How do you market a domain to companies?

[daddypi]

I hope someone doesn't mind sharing this information, but I was wondering how I would go about marketing a domain to existing online companies. I mean as far as what you would include in a letter to them.

 

[draqon]

you do it very carefully, as it is very easy to violate a corporation's trademark without trying.

first step; make sure you know your domain is generic. If you own HostingSolutions.com, then you are probably fine. If you are trying to sell eBaySolutions.com to Ebay, then watch the hell out.

second step; make sure your letter is highly professional and courteous. make it clear that you are not spamming them. give them some great reasons why purchasing your domain would be good for their products, or their branding efforts, etc.

Don't press them too hard to buy the name, if you put pressure they are far less likely to want the name.

 

[daddypi]

I appreciate the reply, and I'm sure it will help me out!

I have another question though if you don't mind, when you begin marketing your domain to related sites, do you mass-contact them (but with some customization to the letters) or do you contact a site one at a time?

 

[draqon]

It depends on the value of the domain. If the name is fairly crappy and unlikely to yield much profit, I do the mass-contacting method with some customization as you say. But valuable domains involve bigger bucks at stake, so those potential buyers get more carefully crafted emails.

In the end, its still best if a company contacts you rather than you contacting them, because you are in a stronger position. But...I know that its hard to wait for companies to contact a person, as its possible they might never get around to doing so.

 

[daddypi]

It depends on the value of the domain. If the name is fairly crappy and unlikely to yield much profit, I do the mass-contacting method with some customization as you say. But valuable domains involve bigger bucks at stake, so those potential buyers get more carefully crafted emails.

In the end, its still best if a company contacts you rather than you contacting them, because you are in a stronger position. But...I know that its hard to wait for companies to contact a person, as its possible they might never get around to doing so.

Alrighty, an one last, final question (I PROMISE! lol), is it considered by definition, spam, to email them these business proposals? (As long as it's not multiple times, etc.)

 

[draqon]

Well, the general consensus is that its not spam if you contact a specific company regarding a specific domain. It is merely an 'unsolicited proposal'.