Marketing for Web Hosting Companies

It’s a tough market – there are over 330,000 web hosting companies globally. And noisy too. Everyone is competing for the same keywords and the big volume players dominate the paid space.

So, what can you do?

Nail the product-market fit

The first thing I ask a prospective customer is why their prices are so low. Why are they racing to the bottom along with everyone else.

They tell me they have a great product and offer amazing service. I ask them why they they’re pricing that $5 / month.

I worked as Marketing Manager for two successful web hosting companies:

Network Dynamics here in Australia with three brands targeting Enteprise, small businesses and WordPress hosting. Priced much higher than competitors but offering a premium service. Everyone in the industry thought we were a 30 person team. It was just five of us.

Convesio is a true innovator. The platform leverages Docker containers to auto scale WordPress solving challenges that other providers can’t and being a perfect fit for WooCommerce stores, LMS sites and any websites that need to scale easily and quickly.

What’s your superpower?

Invest in your brand

Look at the most successful web hosting companies. Their websites look polished and messaging is on spot-on. They look like the million-dollars they are worth.

You have to have a solid product to start with. Brand is what makes the value stand out and stick in people’s minds.

Tell a great story

Marketing boils down to this. But it has to be unique.

There many ways to tell the story and many channels to share them. And unlike all the promises for growth there is no shortcut. You’re been successful if you do good job with what I mentioned above and have a solid strategy in place.

Start with a solid strategy…

It sounds obvious but most tech marketers get staright to the tactics. Perhaps because they’ve read the latest 100X success story on LinkedIn and signed up for the playbook. In many cases they’re great at executing but have little understanding of Marketing fundamentals.

The four Ps – product, price, place & promotion – are just as revelant now as they were decades ago.

…and quick wins too

There’s an urgency to get business through the door, and rightly so.

Strategy work is foundational but there’s nothing stopping you from chasing business at the same time, even if it’s being scrappy and unpolished.

One approach is to look at what has worked and do more of it. Perhaps targeting another segment of the market.

Need help?

I can help you set the right foundation for marketing your web hosting service. 

A typical project would look like this:

1. Discovery – to understand the ‘current state’ of product, pricing and marketing
2. Planning – to figure out the right strategy and put together a roadmap to get there (that you can afford)
3. Framework – to establish the ‘Marketing OS’ to deliver on the plan
4. Execution – Get the right people / resources to make it all happen
5. Quick win – how to get more business through the door as we work on the above.

Interested? Get in touch for a free 30-minute consultation.