Net2Vic: How to Use Domain Names to Build and Protect your Brand Online
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Nonprofits in Canada frequently cater to a local community - so branding yourself as Canadian signals to your supporters that you are a legitimate and trustworthy organization. Get the inside scoop on how to choose the right domain name and brand your nonprofit online. We’ll tackle the tough questions about choosing a domain name, getting your website up running, hosting email on your domain, and more. Find out why the .CA domain name is right for your nonprofit and how every .CA domain name contributes to building a better online Canada.
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Net2Vic: How to Use Domain Names to Build and Protect your Brand Online
- 1. DOMAIN NAMES & NONPROFITS BUILDING AND PROTECTING YOUR BRAND ONLINE Jason Faber Canadian Internet Registration Authority
- 2. Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA)
- 3. 3
- 5. 5 Trust = Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy Self-orientation
- 6. What are domain names and why do they matter For nonprofits?
- 7. What is a domain name? www.yourdomainname.ca
- 8. www.techsoupCanada.ca Top level domain Second level domain
- 9. A good domain name gives you credibility
- 11. 11 Control and protect your brand online And protecting your brand
- 12. Connect with your audience online
- 13. How to choose a great domain name for your nonprofit
- 14. The best domain name is your brand name
- 15. Think about keywords • Locations • Product or service • Tagline or campaign
- 17. Consider typos & common misspellings Centre OR Center
- 18. 18 cancer.ca Build a domain portfolio CanadianCancerSociety.c a RelayForLife.ca CopsForCancer.ca SmokersHelpline.ca CancerConnection.ca SoberOctober.ca
- 20. Why choose .CA for your domain name?
- 21. 21 .CA brands your website as 100% Canadian
- 22. .CA is Safe, Secure & Trusted
- 23. .CA can help you perform better in a Canadian Internet Search How to adopt a puppy in Canada
- 24. .CA is more likely to be available.
- 26. Over half of Canadian Nonprofits Choose .CA
- 27. How do I register a domain name?
- 28. It’s as easy as 1-2-3! 1. Search for a domain 2. Choose a registrar 3. Register the domain
- 30. Build a website
- 32. Key considerations 1. Cost (current & future) 2. Easy to use 3. Mobile friendly 4. hosting 5. Flexible & scalable 6. Customer support 7. Integration options
- 35. 35 Domain Names & Nonprofit h Give yourself credibility h Take control of your brand h connect with Canadians
- 36. Choose your .ca domain Visit cira.ca to get started
Editor's Notes
- - Has anybody heard of CIRA or know what we do? - Contrary to popular belief we are not a government organization and we are not the internet police. - Manage the .CA domain name registry on behalf of Canadians - 2.5 million .CA domains under management and counting - Not for profit corporation with an elected board of directors - Member driven organization with 15,000+ members nation-wide - Office in Ottawa with ~85 employees - Mandate of building a better online Canada which we do through our stewardship of the .CA domain name which allows us to fund and run initiatives like - Community Investment Program - Internet Performance Test - Canadian Internet Forum
- - Who here works in the nonprofit space? - Who works in tech or for a startup? - Who is in a marketing/comms role? - Who owns a domain - More than one? 5 or more? - Who owns a .CA domain?
- - When most people hear the word “brand” they think of a logo or tagline. But your brand is much more than that. - It’s your reputation. - Your brand is the perception that your customers have about you. - It’s what they think and feel when they hear your name, see your logo, and interact with you.
- The core element of a brand is trust. Do your customers trust you? Building and keeping trust can be really hard. - Credibility – it’s a rational thing. It’s not easy to measure but it’s easy to see, and it the nonprofit world having a credible brand is absolutely critical - Reliability – demonstrated by your actions. Do you deliver on promises. Do you do follow through on your commitments. - Intimacy – the emotional part of your brand. This is how your customers connect with you on a personal level. It’s what makes you human and relatable - Self-orientation – this is what can destroy trust all together. Self-orientation is the extent to which you put yourself first. Every good brand always puts the customer first People naturally avoid risk. They like stability and security. If you’re viewed as trustworthy, credible, and reliable, there’s little risk in dealing with you.
- So when we talk about domain names and how they can help build your brand, we need to first understand what domain names are and why they matter for non profits.
- …a domain name is many things Some people call it a URL, website name, internet address, web address… - In it’s simplest terms, it’s what you type into a browser to get to your website It’s where your website lives online But it`s much more than that it’s often your call to action in any kind of marketing campaign And once someone is on your website, it’s always there - Essentially, your domain name is the cornerstone of your online brand….Its way more important that people think
- The anatomy of a domain name- It has two key pieces Top level domain Everything to the right of the dot, sometimes referred to as a domain name extension Different types of top level domains ccTLDs Country code top level domains (.CA for Canada, .FR, .DE, .UK, etc.) These domain names are often reserved for people or businesses in that given country gTLDs – generic top level domains .COM, .NET, .ORG, etc A few years ago there were about a thousand new gTLDs that entered the market, new gTLDs like .club, .xyz, .coffee, .guru Second level domain - company or your organization’s name When choosing your domain name, think about both of these elements. They are both very important and both say a lot about your brand.
