Archive for Marketing
Top 10 Ways to Market Your Web Hosting Business
Posted by: | CommentsCongratulations! You are the proud owner of a web hosting business. You’ve got a great website, you’ve got great products and the only thing you’re missing is customers. There are so many businesses competing for consumer eyeballs these days that it can feel pretty overwhelming. But fear not! With a few simple techniques, and a little persistence, you can get your web hosting business the traffic it deserves.
1. Social Networks
You are probably familiar with social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn. What you may not realize is that these social networks can be powerful marketing tools, when they’re used wisely. Start by setting up an account for your business on each of the major social networks. Before you start adding friends or soliciting followers, make sure you populate your profile with information about your company, images, and links to your website. As a general rule, don’t start posting promotions right away. Establish yourself as an interesting person to follow. Post links to relevant industry news articles and build a following in the tech community. This takes time but, once you’ve got loyal followers, you’d be surprised how many of them turn into customers.
2. Search Engine Optimization
SEO is a term that is bandied about all over the place these days, and for good reason. The higher up your site appears in searches, the more customers you’ll get. It’s a one-to-one ratio. If you’re not familiar with SEO, head over to one of the many SEO forums and start reading up. It’s not complicated, but improving your SEO is a skill. A good way to start is by using a tool like Google Analytics to see what
search terms people are using to find your site. Once you know what people are looking for you can start seeding your site with those terms to boost your relevance in searches. You can also boost your SEO by earning backlinks from other websites in your industry.
3. Backlinks
A backlink is just what it sounds like: a link back to your site from another site. Backlinks are heavily indexed by Google and a few high-profile backlinks can send you right up the search result list, fast. The more popular the site is that links back to you, the better. Consider soliciting backlinks by offering products or services, or by reviewing other providers. Backlinks grow naturally as you grow your business, so the real grunt work comes at the beginning. Don’t despair if you don’t see immediate results. Chances are, when you do start seeing results, they will snowball quickly.
4. Press Releases
Press releases will get you immediate attention, and they can be great for marketing specific products or promotions. There are many websites where you can post press releases for free, and some where you can pay for your release to be indexed faster and more comprehensively. If your release is particularly newsworthy, you can submit it to local papers and radio and television stations.
5. Email Newsletters
Email newsletters get your message out to the people who care to hear it: your opted-in subscribers. There are many email newsletter platforms you can use to manage your contacts and automate your messages. Most of these cost under $30/month and include widgets for your website. Start sending out a monthly newsletter about happenings in your company along with special promotions just for newsletter readers.
6. Ad Buys
Ad buys are a classic, tried-and-true advertising tactic that work best in conjunction with other forms of online advertising for grabbing consumer attention and driving sales. Ad buys work best on forums or magazine websites, where readers are spending a lot of time. Ad buys can be expensive, so, in order to maximize your ROI, you should wait until you have a special promotion or a new product line before purchasing them.
7. Classifieds
Classifieds are free, there are a ton of them out there, and they are thoroughly searched by consumers on a daily basis. You probably won’t be able to post a straight-up ad without getting flagged, but free giveaways, free trials and contests are all fair game for most classified sites. Work classified posting into your weekly schedule and the benefits will accumulate over time.
8. Articles
Well written, well researched articles may not be easy to write, but the results can be exponential. If you write something people want to read (and include a link back to your website) people will follow it just to learn more about you, the esteemed author. There are tons of free article-submission websites where you can build a following fast. A single article can continue to drive traffic for months, and it gets you noticed, both good things for your business. Writing one really good article that impresses readers is infinitely more powerful than twenty mediocre articles nobody wants to read. Take your time. Think it out. It’ll pay off.
9. Forum Participation
Forums are communities and, as such, participating in the discussion and making friends is just like networking in person. Build trust with the people you meet. Contribute interesting or helpful information. Establish yourself as an expert in your field and be sure to include a link to your website in your signature. Many no-follow forums may not get indexed directly, but if you do your job, they will get followed.
10. Customer Reviews
Customer reviews are a critical part of any established business. Reviews allow current customers to express themselves and share their experiences and they allow new customers to learn about your business. As a business, you can learn a lot from the experiences of your customers. If you strive to deliver top-notch customer service, you will see it reflected in your reviews. You may want to consider partnering with a third-party review service. This lends authenticity to your reviews, so your customers know they are real and unbiased.
