless options. No need to "mail" information packs when you can have your customers print what they need instantly! Images, text.. it doesn’t matter and it’s easy to change if you wish without needing to call the printing company!
Domain names are some of the best marketing tools a company can have and should be used by every company. They allow you to speak directly to your customer, easy access, easy to change, track and provide a lot of options.
Gandon
Great article, A generic descriptive product or service domain is the biggest marketing tool ever imo. Due to the instant trust/credibility factor you mentioned, the conversion rate is extremely positively affected.
Vrytek
Great post, totally agree. Even before I got into the domain business, I never did call a number shown in an ad. If I was interested in the product/service being advertised, I always made it a point to check out the website if the ad displayed the URL.
Ozie Jackson
Whenever you see those infomercials for all these late night “Call Now!” products on TV, it makes me wonder how much of the younger these ads are missing out on by prominently displaying the 1-800 number but de-emphazing the website address to almost to the point of not including it in the ad at all.
Obviously, they want you to take immediate action on an impulse buy and also so their telephone operators can try to sell other products to you. But younger shoppers seem to be increasingly turned off to this call now marketing plea. Obviously, it works well enough for now or they wouldn’t be doing it but I wonder if these companies ever considered prominently displaying the website address for their product instead of the 1-800 number.
Potential customers could remember a good website address for years and share it with other potential customers whereas a 1-800 is forgotten immediately if you don’t write it down. Also, savvy customers, for the most part, don’t like to deal with telemarketers, so why would they call one? Another example of an industry focused solely on today’s sales and sacrificing long term brand recognition and loyalty.