Nicholas Rishwain is the VP of Client Relations & Development at Experts.com. Experts.com was established to allow professionals a platform to showcase their areas of Expertise. Since 1994, they have been providing millions of users worldwide with access to specialized knowledge.
Mike: Nick, what is it that Experts.com does? What service do you provide your customers?
Nick: Experts.com is an online marketing platform for expert witnesses and consultants. We provide a platform for experts to promote their knowledge and intellectual property. Attorneys, businesses, and insurance companies can then search our site for the appropriate expert to fit their needs.
Mike: Can you tell me why you chose the domain Experts.com to represent your brand?
Nick: We wanted a one word domain name that highlighted exactly what we do. Experts are regularly used in litigation and our domain name tells users exactly what we offer: experts in over 1,300 categories of expertise. I should note, we also have a section of expert consultants promoting their activities unrelated to litigation. All expert witnesses can be consultants, but not all consultants can be (or want to be ) expert witnesses. Our site allows Members to promote their expertise for litigation or otherwise.
Additionally, we work with the theme of connecting knowledge to those who are seeking knowledge. So although expert witnesses and consultants are two verticals we work on, our site really goes deeper than that. If you are looking to market your intellectual property, we want you to do so on Experts.com.
Mike: What type of traffic do you see using a premium keyword domain name? Is all that relevant traffic?
Nick: The vast majority of traffic is relevant to the Users who are searching for experts. Users search for experts for a myriad of issues. Not every search, however, is relevant to our Members. Naturally, like many websites, we have many consumer searches in which the user thinks they need to “ask an expert” a question, but really what they need is an answer to a question that a variety of individuals can answer (i.e. local mechanic, local handyman, financial advisor, etc.). The search may be relevant, but they could really ask any number of individuals. They do not necessarily need a qualified expert.
Since we do receive some of this consumer traffic we are developing the ExpertAnswers section. In this section, consumers or small businesses can have their specific questions answered or ideas vetted for a fee.
Searches that are relevant to our Members includes: Attorneys, law firms, academic institutions, governmental agencies, insurance companies, Fortune 500 companies, and media outlets.
Mike: How are you using social media to help promote your site and your service? For example, at the time of this writing you have over 5,000 Twitter followers and seem to be posting quite actively.
Nick: Yes, we are using social media daily to help build brand awareness, understanding, and to help promote the work and knowledge of our Members. We post Member articles, case studies, videos, and more to social media, on a daily basis. These are highly qualified and credentialed individuals whose content can be valuable to a wide variety of readers.
Additionally, we have been involved in the live video / live streaming community from the pioneering stage as we believe it is important for our Members to learn and incorporate social media and live video into their promotional activities. Our YouTube channel has many videos with attorneys and experts brave enough to try live video. Even some who have tried it and told us they have been engaged after a client has watched their video interview.
The world of marketing has changed. Hard-copy marketing publications offer little-to-no value. They are expensive and make for great paper weights. Building relationships and engaging with your audience is the present and future of marketing. We want to lead the way in using these platforms and show our Members the value they offer.
Mike: Can you share how you acquired the name and what you paid for it?
Nick: We acquired the domain name in 2000. We also own a wide variety of other experts domain names. Somewhere between 30 and 40 related domain names.
Mike: What is one thing you learned as the owners of a premium keyword domain name?
Nick: Allow me to have some fun in answering this question. This has more to do with social circles. It’s really funny when people ask you questions about your website… They’ll ask you a dozen questions. You’ll answer them. Then you’ll see them again in the future and they’ll ask the same questions all over again. It’s so simple for them to visit the website and read about it, but they just won’t do it. It is sort of like when someone asks you a question that can easily be answered by searching Google, but they would rather ask you.
So I guess what I’ve learned, is people don’t do much independent research. They know you and the name of your company but they rarely have an idea of what exactly it is that your company does. Our Users and our customers understand, but our family and friends are forever in the dark.