- A good domain name gives you credibility Credibility is so important in the non-profit space and plays a strong role in building trust - A strong domain name can help solidify you as a trusted, established, credible organization Fort McMurray Wild Fires We saw a lot of online scams, fake websites that portrayed themselves as the Red Cross asking for donations From a consumer (or a donor) point of view, a domain name can tell you a lot about the credibility of a website
- Red Cross - clean, simple, brand name domain – we believe that the real Red Cross owns redcross.ca - https shows that it is secure which is important if we’re dealing with money and transactions with donations - .CA signifies that it is Canadian Scam New website Long, complicated domain Typos in the domain name .org can be trusted, but anyone can register a .org
- A good domain name allows you to take control and protect your brand When you register a domain name, no one else can have it*……*as long as you renew it every year. Think of domain names as a subscription You don’t actually own the domain name, you register it on a yearly term And if you forget to renew it, it can be registered by somebody else From a brand protection standpoint, making sure that you keep your domain name is essential Solutions: Set your domain to auto-renew (similar to what you have with your Netflix account) Register your domain for more than one year….up to 10 years
- Most Canadian nonprofits are targeting a Canadian audience Canadians spend a lot of time online - More than any other country Double the global average (CIRA Factbook) - So if your audience is online, you nee to be online A good domain name can help them find you online This is the whole concept of “fish where the fish are”
- So that’s why domain names matter and how they can help you from a brand perspective…. Now how do you choose a great domain name for your nonprofit?
- But what if it’s already taken?
- Think about Keywords We saw that Canadians spend a lot of time online, and when they are looking for you online – whether they know about you specifically or not – they often go to this handy tool called Google and they do a search with keywords So if your ideal domain name is taken, try variations with additional keywords… Locations Products or services Your tagline or campaign Maybe even your industry or specific cause When adding keywords to your domain, think about how people will search but also how you want to represent your brand…. And make sure you don’t make your domain too long…
- Your domain name should be simple and memorable Make sure it is easy to say, easy to spell, easy to remember. If you have a long brand name, use your acronym – but only if you are known for that acronym. Try to avoid dashes and numbers as these can confused people If you do include numbers, register bother the number version and the full word version to avoid confusion.
- Is your nonprofit’s name often misspelled? Are there other variations that people use? To avoid losing traffic and to fully protect your brand online, consider registering all variations of the domain name.
- Very common strategy for website owners – it all about brand protection. Example… This really comes down to taking ownership of all of your online touch points and bringing your brand full circle.
- Now I know what you’re thinking…doesn’t this all become very expensive? Short answer is “no”. There’s a misconception out there that domain names are really expensive. Stories about a .com selling for 10’s of thousands of dollars - Canadian Internet Users believed that a domain name cost on average $130/year - The average price of a .CA domain in 2016 is $12 Can be as low as $1.99 with some promotions - Some registrars offer discounts to registered charities and non-profits. - If you’re building a domain portfolio and buying 5 or 10 or 20 domain names, most registrars also offer bulk pricing At the end of the day, you can easily secure a valuable domain name and protect your brand for less than the cost of a cup of coffee a month.
- All the tips we just gave you were about selecting your second level domain – everything to the left of the dot. Talk about the top level domain, and specifically why you should choose a .CA domain
- .CA is the only domain that instantly identifies your nonprofit as Canadian - Think of it as a Canadian flag on your digital backpack - Why is this important? Simply put, Canadians love .CA - 83% say they prefer supporting Canadian websites over any others Your .CA tells them you’re Canadian at a glance.
- For almost 30 years, the .CA domain is viewed as one of the most trustworthy in the world Not only do Canadians prefer to use and support Canadian websites, but they’re also more likely to perform online transactions with Canadian websites. ( like donations)
- A .CA domain will help tell Google that your site is Canadian, which tells them that it’s likely more relevant to searchers in Canada - Since Canadian Internet users have a preference towards Canadian websites, your .CA can help you get more clicks in a Canadian search, and thus more traffic
- -There are only 2.5 million .CA domains currently registered which might sound like a lot - but there are over 125 million .COMs registered - The likelihood that the domain you want will be available in .CA is much higher than with other domain name extensions - .CA’s are reserved exclusively for people or organizations within Canada, while most other domains like .COM and .ORG can be registered by absolutely anyone.
