Starter Ideas On How To Get Your First Customers
One of the most difficult aspects of running a new hosting company is getting your first customers when you have not much exposure in regards to advertising and traffic on your website. It is like the Chicken and the Egg thing. The more customers you have the more new ones will sign up based on word of mouth advertising. But you need customers first before this will work out in your favor. The methods described below could be a great starting point for any new web and existing web host trying to get more clients.
Activity in Forums
One of the best ways to attract customers is by posting messages in forums on just about any subject. No, do not post your URL in messages itself. Find out if you are allowed to put URLs into your profile and signature. Then put your business URL and one line of text about your company into your signature line and start posting meaningful and good messages. Build up a good reputation. Do not promote your business by talking about it unless specifically being asked about it. If you post good messages with good content and advice, people will associate that with your business. Now you have free advertising to a large forums audience. Be active. Make yourself post ten messages or new topics every day. Pick topics that already have many responses. If done right you will see traffic to your website start to come in. Important: Make sure that your messages are really helpful and insightful. Again do not post junk as this will reflect badly on you and your company in the end. If you are persistent doing this across multiple forums you will see an increase in traffic and soon customers start to sign up.
Be a Sponsor
Sponsoring web sites is another great method to get the name out. Find a very active and well-known site that is on a free web hosting platform like Geocities, AOL, Comcast, etc and offer them to trade web hosting for promotion of your site in return. You can also do this on a local level by hosting a website for your kid’s sports team, a neighbor’s kid soccer team, or a charity you are involved with. Local customers are often willing to pay a little more for web hosting and often require less need for tech support.
Friends and Family
And finally you can consider your friends and family as part of getting your business off the ground. Give away free web hosting to them and ask them to mention your services to their friends and extended family. Not everyone needs web hosting, but sometimes having somebody in the industry they trust, can trigger the need to suddenly wanting a website.
These 3 steps of how to get new customers are affordable and if done right very effective. Make sure you treat your first customers to the best service possible. These clients are the foundation of your business. A solid foundation is the key to success in the hosting industry.
Leave a Reply