Every company is always looking to revive its image, to adapt and conform to new marketing tricks before they become the norm, to be out ahead of the competition by making their brand stick out and to reach more people than ever before. In the booming high-tech industry, those tricks aren’t always noticed or understood by the average consumer, but they don’t need to be; the effect is achieved nonetheless.

That pretty much sums up .io. Those involved in high-tech have almost certainly heard of or seen the unassuming domain name by now, but not everyone is aware of its purpose, which can be explained in one word: marketing.

But how does a domain name help a company in its marketing efforts? And why .io? Well, we can start off by noting that no domain name is chosen by accident, and that applies not only to the full domain, but also the extensions like .com, .org and .io, the latter of which gives some concrete advantages over the others to a growing number of businesses, particularly ICO companies.

Hack away

.io started out as the ccTLD for the British Indian Ocean Territory but had too much domain hack potential to be ignored for long, especially among ICOs and high-tech companies where you’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t see .io and recognize I/O, or input/output. Clever domain hacks, besides being fun to come up with, give a serious boost to an ICO’s recognition factor. Customers are more likely to remember the name and how to reach the site online with a smart domain that scratches the itch that only domain hacks can.

Recognizable anyway

But that’s not to say every company using .io needs to have super witty domain name, because .io domains are found to be more recognizable and memorable anyway. Imagine being a customer who’s never heard of .io before. The name will certainly stick out in his memory better than a generic .com name. But more importantly, the customers ICOs want to target most (others in the industry) are likely familiar with .io and seeing it brings a sense of comfort and confidence in the brand. What’s more, .io is shorter than .com, and yes, that one letter makes a difference in making a name more memorable.

Pick a name, any name

And if you aren’t looking for a domain hack, .io names have another, possibly more important benefit for ICOs. No matter what domain name you plan to use, the odds of it being available as .io instead of .com are immense. Because .io isn’t as widely used as its more popular colleagues, lots of new companies are catching the train before it leaves the station and taking the opportunity to pick the domain name they want that may not be available as a .com. If you’re worried that Google won’t like your .io domain as much as it would a .com name, don’t be. Google recognizes .io on the same scale, meaning .io sites aren’t punished for being what they are.

It’s never a good idea to ignore the latest marketing trends and it’s always important to get out ahead of them. Marketing companies like Embassy can help make those choices and make your brand more noticeable with tips, tricks and hard work.