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Essential Shopping Cart Attributes
Posted by: | CommentsAll online businesses have one thing in common and that is the need for a reliable shopping cart to process all of the e-commerce transactions that come through. In many cases the type of product you are offering will not even be the main factor that determines whether or not people purchase from you. Instead, your marketing strategies and customer service will play a major role in obtaining new business. If your website is equipped with a shopping cart that is user friendly and efficient then your customers will be more inclined to shop with you again. On the other hand, if your shopping cart is not up to par or lacks simplicity then this could actually keep people from returning. Some of the following features are considered essential to having a good shopping cart.
Ability to Up-sell
Anyone who has had even a small amount of experience in the retail or food service industry will already understand the importance of up-selling. When you up-sell you are offering customers something more than what they came for by enticing them to do so. For instance, if a customer comes to your website to purchase a gaming system then a good up-sell would be additional games or optional accessories. A comprehensive shopping cart will include a feature which allows the web master to group different products by category into an easy to use form. This will enable customers to simply check a box for upgrades or additional items. When the customer has reaches the check out point then everything the customer has chosen will be totaled up neatly and payment will be quick and easy. This feature is vital to providing your customers with the service they need but will also help to increase your sales.
Customer Feedback and Reviews
Generally speaking, people are more apt to purchase a product if they are able to read and look over user reviews from your past customers. It is important to remember that above all “word of mouth” is still your best selling tool, even with an online business. If customers can become confident that others have found your product and services satisfactory then they will feel more at ease shopping with you. This is why having a shopping cart feature that allows users; not only to read previous reviews but to leave their own is so important. In addition, user reviews are often indexed giving your site an even higher probability of receiving traffic.
The Importance of SEO
Search engine optimization is absolutely vital to your online business. If people cannot find you then they are not going to shop with you, it is that simple. This is why it is so important to be sure that your site is rich in high quality content with the right keyword density. But it is equally important to be certain that your shopping cart includes a feature that will enable it to automatically generate URLs that use the right keywords in order to index your site properly and bring you to the top of the list when it comes to searches. If you have good SEO with your site and your shopping cart is designed to automate this process then your chances of achieving success are far greater.
Perks and Discounts
Shopping online for most people is a method of purchasing things at the best price possible. There are a wealth of websites on the internet that are specifically designed for the purpose of providing customers with discounts and coupons of a variety of services and products. If you are promoting a product that is featured on other sites then it is imperative that your shopping cart come equipped with a bot that enables coupon and promotion input to be utilized. If people come to your site and are unable to use their coupons then there is a very good chance they will go somewhere else that will allow them to. Remember, as an online business owner you are facing a lot of competition. When you run an online business you are competing with thousands of other vendors that sell the same product as you. Make sure that your shopping cart can keep up.
A List of Content Management System Goals
Posted by: | CommentsWhen maintaining large websites, intranets or e-commerce sites that have a good amount of media and content, its common practice to utilize the numerous features of a content management system. When running a business, content management systems should be shaped around the business needs and goals of the client.
On that note, there are a few basic business goals expected from a content management system that each company should add to their list. The following are a few of the most common goals:
- Increase flexibility of the website
- Support marketing
- Support sales
- Increase website audience
- Reduce customer support costs
- Improve knowledge sharing
- Improve staff efficiency
As websites expand by adding new products, services and business strategies, the website must also adapt to these changes. A content management system can easily support these website design and infrastructure changes including updates of any or all pages to support a new logo or symbol.
The internet has become a vital tool for marketing departments. It adds a new channel to target consumers. Content management systems can support current brands and their identity while delivering new marketing material. Content management systems can provide additional sales material to enhance website sales and reach more customers than ever before. These systems are also built to support the current website.
Content management systems will help a large audience access the website. With more users accessing the site, sales will likely increase. All customers will benefit from the website including those that do not speak English. Furthermore, since more accurate information will be presented to the users on the site, customer support costs will drastically decrease.
Knowledge sharing, such as direct staff communication and peer-to-peer sharing, can sometimes become difficult at many companies. The content management system can provide both the environment and resources to accomplish improved communications. This helps to streamline decisions and implement changes much more quickly.
