Joe Cronin, Vice President of Sales for ReWatchable.com shares his thoughts about the company’s domain name and why they switch from their previous name. Branding is important to a business and so to is the ability of customers to remember your domain name.
Mike: Can you give a little background on your business?
Joe: We are a boutique video production company based near Boston. We help companies with business videos.
Mike: How long you’ve been in business?
Joe: Just about a year. We have 2 people and some contractors that make up our staff. The site has been active since January 2010.
Mike: Tell me more specifically about the name, it’s use, meaning, and it’s growing popularity.
Joe: We changed our company name from Cinefeatures because we were working on marketing materials and kept talking about how we wanted our videos to be REWATCHABLE. Cinefeatures was hard for prospects to hear and spell. By contrast, everyone instantly knows how to spell and say REWATCHABLE. The term REWATCHABLE refers to how a video is so good that it can be Rewatched over and over again. Google returns 4.8 million results related to the term. The term is constantly being used by media outlets and is being excepted as real word.
Mike: Did you purchase the name from someone else that owned it?
Joe: We were lucky. It was available and we snagged it 30 seconds after seeing it was available. Total cost was $8.95.
Mike: Can you share the volume of traffic that your site receives?
Joe: The volume is still low but growing as we build links and pagerank.
Mike: Do you have any marketing strategies that you follow online or offline (google ads, seo, banners on other sites, etc.?)
Joe: We do some Google ads. Our main strategy is SEO. We blog often and try to get links as often as we can.
Mike: Any advice you have for other when choosing a domain name?
Joe: Try to avoid domains people need to think about how to say or spell. Some domains looks great and make sense (cinefeatures) but are hard on the ears and are not intuitively spelled. Its great to make a cold call, leave a voicemail saying you are calling from Rewatchable and then to see traffic on the website that came from that call. An easy unique word makes it easy for prospects to find you.
Mike: What was the largest hurdle you faced getting the actual website off the ground?
Joe: Getting found. There is a real chicken and egg problem with Google right now. Until you become a site of authority Google doesn’t really care about you however you need Google’s help to become an authority so it takes some time.
Mike: Do you think you would be willing to sell your domain at any point?
Joe: Yes, but we also believe online video is in its infancy so we believe the domain will be tremendously more valuable in the future. We will let our golden goose fully mature before we think about selling.
