Take on GoDaddy – Now is the Time

GoDaddy is at it again. Raising prices that is.

For a lot of our Resellers, GoDaddy probably represents the single largest competitor in the domains and hosting area. These recent price increases announced by GoDaddy signal an opportunity for you. Now is the time to aggressively take on GoDaddy and do a little customer education and drive sales.

.NET and .ORG domain names now set domain buyers back $15.19 when they buy them from GoDaddy. Consider that the Registry cost on .NET is going up to $4.98, and .ORG is going up to $6.75 in a few months time, then contrast that with what Go Daddy is now charging. Do the math – take that registry fee, add the ICANN fee, then the OpenSRS Management Fee to see what your wholesale cost is. When I add that up, I get $8.18 for .NET domains and $9.95 for .ORG domains – considerably less than GoDaddy even when you add a healthy margin.

Still convinced that GoDaddy is a low-cost domain seller? Let’s look at .COM from GoDaddy. Yes, they will give you the first year for $1.99 (plus ICANN fee) or the first year of a transfer in for $6.99, but after that, a .COM renewal is $10.19 when you include the ICANN fee of 20 cents. Reality doesn’t match the perception.

That’s where you need to focus – on perception. The public has a perception about GoDaddy thanks to some incredibly expensive and thorough marketing. The goal of those Superbowl ads was to convince the public that GoDaddy had the cheapest domains. And it worked.

How to take on GoDaddy

Use a multi-pronged approach: address the price perception, focus on service, and provide an alternative.

1. The price perception. Be up-front about your pricing and show where you beat GoDaddy on price. Take advantage of our domain promotions to run promotions of your own. Consider that it might make sense to offer certain domains as a loss leader for other services if it makes sense. Get the word out – GoDaddy is not cheaper than everyone else.

2. Focus on service. Offer top-notch customer service and brag about it on your homepage. Customers look for more than price and service is one way you can win them over.

3. Provide an alternative. NASCAR and babes in bikinis might be appealing to some, but not everyone wants to be associated with a company like GoDaddy. Target the types of customers that would be offended, or put off by the GoDaddy style of marketing.

It can be easy to throw up your hands and throw in the towel when faced with a competitor like GoDaddy. But everyone loves an underdog. Be the independent coffee shop that opens up down the street from Starbucks, or the rookie ball player facing off against the veteran pitcher in a clutch situation.

GoDaddy has provided the opening with these recent price hikes. Take advantage and take back customers.

We’ll have more on this next week – specifically on making sure you are doing everything to help your new customers transfer out of GoDaddy.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 5th, 2008 at 2:25 PMby James Koole and is filed under Reseller Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.