- As a nonprofit ourselves, CIRA reinvests money from each .CA domain purchased back into the Canadian Internet community through the Community Investment Program Since it was launched in 2014, - the program has contributed $3.3 million in funding towards supporting 78 projects across Canada digital literacy, online services, research and Internet infrastructure. -funded a project with the North Island College which provided a robotics programming camp to youth - By registering a .CA domain name you’re helping us fund these amazing projects which helps us fulfill our mandate of building a better online Canada.
- Last fall we conducted a study that examined the online presence of over 400 Canadian nonprofit organizations. - We discovered that 53% of them chose .CA for their website, while 25% opted for .org and 22% selected a .com - Further research showed that 85% of Canadian Internet users preferred using a .CA over a .com when getting involved with community organizations What about .ORG? - While .org is often related to nonprofits and charities, there are no specific requirements to register a .org, meaning that anyone can get one.
- Registering a domain name is very easy. 1 – First, you need to see if your domain name is available by performing a search. If it’s available, that’s great. If not, keep searching until you find a domain name that you love and that is available 2 – Next, you need to choose a registrar. - A registrar is an online retailer that sells domain names and other related services like hosting, email and website builders. - Choosing the right registrar for you is important since you’ll have most of your face to face time with them. - Make sure that they offer the products and services that you need and that they have stuff like a good reputation, customer service, etc. - When you do a search on our website, we present you with a listed of our trusted registrar partners. - We recommend that you shop around and find the right fit for you. 3 – Register the domain name – it’s pretty simple, just like any other online transaction. - when you register, you should consider register for more than one year or setting your domain to auto-renew – that way you don’t have to remember every year
- No that you’ve registered your domain name….what’s next? What do you do with this domain name? This is where a lot of people get stuck or frustrated.
- The most obvious and somewhat terrifying answer to most is build a website. - Most people don’t have the time, skills or money to do this. The word “build” is a bit misleading here When we say “build a website” we don’t necessarily mean writing code and designing a website yourself It’s actually never been easier to build a professional, beautiful website…
- There are plenty of great website building tools out there easy to use and quite affordable - cost between $10-$25/month. - wide range of design and functionality options depending on your needs - Template or theme based, so you don’t have to start from scratch - Some have drag and drop features - Some registrars offer built in website builders to their customers. If you are looking for some deeper functionality and to for something custom built, find a local trusted web development agency to help you out. While you’ll spend more money, you’ll get exactly what you want to be able to work outside the box. It all depends what it right for your organization.
- Whichever platform you choose, make sure you check off these key considerations What is it going to cost you today and in the future? Is it easy to use? Can you manage it yourself in house or do you have to rely on a third party to make changes? Can you easily update content or add pages? Is it mobile friendly? More than ever, Canadians are using mobile devices to access to Internet and over 20% of Canadians have made a purchase from a mobile device. However, only 1/3 of Canadian nonprofits have a mobile friendly website. If your domain name is the address of your website, hosting is the house. It’s where you store your website and all of it’s files. You need hosting to have live website. Most website building platforms offer hosting built in, but other platforms require you to get your own hosting - most Registrars can offer you this Are you working in a constrained box or does the platform allow you to customize your website and be creative? Does it offer customer support – if you get into a jam, is there a person that you can call or chat with? Are you able to integrate 3rd party tools like Google Analytics, a CRM or a donation platform?
- It’s not always as easy as this. Having the ability to collect donations online is crucial for most Canadian nonprofits Impressivley 85% of those we surveyed had some means of collecting donations online 50% use CanadaHelps while 15% use PayPal and another 15% have a custom built tool
- Earlier I talked about how getting custom email addresses on your domain can help give your nonprofit credibility - I can’t stress how important this is…you need to ditch your hotmail or gmail email address and get professional email like donate@yourcharity.ca This shows your audience that you are an established, trusted organization It’s also very affordable and easy to set up There are a few options for email hosting – most registrars offer email hosting and can help you set it up as part of your domain package If you’re a TechSoup member you can get an email address set up for free through their integration with Google for NonProfits or Microsoft Office 365.
- Summarizing some of the key points on domain names and what they can do for your nonprofit A great domain name strategy can: Give your organization credibility Allows you take control and protect your brand Also help you connect with a Canadian audience online
- Finally, I encourage you to choose your .CA domain - You can go to our website cira.ca to start your search If you’re a Canadian organization targeting Canadian consumers, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be using a .CA domain name
- Thank you all for your time, I’m happy to answer any questions You can also email me or connect with me on Twitter @Jason_Faber and follow .CA on Twitter @dotcavoice for tips and insights into domain names and online branding for Canadians.