Club Domains
Challenge
Getting the Word Out and Monitoring the Reaction
If .com is starting to feel a bit common, consider .club. This 3-year-old top-level domain (TLD) is fast becoming popular among everyone from celebrities to ballplayers to entrepreneurs, but the party is just getting started. This may be your first time hearing about .club, and that illustrates the domain owners' biggest challenge.
Their goals as a domain registry operator include learning more about all of their user communities and putting them in touch with journalists interested in sharing their stories. Monitoring .club wherever it shows up in global media is also a high priority. So are data-driven analytics and the ability to produce reports full of insights that can be shared both internally and externally.
Their search for the ideal media communications platform led them to Meltwater. CMO Jeff Sass says, "Our marketing strategy is to highlight the successful companies using .Club and shine a light on them. This is where Meltwater is incredibly valuable, by providing us with the tools to surface these companies and help them build relationships with media outlets and expose them to more users and potential customers. Their success is our success as more people will see the .club domain they are using."
"In addition to using Meltwater for an industry report, the regular .Club reports we receive are a great way of leveraging all of the valuable aspects of the Meltwater platform."
Jeff Sass, CMO
Solution
Meltwater's Influencer Database and Platform Tools
Club Domains calls .club "the domain that welcomes everyone as a member," and positions it as the perfect domain for today's social world. Knowing who's "in the club" is important to them, so they use their Meltwater platform to track and record each media mention in a robust and customized daily report.
Because exposure and brand recognition go hand in hand, .Club Domains also leverages Meltwater to apply some marketing muscle. They use the platform's influencer database to identify journalists by keyword, location, and other criteria and personally reach out to them. Operating under the premise that a rising tide lifts all boats, the company then pitches these journalists on writing and reporting about many of the more interesting .club domain members.
A few days ago, the company published a 6-month report working with Meltwater to highlight media impressions gained by companies using one of the top 10 new domain extensions, including, .Club. Over time, these biannual reports are expected to generate additional coverage and fuel further media interest as a way of demonstrating increasing usage of new domain extensions by a wide range of businesses across the globe.
Summary
Meltwater Helps .Club
Monitor and measure the growth and usage of their brand name
"We get a daily report with fresh mentions of companies using a .club name. Obviously when businesses are using a domain name, they're promoting it. We see when chaos.club gets a write-up in Vogue magazine and that's cool because .Club gets exposure among people who may not have heard of us yet."
Find the right journalists for the stories they're generating
"We really like the influencer database. We use it to reach out to journalists by sending press releases and have obtained some good coverage from that. This has helped us complete a major report that leveraged many aspects of the platform, including metrics, outreach, message generation, and our other marketing efforts."
Enhance their opportunities to grow by offering a global perspective
"The word "club" has many meanings and fits into so many verticals. You have science clubs, fan clubs, night clubs, and many more. The word is known in places like Japan, China, Germany, France, and Latin America. We rely on the fact that Meltwater's platform is also very global."
— Jeff Sass, CMO, .Club Domains
