In the property investment sector, image is important and as a start-up even more so, even if it has been established by experienced industry experts with individual proven track records. For Josh Gordon, one of the founding directors at GS8, getting that branding right was essential.
“We’re property investors / developers primarily focused in London, even though we will operate outside London, we wanted to make it clear than we are a London-based firm and 90% of our work is in London. Also For the people you do deal with outside of London, most look at London quite favourably so for us to have that in our name helps,” he said.
Their chosen domain is gs8.london. So why leave that London message to the domain name alone?
“We thought about fitting London into the name of the firm but we couldn’t do it. Then we heard of the new .London addresses and it just kind of worked,” Josh said.
“We’re not called GS8 London but when you type in the address it is the way it looks. It’s different and with a lot of .com and .co.uk type domains already unavailable we thought .london was really good.”
Just two months into their new business and the guys at GS8 are already noting the value of the .london domain.
“You do get a reaction from people,” explained Josh. “Every time we give our email address people say ‘OK, what’s after London’ as if to say ‘is that the end of it?’ When you explain they then say ‘Oh, that’s pretty cool’. I think they all pick up on it.”
So pleased is Josh with the impact of a .london domain that he’s even recommending others make the switch too.
“People’s reactions have been good – they like it. In fact my architect has registered their own .london on the back of it too,” he added.
That’s quite a endorsement from a company and sector that actually doesn’t target online as a route to picking up new customers.
“Our customers won’t usually come direct to us from the web, but most of the people we deal with – lawyers, etc – are likely to look us up on the web and see who we are,” Josh said.
“For us, the website is very important for the second phase of the relationship and its essential we have a presence.”
So when branding is important, the new gTLDs offer an extra dimension in your domain name marketing and full brand development. One of the benefits of new generic domains is their ability to say so much about your company in the short space, that previously was rarely used in helping build your company other than a practical address element upon which to base your website and email services. The simplicity of the message that a gTLD can provide is something every brand expert will tell you is worth its weight in gold.
