As many of you know, I’m one of the founders of ParkLogic and for over a decade we’ve been working with clients to extract the maximum possible value from their domain traffic. In blogs and at conferences I’ve gone to great lengths to explain WHAT we do and HOW we do it….but up until now I’ve never tackled the WHY….

When I reflect about my personal journey at ParkLogic I realised that over the years we’ve developed a number of core beliefs that up until now we’ve never shared. They've actually become the reason why we behave the way we do and why we love the domain industry so much.

It should be said from the outset that this is not an exhaustive list and they are not in any particular order but hopefully it will provide some insight into how we operate.

Transparency
We believe in being transparent with clients. This means we won’t lie to you if you have a question and if we stuff up then we’ll make amends. Our focus on being open means all our statistics are what the domains actually earn, and our accounting clearly show the commission we take from managing the domain traffic. We don’t hide our commission behind smoke and mirrors.

I must say that we've received quite a bit of flack for being so transparent but we believe that it's through transparency that the industry can grow and increase overall earnings.

Good People
The domain industry is full of wonderful people….so why waste your time dealing with jerks? We believe in working with good people, serving great clients and establishing strong relationships with suppliers. We believe that doing life with people is important and that if we don't work with you now you'll have the confidence to work with us in the future. For us, everything is not just about business.

Last night I watched an interesting video which really challenged the whole notion of the way I’d thought about marketing. For me, marketing had always been about informing people about the benefits of a product/service and explaining how it’s awesome! What I’d missed in my thinking was the reason “why” a business behaves the way it does and how this concept impacts customers.

The below circle diagram illustrates how most marketers think about their marketing activities. They proceed from the outside of “What” they do and move inwards towards “How” they do it and finally some get to the “Why” they do what they do.

Pause to think about this for a second. Brochures inevitably espouse the “What” is great about a product and “How” it’s going to benefit you. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this approach other than the “Why” you made the product has been left out.

In the video, the presenter encouraged the group of entrepreneurs he was sharing with to work from the inside of the circle to the outside. Talk about the “Why” and work your way out to the “How” and “What”.

He then highlighted that both “Apple” and “Harley-Davidson” use this approach in all their marketing communications. When customers understand the “Why” they then begin to associate with the company’s values.