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Make Hosting Sexy
Michele Neylon, founder and CEO of Blacknight, discusses the impact of email hosting and the importance of diverse services like SSL and brand protection in the hosting industry. He emphasizes the significance of quality content, social media engagement, and maintaining relationships with journalists for effective brand visibility. The document highlights Blacknight's achievements, including a substantial client base and a daily handling of millions of emails.
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Make Hosting Sexy
- 1. How Can YouMake Hosting Sexy? Michele Neylon
- 2. EMAIL HOSTING SUPPORT MAINTENANCE SPIN OFF SERVICES SSL AFFILIATESALES BRAND PROTECTION (MORE DOMAINS)
- 3. Who am I? MicheleNeylon - Founder / CEO Blacknight - http://ceo.hosting - @mneylon - http://michele.me/blog - http://blacknight.blog - Winner IIA Net Visionary 2013 - Irish Internet Hall of Fame…
- 4. EMAIL HOSTING SUPPORT MAINTENANCE SPIN OFF SERVICES SSL AFFILIATESALES BRAND PROTECTION (MORE DOMAINS)
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- 9. EMAIL HOSTING SUPPORT MAINTENANCE SPIN OFF SERVICES SSL AFFILIATESALES BRAND PROTECTION (MORE DOMAINS)
- 10. EMAIL HOSTING SUPPORT MAINTENANCE SPIN OFF SERVICES SSL AFFILIATESALES BRAND PROTECTION (MORE DOMAINS)
- 11. If You’re SmallHow Can You Have Impact?
- 12. We Did It(Sort of) • 40 staff • 4500+ physical servers • 250,000+ websites • 90,000+ clients • 10,000,000 + emails daily • 155+ countries • And a LOT of coffee!!
- 13. So What AmI Going to Talk About? • Sex? • Hosting? • Servers? • Domains?
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- 16. • Sex *might*sell, but the cost of the sale is high • Do you really want to alienate women? • (As an aside you should look at: http://bk.ie/diversity - the i2c are doing stellar work)
- 17. EMAIL HOSTING SUPPORT MAINTENANCE SPIN OFF SERVICES SSL AFFILIATESALES BRAND PROTECTION (MORE DOMAINS)
- 18. EMAIL HOSTING SUPPORT MAINTENANCE SPIN OFF SERVICES SSL AFFILIATESALES BRAND PROTECTION (MORE DOMAINS)
- 24. EMAIL HOSTING SUPPORT MAINTENANCE SPIN OFF SERVICES SSL AFFILIATESALES BRAND PROTECTION (MORE DOMAINS)
- 25. EMAIL HOSTING SUPPORT MAINTENANCE SPIN OFF SERVICES SSL AFFILIATESALES BRAND PROTECTION (MORE DOMAINS)
- 26. EMAIL HOSTING SUPPORT MAINTENANCE SPIN OFF SERVICES SSL AFFILIATESALES BRAND PROTECTION (MORE DOMAINS)
- 27. EMAIL HOSTING SUPPORT MAINTENANCE SPIN OFF SERVICES SSL AFFILIATESALES BRAND PROTECTION (MORE DOMAINS)
- 28. EMAIL HOSTING SUPPORT MAINTENANCE SPIN OFF SERVICES SSL AFFILIATESALES BRAND PROTECTION (MORE DOMAINS)
- 29. EMAIL HOSTING SUPPORT MAINTENANCE SPIN OFF SERVICES SSL AFFILIATESALES BRAND PROTECTION (MORE DOMAINS)
- 30. EMAIL HOSTING SUPPORT MAINTENANCE SPIN OFF SERVICES SSL AFFILIATESALES BRAND PROTECTION (MORE DOMAINS)
- 31. EMAIL HOSTING SUPPORT MAINTENANCE SPIN OFF SERVICES SSL AFFILIATESALES BRAND PROTECTION (MORE DOMAINS)
- 32. EMAIL HOSTING SUPPORT MAINTENANCE SPIN OFF SERVICES SSL AFFILIATESALES BRAND PROTECTION (MORE DOMAINS)
- 33. EMAIL HOSTING SUPPORT MAINTENANCE SPIN OFF SERVICES SSL AFFILIATESALES BRAND PROTECTION (MORE DOMAINS)
- 34. EMAIL HOSTING SUPPORT MAINTENANCE SPIN OFF SERVICES SSL AFFILIATESALES BRAND PROTECTION (MORE DOMAINS)
- 36. EMAIL HOSTING SUPPORT MAINTENANCE SPIN OFF SERVICES SSL AFFILIATESALES BRAND PROTECTION (MORE DOMAINS)
- 38. EMAIL HOSTING SUPPORT MAINTENANCE SPIN OFF SERVICES SSL AFFILIATESALES BRAND PROTECTION (MORE DOMAINS)
- 39. EMAIL HOSTING SUPPORT MAINTENANCE SPIN OFF SERVICES SSL AFFILIATESALES BRAND PROTECTION (MORE DOMAINS)
- 40. EMAIL HOSTING SUPPORT MAINTENANCE SPIN OFF SERVICES SSL AFFILIATESALES BRAND PROTECTION (MORE DOMAINS)
- 41. EMAIL HOSTING SUPPORT MAINTENANCE SPIN OFF SERVICES SSL AFFILIATESALES BRAND PROTECTION (MORE DOMAINS)
- 42. EMAIL HOSTING SUPPORT MAINTENANCE SPIN OFF SERVICES SSL AFFILIATESALES BRAND PROTECTION (MORE DOMAINS)
