Shannon O’Donald, Director of Channel Marketing at Identity Digital, was interviewed by Simone Catania, Global Content & Communications Manager at InterNetX.
The subject: The customer journey, navigating the ocean of domain names available.
Identity Digital (formerly Donuts) manages the world’s most extensive portfolio of new gTLDs and as a top-notch domain brand strategist, Shannon develops marketing programs to let everyone know there is a whole new world of great domain names available to build, market, and own digital identities.
Simone Catania: It hit the headlines in June 2022: Donuts Inc. and Afilias rebranded under Identity Digital. Why this new brand name?
Shannon O’Donald: Identity Digital™ better reflects the commitment to helping customers find, grow and protect their authentic digital identities. United under one brand, Identity Digital cements its status as a leader in connecting the online world with domain names and related technologies that allow people to build, market, and own their authentic digital identities.
Simone Catania: Do you manage and promote the largest new gTLD portfolio in the domain industry?
Shannon O’Donald: We operate nearly 300 new gTLDs through our own registry service provider business. Our technical expertise also allows us to manage TLDs for other registries. We do this with a solid and stable cloud-based platform that supports us effectively in all DNS-related operations.
Our marketing activities aim to raise awareness. We have addressed this mainly through two approaches:
1) Consumer campaigns to explain the value of owning the most authentic digital identities under new gTLDs.
2) Specific verticals or domain extensions to raise awareness around a specific extension to the relevant target audience and create memorable domains.
Simone Catania: What insights have you gained about the domain buyers through research?
Shannon O’Donald: We learned that the window between when someone initially thinks about buying a domain name and when the registration takes place is very short. The most important way to help registrants along their customer journey is to share educational content that helps them understand the value of domain names.
It’s essential to place this content where it is most likely consumed along their journey. Providing educational content and materials when they start their journey has been the main focus of our marketing campaign. The results of our research now help us to achieve this more effectively.
Read the full interview with Shannon O’Donalds titled “It’s all about domains with Shannon O’Donald from Identity Digital.”
