In comparison to other businesses, the web hosting business is very easy to start. You can purchase a reseller hosting plan and start providing shared hosting to your customers. However, like with any business getting customers in the door is usually the hard part. Here are 7 easy to implement tips that can help drive customers through your door and hopefully to more sales.
1. Google Adwords
If you’re not ranking well in Google you can opt to use Google Adwords to get your business in front of potential buyers. If you’re new to Hosting however this could be a little expensive so f you’re going to enter the world of Google Adwords try targeting a specific product or search term that’s less competitive and you should see a better return in your investment.
2. Referral Program
Most billing systems such as WHMCS and Clientexec have an inbuilt referral or affiliate system. Put together a competitive referral program and let your customers drive business for you, it’s cheaper than Adwords and your reach will be a lot greater.
3. Get a Blog and write
Content is still king. Start a blog and put up useful content that people will want to read about and hopefully pass on through social platforms. Don’t be afraid of telling all and sharing some insights about your Reseller Hosting Business and more importantly giving answers to problems that took you days to work, I bet you someone else out there is probably on Google looking for an article on how they can fix the same problem you just worked out.
4. Participate in Forums
Forums are still great, one for Australians is Web Hosting Talk Australia, we’re active on there along with a number of other providers. Forums are a great place to share ideas, solve problems, talk to potential customers and share some of your special offers.
5. Customer Testimonials
If you don’t have any get some, if you already have some get more! We refresh our testimonials every 3 months after we conduct our quarterly surveys, this list should be growing year on year and make sure that the testimonials are easily accessible for your visitors.
6. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
You want your website to rank well so make sure that you at least do basic SEO on your website isn’t hard, update your meta tags, fix broken links, add a robot.txt file, etc. And when you have the funds available hire an SEO consultant.
7. Develop Relationships
There is always more business to be found and one great way to get more leads without much leg work is through opportunities with local web designers. Build partnerships where you provide hosting in exchange for web design leads.
These are some really easy ways to increase your market share and if you’re not doing any just go out there and tackle one at a time until you’re nailing every one of them. No matter what size your business if you regularly revisit this list and measure how you are performing you will be able to drive more growth to your web hosting business. If you have any other tips or experiences that you can share I’d love to hear them!