- 43. • Content is(still) king • Social media (Twitter / Facebook / Pinterest / Instagram) • Blacknight.press – all our media mentions + press releases • Blacknight.blog – variety of content (and it wins awards!) • Good content => *some* media interest
- 44. • Being availableto journalists 24 / 7 / 365 • Investing time with journalists • Provide commentary on *all* technology stories
- 45. • Sometime itwill backfire ..
- 47. • Sometimes itwill be a nice ”win”
- 63. “The new venuewas made possible by Irish company Blacknight Solutions and will act as a base for festival activities” - Cork Independent
- 74. Thank You Michele Neylon -@mneylon - blacknight.host - michele.me/blog - Ceo.hosting - michele@blacknight.com
Editor's Notes
- #2 Hi everyone. My name is Michele Neylon, and I think domains and hosting are sexy.
- #5 That’s understandable: I run a company called Blacknight. We’re Ireland’s number one domain name registrar and web host. We started in a spare bedroom in 2003. Now we employ 40 people managing 4000 servers, hosting over 220,000 websites, with 84,000 customers in more than 130 countries. We handle 6 million emails every day. We think that’s pretty sexy!
- #10 That’s me with my business partner, Paul Kelly. The dragon looking over my shoulder is Bert – more about him later.
- #11 When we started our company in 2003, we knew all about hosting, and domains and servers and technology. We didn’t know about marketing. But that was OK, because the people we were marketing to were geeks like us. And like us, they thought Linux, and RAID, and PHP and databases were sexy. But as the company grew, we ran out of geeks to sell to. Don’t get me wrong – the geeks shall inherit the earth. You’re still very important! But the problem is that the only way to sustain our geeky lifestyles, is to market our products to ordinary people. Sexy people.
- #16 Now I know I’m going to get into trouble using words like “sexy”. (That’s why we put it right up there in the title.) But let me explain – I’m not talking about sex. ‘Sex sells’ – is an old marketing motto, we are told. Except it’s not really. Not unless you want to be cheap and exploitative, objectify people – and ultimately cheapen your brand.
- #17 Now I know I’m going to get into trouble using words like “sexy”. (That’s why we put it right up there in the title.) But let me explain – I’m not talking about sex. ‘Sex sells’ – is an old marketing motto, we are told. Except it’s not really. Not unless you want to be cheap and exploitative, objectify people – and ultimately cheapen your brand.
- #18 We’ve seen people do that over the years - in the automotive industry it was almost a cliché. In less enlightened times it was common for big brands And we’ve even seen it in the domain names industry (GoDaddy)
- #19 In Ireland, this kind of sexual marketing reached ridiculous levels with the “Irish models” phenomenon. Every day on Grafton Street, women in bikinis would pose in photoshoots for product launches, event announcements, PR campaigns. If you’ve been to Ireland, you know that Grafton Street can be a little cold for bikinis – at any time of the year. You don’t see the Irish models on the street as much anymore - because eventually everyone realised that they looked ridiculous.
- #20 The other reason is that using sex to market a product which has nothing to do with sex is … Exploitative Sexist – obviously Cheap and tacky It reflects badly on your product or service, Because it’s inappropriate
- #21 But there is an exception to that rule. Of course it’s inappropriate to use sex to market cars, or railway tickets, or power tools But we thought it would be ok to use sex to market sex Or in this case: the .XXX top level domain When we found ourselves in the position of marketing the new .XXX top level domain which is strictly for the adult entertainment industry, we just had to have a little fun.
