DNS Entrepreneurship Center Cairo, April 2015 DNS Entrepreneurship Center Cairo, April 2015 Registry Best Practices Workshop Website : http://www.dnsec.eg/ Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/dns.entrepreneurship.center Twitter :- https://twitter.com/DNS_EC

1. Registry-registrar relations
DNS Entreprenership Center
Cairo, 7 April 2015

2. n Setting the registrar community
n Communication with the registrar community
n Promotion of the TLD via the registrar
Agenda

3. Setting the registrar community

4. n Few or many registrars ?
Hunting for registrars (1)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Under 300 301-1000 Over 1000

5. n Where to hunt for registrars:
• ISP in the region
• Worldwide registrar players
• Current resellers
• Public bodies/large companies
Hunting for registrars (2)

6. n Try to highlight the advantages of being a registrar:
• Establish a steady revenue stream
• Better profile the credibility of the company
• Directly benefit of discount packages offered by the
registry, including marketing opportunities
• Participate in registrar committees of the registry
• Cater for a possibly unserved market with few
registrars
Marketing the registrar
business (1)

7. n Campaign options to « recruit » new registrars:
• Face to face meetings
• Direct mail to possibly interested companies
• Participation in fairs/events of the sector (e.g. WHD in
Germany)
• Eventually offer « preferred entry packages » for the
first years or until the registrar reaches an adequate
domain portfolio
Marketing the registrar
business (2)

8. n Accreditation process requirements:
• Administrative
• Several registries require each business wishing to become an
accredited registrar to be authenticated. Authentication means
providing proof of the business and the authority to represent
and act on behalf of the business
• Technical
• Financial
Registrar accreditation
process (2)

9. n Administrative:
• Carefully read the accreditation process
• Complete and send the registry-registrar agreement.
Standard agreements may include:
• Reference to the registry T&C, Whois policy and other relevant
documents
• Registrar obligations, technical and administrative
• Sunrise provisions (in case of new registries)
• Fees and payment methods
• Termination of the agreement
• Privacy policy
• Dispute resolution between registry and registrant
• Registrar website (e.g. interesting clause in the EURid agreement: « The
Registrar is obliged to have its own website and in cases where
Registrations are administered via a website belonging to a third party,
the Registrar will be held liable for all the content of this party’s
website.»
Registrar accreditation
process (3) - Administrative

10. n Technical:
• Some registries require preliminary technical checks
• In some cases some registries offer « Software Development
Kits » or detailed EPP registration guidelines
• Most registries work via EPP based registration platforms
• Specific clauses to access the registry registration software (e.g.
EURid: « The Registrar is obliged to use the access to EURid's
software components in good faith and in a manner conformant,
both functionally and technically, to the manuals on usage published
on EURid's websites, or made available by any other means »)
Registrar accreditation
process (4) - Technical

11. n Pre-payment or post-payment ?
n Various scenarios:
• A non-reimbursable one-time sign-up fee to cover administrative
costs. The fee is not used for paying any domain name transaction;
• A one-time sign-up fee plus a yearly administration fee. These fees
are not used for paying any domain name transaction;
• A one-time sign-up fee that is credited to the registrar balance if the
registrar gets accredited;
• A pre-payment that can be used for domain name transactions once
the registrar gets accredited. The pre-payment must be replenished
regularly;
• No pre-payment/accreditation fee.
n Option of setting a pre-payment and change it over the years
n Reduced pre-payment for new registrars
Registrar accreditation
process (5) - Financial

12. n When the relationship between the registry and the
registrars is based on a contract, the registry should take
into account some aspects:
• Contract transfer and related domain names transfer
• Rescue procedures for those registrants (and domain
names) whose registrars “disappear” or go bankrupted
• Possible “system penalties” in case the registrar is not
up-to-date with the payments to the registry
Special contractual
arrangements

13. Knowing the registrar

14. n Analysis of its organisation
n Right contact points
n Preferences
n Campaigns
n Is it a real registrar?
Knowing the registrar (1)

