I heard a really interesting ad on RTE Radio 1 this morning. It was one of those quirky scripts where we hear a bunch of vegetables in a garden bemoaning the fact that some of their stronger, fitter drill buddies were grown from a particular brand of seed. Although I have no real interest in gardening, the copy caught my attention and engaged. However, the call to action was a direction to the company website, on a .co.uk domain.

If I was in the market (which I might be soon) for vegetable seeds, I think I'd like to deal with an Irish company. Being in business here, I always advocate giving a local company first option and only go abroad if it's substantially cheaper. My thinking on this is that if you're trying to sell to a market, you should do as much as possible to identify with that market.

For the sake of a few hundred euros, this company could have obtained a .ie domain and mapped it to their existing site.  Fine if it's obviously a UK company and I'd have no problem buying from them as such. I would, however, take greater comfort and would be much more inclined to deal if they had at least made some effort to show some support for the market they are operating in. Using the .co.uk domain would cause me to question a companies level of engagement, support and after-sales care.

I always advise clients servicing the Irish market to go for a .ie domain rather than even a .com, especially for those on the smaller end of the scale. Yes it may cost a little more but it  instills a greater degree of confidence in the potential customer.