- #22 And the key word here is fun. The .XXX top level domain was introduced a couple of years ago with the idea of making X-rated websites easy to identify, both for those who wanted to access them – and for those who wanted to avoid them – or prevent others from accessing them. The image above was inspired by a humourous poster (and postcard) which was popular in the 1980s. The original caption was “expose yourself to Ireland”. So when we were trying to market .xxx domain names we did an image inspired by that.
- #23 The point about these ads is that they are designed to be funny – not arousing. They’re tongue-in-cheek. Are they offensive? I don’t think so. And let’s face it, in this case, we’re selling a product that is associated with sex. Theses ads are meant to be cheeky – to raise a smile.
- #24 Are they sexy? Yes they are – if sexy means, funny, clever, cheeky, flirty – provocative. Are they exploitative? Not in this case – because the message is about sex. And the message is “Let’s be adult about it” They are meant to be sexy – but not sexual. These images are designed to make you laugh – not arouse you. And laughter is sexy.
- #25 What do I mean by sexy? “Sexy” is what turns you on – what’s cool. Sexy is beauty – sure – attractiveness. But it’s also intelligence – it’s fun – it’s humour, it’s art - it’s what drives you, what motivates you, it’s what gets you going.
- #26 Sexy means different things to different people I work with people who find servers sexy. These people are vital to our organisation – they keep the wheels turning. They keep our servers up and available. But we don’t let them meet the public
- #27 Because this is the paradox of successful marketing. Your customers don’t care about your sexy stuff – they care about THEIR sexy stuff! We sell hosting and domain names, web-site building tools, email Open Exchange and Microsoft Office 365. These things are important – our customers need them – but they don’t get excited about them. We sell – yawn - Backup solutions We sell security and peace of mind – we’re certified to ISO 27001. We’re excited about that – we worked damn hard to achieve it! But how do we communicate that excitement to our customers?
- #28 Mood lighting? It’s going to take more than that. Some of our customers are geeks, as I’ve said – but the majority are not. Our customers are internet users – sure – but they sometimes don’t even realise that they are. Let me ask you: what is the hottest mobile phone app at the moment?
- #29 Pokemon Go is the hottest mobile phone app at the moment.
- #30 Do you think that these Pokemon Go players are thinking about the servers they are using? Are they thinking about the storage required, or the data throughput? How many of them wonder about security and privacy of the data they are generating while they play? It’s just not sexy.
- #31 Does Niantic care about the technology? Do their engineers? Sure they do. But that’s not how they market the game.
- #32 Another example Most of our customers don’t know the difference between a browser address bar and Google’s or Bing’s search box. So did the browser providers get up on a high horse and decide to tell their customers that they were doing it wrong? No – they got with the programme – the customers programme – and allowed search queries to be typed directly into the address bar. It’s a perfect example of the gap between what engineers think is important – and what customers think is sexy.
- #33 Another example: Instagram – didn’t have a web aspect to it until recently. Snapchat still doesn’t. But these are among the hottest apps – and uses of web and internet technology there are. On the back end, we’ve still got servers and data centres The customer – especially the end user - doesn’t know that – they care even less. And so we are in danger of falling into the trap of talking about our unsexy products And being irrelevant in the sexy, vital, exciting life of our customers.
- #34 So our customers don’t think our technology is sexy – we’ve established that – and we’re ok with it … kinda But do you know what really isn’t sexy? Downtime. Lost business. Lost opportunities. Lost data. Lost customers. Lost money. We’re like insurance. They need us and our dull and boring products – they just don’t always realise it. The challenge to us is: how do we make it sexy for them? How do we make it cool? Attractive? Now once again, I must stress that when I use the word sexy, I don’t necessarily mean sex. But – as it turns out – this is yet another example of how those pioneers of the internet – the porn industry – have, once again led the way.
- #35 How many of you have heard of a website called PornHub? PornHub doesn’t advertise on prime-time TV –mainstream media outlets won’t take their money. What they do however is kind of sexy!