15. n Monitor the registrar performances
n Be proactive
n Anticipate needs and/or trends (e.g. Shift to new
gTLDs?)
Registrar intelligence

16. Communicating
with the registrar community

17. n Phone/email support
n Significant aspects:
• Working hours
• Languages
• Time for processing requests
• Appropriate archiving procedures
• Customer satisfaction follow-up
• Different expertise of the operators
Standard communication
tools registry-registrar (1)

18. n 24/7 phone service
• Dedicated attention to registrars during non office hours
• First level to act as a filter of incoming calls
• Escalation to registry staff on call in case a crisis/emergency
arises
• All calls ticketed
• Review of the service every six months from its starting date
n In-house or outsourced?
Standard communication
tools registry-registrar (2)

19. n Registrar mailing list: one or several ?
• Clearer distinction between registration system-related
contacts (i.e. billing-c) and pure registrar profile related
contacts (i.e. public profile, official contact). Thus
ensuring a further diversification between machine-
generated communication, and human-to-human
communication.
n Registrar newsletter
• Frequency
• Past or future items
• Reminders
Standard communication
tools registry-registrar (3)

20. n Be ready and open to listen and take into account the
feedback you may receive at any moment
n Most frequent complaints:
• Fee/price
• Would like to have more influence on policy/contractual
terms
• Bureaucracy (in case of paper based models)
• Liberalisation of policies
Standard communication
tools registry-registrar (4)

21. n Registrar extranet, tips:
• Should be regularly updated
• Clearly separate the informative part from the management of the
account section
• Emails that are sent to the registrar mailing list should be also
uploaded in a repository on the extranet
• Assess the information accessibility regularly
• Make a plan to continuously add new features/sections
• Envisage a manual section with the key documents for the
registrars (and divide the documents according to their content)
• Customise the homepage by registrar
• Eventually foresee a top registrar ranking to stimulate competition
Standard communication
tools registry-registrar (5)

22. n Dedicated liaison management
n Annual meeting
n Satisfaction survey
n Advisory Board-Committee:
• Evaluate if it could be valuable addition to the existing engaging
mechanisms at registry level
• The “listen” factor
• Ensure adequate registrar distribution in it
• Fixed term of registrar representatives
• Consultation on possible changes in procedures and policies
Engage with registrars

23. n Many registries offer their registrars training activities on:
• Technical aspects
• Administrative issues
• Legal matters
• New features
n Usually these activities are free of charges
n Moreover, certain regional organisations, like CENTR,
provide training activities and workshops for registries on
many topics such as IDNs, registry-registrars
relationship,…
Training the registrars (1)

24. n E-learning and webinars
• E-learning platforms can be made available to registrars who can
subscribe to different courses about the TLD
• One user per registrar account should be created automatically
and communicated to the registrars by email. Additional users can
be created
• E-learning platforms have been quite successful among registrars
Training the registrars (2)

25. Case study 1:
Introducing IDNs under .eu

26. n EC REGULATION No 874/2004 of 28 April 2004
•
The Registry policy should promote the use of all the official languages of the
Community.
• A Member State should be authorised to designate an operator that will register
as a domain name its official name and the name under which it is commonly
known. Similarly, the Commission should be authorised to select domain names
for use by the institutions of the Community, and to designate the operator of those
domain names. The Registry should be empowered to reserve a number of
specified domain names for its operational functions.
• In accordance with Article 5(2) of Regulation (EC) No 733/2002, a number of
Member States have notified to the Commission and to other Member States a
limited list of broadly-recognised names with regard to geographical and/or
geopolitical concepts which affect their political or territorial organisation. Such lists
include names that could either not be registered or which could be registered only
under the second level domain in accordance with the public policy rules. The
names included in these lists are not subject to the first-come first-served
principle.
n CONCLUSION: Need to update the basic regulation and the list of
reserved domain names
The .eu Regulations

27. n Are you interested in having IDNs available under .eu?
Public survey (1)
YES
NO

