Contacting end users

[AssetDomains]

Hi All

I’m looking for a little advice about contacting potential end users what’s the best way to make first contact do you find. Email, Phone call or an actual letter

Thanks in advance

Anthony

 

[fish]

Hi All

I’m looking for a little advice about contacting potential end users what’s the best way to make first contact do you find. Email, Phone call or an actual letter

Thanks in advance

Anthony

This question pops up from time to time and you'll find a few different views as to what works best for individuals, here's my preference;

1) Phone if you know who the correct person to speak with is (buyer). Be prepared to be told to 'go forth and multiply' (ignore and move on to next one on your list). Only take this approach is you are confident in speaking over the phone & you know how to 'pitch it' (be direct, don't fluff your lines, if necessary have the benefits listed so you can refer to them).

2) Email, be prepared to send out lots and try to ensure you send them to an individual (not info@xy-z-com). Again it helps if you know the name of the person you are emailing so you can personalise it a bit else you can start off with the ' please excuse the unsolicited nature of this email.......'

3) never done snail mail so can't comment

 

[aZooZa]

At the other end of the scale, ten UPS/FedEx letters addressed to the governor can be a good investment, as long as you've done your homework

 

[Edwin]

I haven't tried this, but I wonder how effective it would be to snail-mail likely prospects with the domain in question printed on the corner of the envelope in some elegant, professional-looking font.

That could catch their attention even before they see the contents, especially if it's the perfect match for what they do or sell.

And when a few seconds later they find out that it's for sale, well they have a right-there-right-now example of how having that domain name would impact potential customers if THEY owned it.

 

[rob]

I haven't tried this, but I wonder how effective it would be to snail-mail likely prospects with the domain in question printed on the corner of the envelope in some elegant, professional-looking font.

That could catch their attention even before they see the contents, especially if it's the perfect match for what they do or sell.

And when a few seconds later they find out that it's for sale, well they have a right-there-right-now example of how having that domain name would impact potential customers if THEY owned it.

Blinding post.

 

[accelerator]

Here's what I do:

- Send out a batch of letters to potentially interested companies, address them to the Head of Marketing.

- Include a second page explaining why they should buy this generic domain.

- Follow up with a phone call, ask them if they received your letter.

- I might send a few e-mails too, but only to those I don't feel are likely buyers. A proper letter is way better than an e-mail IMO.

Rgds

 

[julian]

I wouldn't send any letters out unless you have some decent domains or you could give domainers a bad reputation.

 

[mat]

1. Send letters out to 10 potentially interested companies.

2. Get one brief email reply from a busy MD asking "how much do you want for it then?"

3. Send back a reply stating £20k, with half a page full of why the domain will benefit them.

4. Its been a few weeks now with no reply, they must be busy, on holiday?

5. Email them asking if they got your email as you have had no response.

6. Cry

7. Post your cherished generic domain name on acorn domains for £200!

8. 15 minutes later and its sure to sell now its only half price at £100!

9. £20, last chance or will put back on the dev shelf!

10. Take £10 for the name via pm.

 

[DomainManagement]

I haven't tried this, but I wonder how effective it would be to snail-mail likely prospects with the domain in question printed on the corner of the envelope in some elegant, professional-looking font.

That could catch their attention even before they see the contents, especially if it's the perfect match for what they do or sell.

And when a few seconds later they find out that it's for sale, well they have a right-there-right-now example of how having that domain name would impact potential customers if THEY owned it.

Good thinking Batman good thinking i like your style

simple but how effective and would get a least a double take

 

[AssetDomains]

Thanks all think I'll go down the letter route

 

[dotwhat]

I think the letter route is the best although its only worked once for me and it did eventually lead to a confidential sale

Emails are obviously quicker and can get to more potential buyers but they either get binned because the address is considered spam or they just are not taken seriously. They do have the advantage of maybe getting a view at the names location and raising the names availability to buyers enmasse

Maybe a bit of both is the best way, letters to the big boys and emails to those who might have an interest but are not mega capitalised corps

 

[accelerator]

Maybe a bit of both is the best way, letters to the big boys and emails to those who might have an interest but are not mega capitalised corps

That's what I do. I send a letter to all those I think might be serious buyers, and will e-mail those I feel won't have such a strong interest.

Rgds

 

[dotwhat]

That's what I do. I send a letter to all those I think might be serious buyers, and will e-mail those I feel won't have such a strong interest.

Rgds

Before anyone else says it.... great minds think alike although fools seldom differ...

Cheers

It does work, although its hard work, especially if some of your possible buyers live in other countries...I once got a letter translated into Malay for a business in Melaka....:???: The translation got me a reply and folk do like it when you make the effort to correspond in their native tongue

 

[Edwin]

Another in the "never tried it myself, but sounds good on paper" stack of out of the box approaches: if you have a top notch, perfectly targeted generic for a particular product/service, how about contacting half a dozen or so of the companies that appear in the Adwords ads on Google against that product/service search asking them if they run an affiliate/partner program.

You could explain that you've been trying to market the name to end users, but now that you've done a bit of research and realised just how commercially relevant it is ("I found your contact details along with XYZ, ABC and DEF as these were just some of the many companies bidding against each other for KEYWORD on Google") you're considering making it one of your next development projects and hence reaching out to find out what kind of partnership options are out there.

Of course, make sure their site DOESN'T mention an affiliate program anywhere prominent first, otherwise you'll just look stupid.

Possible results...
A) Nothing
B) They point you in the direction of their affiliate/partner program
C) They offer you some kind of a private referral deal/arrangement (more lucrative than their public affiliate offer, or even a custom setup because they don't have a public affiliate program)
D) They say "Hey, we could... er... buy the domain name from you!"

B) and C) leave your options open (especially if the offer in C is hard to resist) and D) is of course the jackpot win you were gunning for all along!

 

[websaway]

I believe if you are contacting end users and have high expectations you must be holding quality domains, domains that are attractive at high sale prices to those end users, they won't buy rubbish, they are not stupid. If you have low quality names it's best to go through trader auctions, if one wants to deal with end users and god knows the market is massive, then acquire the quality of name that reeks credibility. Be a clever buyer and an even cleverer end user seller, that's where the success lies, buy a name at 3.5k and sell it at 7.5k a good weeks work, but you must have a good eye for a bargain and trying to get names at £xx to £xxx doesn't work.

And the biggest point of all to remember is, if you are selling the correct end user, the correct high quality name, they are not doing you any bigger service buying it, than you are doing them selling it.

 

[Edwin]

One good test (not the only one):

Is the keyphrase in your domain name exactly descriptive of a product/service featured...
A) In the TITLE tag of the company's website
B) In the on-page title of the company's homepage
C) In the intro text of the homepage
D) On the "About our Company" page ("XYZ Ltd is a company that makes keyphrase"...)
E) In the title of the Adwords ad triggered by searching for that product/service
F) In the body text of the Adwords ad triggered by searching for that product/service

6 "yes" answers and your name's looking very good indeed.

At the same time, the following are negative factors...
A) Are there several commercially similar ways to say the same thing (e.g. a product or service is commonly known by 2+ different expressions)?
B) Does the target company use any of the variants in A) in its marketing, either on their sites or in their ads?

If real variants exist, but the company doesn't use them anywhere, it may be safe to assume that in their mind your keyword is IT regardless of what the wider market may think. But on the other hand, if they use these variants interchangeably, that's not good as your name will appear to be just one of several alternatives...