Finally, staff efficiency will increase due to identified key business processes that add sufficient information. The system will provide the staff with the exact information they need, when required. Consequently, employees will save time by avoiding unproductive searches for information, in turn, decreasing costs.
Although there are many goals a business should set when decided to implement a content management system. These are the most important as they improve flexibility, increase marketing tactics and sales, increase traffic to the site, reduce costs, develop better communication and improve staff productivity.
Lunar News – March 2010
Posted by: | CommentsWhat is new with Lunarpages? Never afraid to innovate to keep our customers happy, we have tons of great news, links and specials that should keep your wallet happy and your hosting account intact. Here are some of the latest happenings from around the Lunar-verse.
Bring in More Customers and Visitors Today!
The new Lunarpages Online Advertising and Marketing Packages continue to grow in popularity. Since last month, tons of web hosting clients have been checking out this search engine optimization and marketing service to see how it can help them attract new customers and web site visitors. If you have not checked it out yet, be sure to visit the online marketing page to pick the right plan for you.
Give the Gift of Lunarpages This Spring!
Spring is right around the corner, and Lunarpages is here for your gift giving needs. The Lunarpages Gift Cards are the perfect solution to help your loved ones get their web site dreams off the ground. If you have a friend or family member wanting to start their own small business, personal or hobby site, then this gift is ideal to kick start their website or new web design and you can make their online presence a reality for an affordable price!
New Affiliate Help Added to the Web Hosting Wiki!
We have been working diligently to provide you even more helpful tips and tutorials, when it comes to using our affiliate program. Here are just a few of the new Lunarpages affiliate tutorials to check out:
- Which Affiliate Ad Format is the Best?
- Effective Affiliate Banner Placement Tips
- How to Create Your Affiliate Links
If you want to see the rest, be sure to visit the web hosting wiki! Also new to the wiki, we have featured over 50 third-party scripts you can easily install on just about any Lunarpages web hosting plan.
That is it for this month’s edition of the Lunar News. To stay up on the latest Lunarpages has to offer all month long, be sure to follow us @lunarpages on Twitter or join our Facebook group. Both are great ways to stay “in the know” about your favorite web hosting company.
7 Extra Service Ideas for Web Hosts
Posted by: admin | Comments Comments OffDomain Name Registration – This one is the most obvious additional service a web host can provide. Who doesn’t want to give customers the ability to register a domain and buy the hosting in one place? By doing so, you keep you customers from looking elsewhere for one of the most important add-ons you could branch out into.
Backup Hosting – Many web hosts move into backup hosting too. You could provide off site personal backup as a secondary service, or you could offer a subscription based service for the customer’s web site backup and the process of restoring that backup.
SEO or Marketing Services – When it comes to selling search engine optimization or any sort of marking packages, make sure you have the support team to back you up. This sort of service has a bad reputation, because many people see it as selling snake oil. It is a tricky one to show real results from, so if you do move into the SEO and marketing business, just make sure you provide your customers with the goods.
Gift Cards – Providing gift cards can be an excellent way to make yourself look more compassionate about the customer’s needs. It might not make loads of money, but providing a way to give your services as a present is never a bad thing. It could help out beginning web hosting gurus, and help young webmasters in getting their first works on the Web.
Affiliate Programs – Why sell your web hosting plans yourself when you can get somebody else to do it for you? By giving people a “finder’s fee” when they bring you a new customer, you give your community a reward, just for sharing their opinion. Now it might be hard to lure affiliate professionals, when some companies pay 95% of their profit to affiliates, but start out low and work your way up.
Web Site Design – Like domain name registration, offering a web site design service or an internally built WYSIWYG editor is another nice extra service to add. It is one of those web hosting necessities that everybody needs, and not everybody has the time to do themselves.
Other Flavors of Web Hosting – When it comes to adding extra services, do not just look at things outside web hosting. You could offer more web hosting plans. For example, if you only provide shared web hosting right now, you could move into VPS or dedicated web hosting services. You could even make shared hosting plans that are a little cheaper (with less extras) or a shared hosting plan that is a little more expensive (with more extras).
There are many ways a web hosting company can diversify. The important thing to remember is to keep your quality of the service as high as possible for each new service you provide. I have seen web hosts launch a new product, then forget about it the next month, too many times. Make sure you give yourself ample time to build up each new service you decide to provide.
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