- #36 And remember when I say sexy – I mean clever, witty, cool, cheeky – and especially funny Because pornhub ads can’t show you their product. But they can suggest it – imply it – nudge, nudge – wink wink and joke about it
- #37 And pornhub do something else that’s sexy – I mean clever They create media-ready news releases based on ”research” – and news organisations who would not accept their ads, are lapping up their content instead For Pornhub, Sexy PR means “cheeky”, “manipulative”, “media-friendly”
- #38 PornHub has something big in common with the hosting industry. The product they are selling is unmarketable. PornHub ads in mainstream media? No one wants to see that! Servers and datacentres and standards advertised in mainstream media? No one wants to see that! Do you see the connection? Of course pornhub’s content is sexual titillation – but more importantly – it’s media manipulation And it’s cheaper – and more effective than advertising That’s something that another Irishman knows all about
- #39 Does anyone know who this guy is? He’s Irish.
- #40 Maybe this picture will help? That’s Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair - Europe’s largest airline – and the 5th largest in the world by passengers carried. As you can see – he’s a cheeky chap
- #41 Ryanair is a low-cost, no frills airline. The sell lots of airline tickets very cheaply – and they manage their costs aggressively. One of the things they don’t like paying for is advertising.
- #42 So instead they get their publicity for free – by being as outrageous as they can Michael O’Leary believes that there is no such thing as bad publicity. In the last few years they have reportedly been considering: Charging passengers £1 to use the toilets Introducing a standing-room only section on planes – no seats Charging extra for overweight passengers
- #43 So lets get back to hosting. What can we learn from these people? My company has over 40% of the Irish web hosting market – but by international standards we are tiny. I can’t compete with large international companies and their big advertising budgets Like Pornhub – my product is unmarketable. Like Ryanair – I like to give the media something to talk about. Like both of those companies – I think that creativity is perhaps the sexiest thing of all!
- #44 Content Marketing We have two blogs, a podcast, a Youtube channel, and we’re active on social media – especially Facebook and Twitter. We also write press releases for the media – not just about our own news – but about topical issues relating to technology and security. This is a blog post we put out last week - which was shared by our local chamber of commerce in their newsletter.
- #45 Content Marketing We have two blogs, a podcast, a Youtube channel, and we’re active on social media – especially Facebook and Twitter. We also write press releases for the media – not just about our own news – but about topical issues relating to technology and security. This is a blog post we put out last week - which was shared by our local chamber of commerce in their newsletter.
- #46 Content Marketing We have two blogs, a podcast, a Youtube channel, and we’re active on social media – especially Facebook and Twitter. We also write press releases for the media – not just about our own news – but about topical issues relating to technology and security. This is a blog post we put out last week - which was shared by our local chamber of commerce in their newsletter.
- #47 Content Marketing We have two blogs, a podcast, a Youtube channel, and we’re active on social media – especially Facebook and Twitter. We also write press releases for the media – not just about our own news – but about topical issues relating to technology and security. This is a blog post we put out last week - which was shared by our local chamber of commerce in their newsletter.
- #48 Content Marketing We have two blogs, a podcast, a Youtube channel, and we’re active on social media – especially Facebook and Twitter. We also write press releases for the media – not just about our own news – but about topical issues relating to technology and security. This is a blog post we put out last week - which was shared by our local chamber of commerce in their newsletter.
- #49 Content Marketing We have two blogs, a podcast, a Youtube channel, and we’re active on social media – especially Facebook and Twitter. We also write press releases for the media – not just about our own news – but about topical issues relating to technology and security. This is a blog post we put out last week - which was shared by our local chamber of commerce in their newsletter.
- #50 Content Marketing We have two blogs, a podcast, a Youtube channel, and we’re active on social media – especially Facebook and Twitter. We also write press releases for the media – not just about our own news – but about topical issues relating to technology and security. This is a blog post we put out last week - which was shared by our local chamber of commerce in their newsletter.
- #51 We’ve done print advertising in trade publications and mainstream newspapers We do a lot of online advertising We have our own in house designers – and we try to be as creative as we can.
- #52 We had a lot of fun with the .SCIENCE top level domain
- #53 This is Bert, by the way. I mentioned him earlier. Every knight needs a dragon to slay – but really, Bert is a bit goofy.
- #54 He crops up a lot in our more humorous ads.
- #55 What about this one? Too cheeky? The new top level domains have led to lots of opportunities for humour.
- #56 And we’re back to .XXX again. Remember: by sexy, I mean: Funny and Cheeky But also innovative, creative
- #57 But there are other ways to be creative – besides being cheeky and funny. I may not be able to compete for advertising with big international brands – but I can play to my strengths as a relaitively small local provider – and the identity I share with my own community Blacknight is an Irish company – Irish owned and run. That means we have a unique identity in the English-speaking world. Whether or not you’ve ever been to Ireland, you may or may not be familiar with some of the cultural touchstones by which Irish people recognise each other. There’s the music, obviously, and Irish dancing. Irish sports stars and musicians like U2. You’ve heard of Saoirse Ronan and Sinead O’Connor.
