One question we’re asked frequently is about just how to represent .brand URLs to maximize audience understanding, recall and action when used in advertising or promotional material.
The short answer is that there are a number of ways to do this. These include including the full ‘www’ in the address, including ‘http://’ in the address, using ‘domain only’ labels such as registry.godaddy, using symbols such as a cursor or computer icon, using a search bar illustration or symbol, and written instructions such as ‘find us at…’ or ‘visit our website…’
The process for selecting the right approach for you can be boiled down to two key factors: the advertising medium, and the desired customer behavior.
Medium
As a marketer, you’ll be aiming to select the best possible medium, or range of mediums to execute your campaign with the maximum impact. Specifically for a .brand, one of the most obvious factors to consider is whether the domain will be spoken aloud (e.g. radio), read visually (e.g. print, digital), a combination of spoken and read (e.g. television) or clicked (e.g. social media).
Audio media relies on clear information that can be processed easily. Its other unique feature is that audiences are often unable to take immediate action – such as hearing a radio ad while they’re driving – making recall a very important factor. The call to action (CTA) needs to be simple enough that a listener can remember and follow instructions at a later time.
In this instance, a combination of a CTA such as “find us at” or “visit our website at”, followed by a domain with or without the ‘www’ can be a simple way to convey the message.
Visual media allows for more options of presentation with the introduction of symbols. However, when presented in a visual format such as a print or digital ad, too much text is likely to drive designers mad and the aesthetic appeal of the CTA becomes much more important. In this medium, simple is better and for this reason, we tend to favor the www or the use of a symbol that would clearly indicate a digital CTA.
Click-based presentations of domains can be overshadowed by rich image previews which tend to be more attractive to the user than a URL. However, we strongly believe that where possible, the .brand should be presented to reinforce its usage and build consistent and potentially subconscious awareness of the .brand itself.
Desired Customer Behavior
Regardless of the creative execution of your advertisement, there will be an objective tied to it that outlines a key behavior you want audiences to take once they’ve been exposed to the ad.
One important question when using your .brand to convey a message is: do I want my audience to react immediately, or will recall of the domain for later use be required? The former is likely more applicable for example in digital ads where you want someone to click through – whereas recall may be more important for traditional advertising methods such as radio or television where the brand may be hoping that the client recalls the message, or acts at a later time.
It's Not (Yet) an Exact Art.
While some of this sounds like Advertising 101, the nature of new technologies is that they require rethinking the ‘old rules’ to make sure they still fit with the tools and the audiences of today. The advantage .brand owners now have is that this is a namespace they control entirely; meaning they can easily create ‘backup’ domains to cover mistypes or incorrectly-recalled domains.
More importantly, regardless of the medium or the domain – these brands can begin to reduce their reliance on third parties such as social or search for their traffic, by creating CTAs that get people directly where they need to be and build more meaningful connections with customers.
That’s a goal well worth pursuing if you ask us.
Jason Loyer