28. n Which of the following approaches for launching IDNs
under .eu would have your preference:
• A sunrise followed by a landrush. In this case holders
of a prior right would have priority to register such a
domain name
• A landrush only. In this case only the first-come-first-
served principle will be taken into account. Disputes
will be handled afterwards through the standard ADR
procedure
• It does not make any difference to me
Public survey (2)

29. Public survey (3)
0
50
100
150
200
Sunrise
followed
by
landrush
Landrush
only It
does
not
make
any
difference
to
me

30. n EURid’s proposal shared with the European
Commission and all stakeholders
n All scripts of the 23 EU official languages to be made
available
n Timeline to be launched: December 2008 – January
2009
The IDN high-level plan

31. n Survey(s) to be deployed
n Actions to be implemented (SMART approach)
n Timeline
n Your marketing budget: 100 000
n Setting growth expectations
Exercise: Plan the
introduction of IDNs

32. Promotion of the TLD via the registrars:
The Co-funded Marketing Programme,
.eu case study

33. n Funds automatically deposited into the
registrar’s marketing accounts for new
registrations and renewals
n Any domain names registered at least 24 hours
after released from quarantine
n Currently funds to reimburse up to 100% of the
eligible costs of approved campaigns
n CENTR MARKETING AWARDS WINNER 2013
CFM: How it started

34. CFM: Number of
campaigns
0
1
2
3
4
Number of campaigns per country
2009
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Number of campaigns per country
2010
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Number of campaigns per country
2011

35. CFM: Kind of campaigns
4
2
2
7
Events/initiatives
Banners
Actions for resellers
Printed advertisements
Google Adwords
Direct mailing
Social Media
7
17
8
7
2
Events/initiatives
Banners
Actions for resellers
Printed advertisements
Google Adwords
Direct mailing
Social Media
9
172
5
7
4
1
Events/initiatives
Banners
Actions for resellers
Printed advertisements
Google Adwords
Direct mailing
Social Media
2009 2010
2011

36. n Consolidated uptake
n Registrar appreciation of EURid liaison managers and
the Programme help-desk throughout the various
steps of a campaign
n A model to follow for other registries
n No big negativities in the feedback from the registrars
n Small refinements
2012 evaluation

37. Co-Funded Marketing examples

38. Co-Funded Marketing examples

39. Co-Funded Marketing examples

40. CFM: How it works?
APPLICATION
EXECUTION
REPORT
EVALUATION &
REIMBURSEMENT
Registrar
EURid

41. CFM: Who can apply?
Any .eu accredited registrar

42. CFM: Funds
All new invoiced domain names
All invoiced renewals
€ 0.75
€ 0.30
Accumulation

43. Terms & Conditions
CFM: How to apply?
Secure.registry.eu
Marketing
Resources
Co-funded
marketing 2015 -
2019
Campaign checklist
Forms

44. CFM: Application form
Application to be sent in PDF format to cfmarketing@eurid.eu

45. CFM: What EURid
requests
50%
75%
100%
.eu exclusively
• .eu logo in ALL marketing materials
• .eu logo the same size as your logo
• Communication and Visibility plan
• Mid-term report
• KPIs
• Visuals must be approved by EURid
• Samples must be sent to EURid
• Timeliness

46. Promotion of the TLD via the
registrars: Sales schemes

47. n Sales tool for registrars
n Aimed at growth
n Equal opportunity for small and big registrars
n Principle: Meet your sales targets – get price
reduction
n Sales targets: Usually new paid registrations
in the previous year
n Discount on new registrations, first year
Sales schemes

48. n Encourage registrars to actively promote .eu
n Possible long-term commitment of the registrars
Why Sales schemes?

49. n You are a registrar
n Develop one CFM campaign
n Your overall marketing budget: 50 000 USD
n Your accumulated funds: 25 000 USD
n Your current growth rates: 3%
n TLD growth rate +/- 5%
CFM: Exercise

50. n Taking advantage of other registries experiences (the
grass is greener…) via:
• Discussion lists
• Regional organisations
• International meetings
• Best practices doc
Last tip !

51. Giovanni Seppia
giovanni.seppia@eurid.eu