- #58 That’s Colm Meaney – who played Chief O’Brien in Star Trek. Whether or not you’ve ever been to Ireland, you may or may not be familiar with some of the cultural touchstones by which Irish people recognise each other. There’s the music, obviously, and Irish dancing. Irish sports stars and musicians like U2. You’ve heard of Saoirse Ronan and Sinead O’Connor – and Chief O’Brien There are probably also some things you might list – which are as alien to actual Irish people as the Cardassian’s were to Chief O’Brien - like leprechauns, and St Patty’s Day, and “top of the morning to you”!
- #59 Probably the first thing non-Irish people notice about Irish people is that we have a distinctive accent, and some unique ways of using the English language. To be fair, we speak English very well, but it’s not our language.
- #60 This is our language. Can anyone tell me what those words mean? (The N.S.A does not understand Irish) You see – because we speak English so well – people outside Ireland are not always aware that we have another language all our own, a language with an older written literature than English, or any other European language for that matter. And so, the Irish language is one of those tools – a cultural ‘shibboleth’, if you like – which Irish people use to recognise other Irish people. So - we use it in our marketing.
- #61 Here’s an ad we did, featuring Bert for a special offer on selected domain names to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. The words in the bottom left “Tairiscint Spesialta” mean “Special Offer”. I’ll explain the rest of it later. We also blog regularly in Irish, and podcast. And we’ve re-dubbed the audio on promotional videos for domain registries with an Irish-language soundtrack Why do we do this, when Irish is spoken regularly by less than 5% of the population? Firstly, because it is a creative way to server niche group. It doesn’t cost us much but our efforts are appreciated. It gives us credibility and brand loyalty with Irish speakers. Secondly, while Irish is spoken by a minority – a majority of the people are sympathetic towards the language and recognise its importance in the national heritage.
- #62 Sponsorship of the Arts is a great way to make your brand sexy On Saturday Next, the IndieCork Festival of Film and Media Art begins in Cork City – it will run for a week.
- #63 Blacknight is a sponsor this year for the first time. We’re sponsoring the Blacknight Festival Centre which will act as a hub for the festival – open 12 hours a day for 8 days – with our branding on it.
- #64 Having a festival hub open all week is a big step forward for this festival – and our sponsorship has featured heavily in media coverage of the event
- #65 Our sponsorship is appreciated, not just by the organisers, but by the filmmakers and artists participating in the festival, by the patrons and supporters and the audiences attending the festival – by local community groups and elected officials Who tweet and like and post their appreciation for our involvement …
- #66 All the way up to, and including the Lord Mayor of the City of Cork – who posted this tweet. He was replying to another tweet from a reporter on a national daily newspaper, the Irish Examiner Now that’s sexy!
- #67 And we make sure to capitalize on it. Here’s our media guy Conn, attending the press launch for the event last week and shooting videos with the organisers and participants – he’s been working on putting these videos out on social media channels this week.
- #68 Here’s another special interest in the community, and also something uniquely Irish in a way. For generations in rural Ireland, in September when the harvest was done, country people would go in search of love and romance in Lisdoonvarna – a holiday resort in County Clare. The tradition continues today – for 5 weekends every year – this little town is packed for the annual matchmaking festival. And for the past four years the last weekend of that festival has been devoted to a section of society who recently had their rights vindicated in a historic referendum on marriage equality in Ireland: the LGBT community
- #69 The event is called The Outing – and this year, it is sponsored by Blacknight
- #71 So sponsorship is good, the arts are good, niche interests and community groups are all good. And all of these groups include people who are our customers or potential customers. But we wanted to go further – so we teamed up with a media company who organised awards events, and we inaugurated an awards ceremony designed to celebrate the SEXIEST people we know: the people who run small and medium enterprises or SMEs.
- #72 Now in its third year, The Blacknight SME Awards turns the spotlight on what our customers really think is sexy: their own businesses!
- #74 To conclude here’s Bert again with his message in Irish The quote is an Irish proverb, which is quite appropriate in the context of choosing a good domain name. It says: “If all you have is one goat – seek out the best place in the market to sell him” In other words, when it comes to marketing Put your best foot forward Make the most of what you’ve got Be clever, creative, resourceful and manipulative Find common ground with your customers Find ways to market the unmarketable And if all you have is a goat – pimp him out – and make him sexy!