Branding Across Borders using 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

suzette gardner is a guest blogger on SiliconCaribe.com, pragmatic Jamaican new media marketing and e-business consultant at marooninteractive.com.

If you liked this post, why not Subscribe and get Silicon Caribe Today by Email