Methods to attract customers for the hoster. Inside view
In our recent Habrow post, we talked about a survey we conducted among hosting companies. One of the questions related to the sources of information, from which hosters learned about their data center. This time we decided to consider this issue from a different point of view - from the side of the hosting provider. We will talk about the most popular methods of attracting customers and how we present them as effective.
contextual advertising
Actively used by many competitors in our topics. So far, we are looking at this method. First of all, we are focused on the promotion of data center services and according to our target requests (data center, colocation, dedicated, etc.) the cost of clicks in the “direct” is very high. Taking into account the fact that users choosing a data center are more likely to see several ads at once, one can hardly expect a good conversion into buyers. On the other hand, considering objectively more favorable conditions - there is an opportunity to expect that the client will stop the choice on our Data Center. Also, when calculating, it is necessary to take into account the factor that the client’s attachment is characteristic of our services, since we provide the service “in period” - having paid for one month, the client will continue to work with us further.
Search engines
About experience with SEO-companies, we already had a separate post . Those who are interested can familiarize themselves with the material. So far, we are considering the possibility of self-promotion. Theoretically, the budget for attracting one visitor from search engines is several times cheaper than contextual advertising. On the other hand, to predict the actual number of visitors is problematic. In addition, the cost of promotion must be mortgaged and the costs in the initial period, until the desired position in the top is reached.
Friends and acquaintances
The only adequate way to use this channel is to provide quality services that will be advised to friends. The option is long, but very effective, and most importantly, does not require additional costs. However, before hosting information starts spreading through word of mouth, you need to somehow attract initial customers, who will become the sources of buzz marketing. In our case - after a year of operation of the data center, many come to us on the recommendations of friends and acquaintances.
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Cold calls
Probably one of the most unpromising options for promoting Data Center services, at least in a “frontal” performance ... It is quite difficult to get exactly on the Person Making Decision in this situation (for the reception is not always able to transfer to the right person), and the rest can and “get scared” when mentioning the words “data center”, “colocation” and “dedicated”. Customers are initially negatively disposed towards a similar way of promoting services (especially when they are offered something “incomprehensible”), so you first need to establish and establish contact with the “telephone call” and then proceed to the proposal itself. But this is a separate conversation, not related to "clumsy methods."
Forums
We are haunted by the “Russian-scale experiment” in Kommersant, so a separate post is planned to be devoted to different methods of working in social media. Today we will tell only about such a popular tool for attracting targeted visitors like forums. In the hosting sections of the communities of webmasters you can find hosting companies of various stripes - from large data centers to single hosters. Unfortunately, the majority of providers perceive the forums solely as platforms where they can sleep with impunity and miss the opportunity to communicate with real and potential customers, which in turn gives users the impression of “dead” sections that have nothing interesting.
One cannot but agree with the visitors of the community. Is it possible to be interesting branch on 20 pages consisting entirely of some reprints of tariffs of the company? Whenever possible we try to look as "humane" as possible on the sites. We post not standard footcloths with stocks, but find something new, provoke users to the discussion, actively enter into the discussion. Such tactics are paying off - customers are more willing to make contact and make orders from a living person, and not from a virtual hosting bother. Up to half of our clients come from forums and blogs ... We will look at methods of attracting clients from social services in more detail next time.
contextual advertising
Actively used by many competitors in our topics. So far, we are looking at this method. First of all, we are focused on the promotion of data center services and according to our target requests (data center, colocation, dedicated, etc.) the cost of clicks in the “direct” is very high. Taking into account the fact that users choosing a data center are more likely to see several ads at once, one can hardly expect a good conversion into buyers. On the other hand, considering objectively more favorable conditions - there is an opportunity to expect that the client will stop the choice on our Data Center. Also, when calculating, it is necessary to take into account the factor that the client’s attachment is characteristic of our services, since we provide the service “in period” - having paid for one month, the client will continue to work with us further.
Search engines
About experience with SEO-companies, we already had a separate post . Those who are interested can familiarize themselves with the material. So far, we are considering the possibility of self-promotion. Theoretically, the budget for attracting one visitor from search engines is several times cheaper than contextual advertising. On the other hand, to predict the actual number of visitors is problematic. In addition, the cost of promotion must be mortgaged and the costs in the initial period, until the desired position in the top is reached.
Friends and acquaintances
The only adequate way to use this channel is to provide quality services that will be advised to friends. The option is long, but very effective, and most importantly, does not require additional costs. However, before hosting information starts spreading through word of mouth, you need to somehow attract initial customers, who will become the sources of buzz marketing. In our case - after a year of operation of the data center, many come to us on the recommendations of friends and acquaintances.
')
Cold calls
Probably one of the most unpromising options for promoting Data Center services, at least in a “frontal” performance ... It is quite difficult to get exactly on the Person Making Decision in this situation (for the reception is not always able to transfer to the right person), and the rest can and “get scared” when mentioning the words “data center”, “colocation” and “dedicated”. Customers are initially negatively disposed towards a similar way of promoting services (especially when they are offered something “incomprehensible”), so you first need to establish and establish contact with the “telephone call” and then proceed to the proposal itself. But this is a separate conversation, not related to "clumsy methods."
Forums
We are haunted by the “Russian-scale experiment” in Kommersant, so a separate post is planned to be devoted to different methods of working in social media. Today we will tell only about such a popular tool for attracting targeted visitors like forums. In the hosting sections of the communities of webmasters you can find hosting companies of various stripes - from large data centers to single hosters. Unfortunately, the majority of providers perceive the forums solely as platforms where they can sleep with impunity and miss the opportunity to communicate with real and potential customers, which in turn gives users the impression of “dead” sections that have nothing interesting.
One cannot but agree with the visitors of the community. Is it possible to be interesting branch on 20 pages consisting entirely of some reprints of tariffs of the company? Whenever possible we try to look as "humane" as possible on the sites. We post not standard footcloths with stocks, but find something new, provoke users to the discussion, actively enter into the discussion. Such tactics are paying off - customers are more willing to make contact and make orders from a living person, and not from a virtual hosting bother. Up to half of our clients come from forums and blogs ... We will look at methods of attracting clients from social services in more detail next time.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/116779/
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