I run a web hosting company and as many of you will know its a very competitive market, i've been given lots of advice and some advice that keeps getting advised to me is about advertising locally just wondering what your thoughts would be? where best would i be to advertise? newspapers? etc?
You can try craigslist.org (they have major cities listed there and it's also free). I think online would be best... since that's where you can find your ideal target audience right? Newspaper has a really general audience (kids and grandparents who you aren't targeting)
I have tried craigslist.org in the past. I did not receive the traffic I was looking for, but then again it was a highly competitive market. I have also thought about local marketing techniques. Ads in the paper or flyers or even business cards with your site URL printed on it and a short caption of what it offers.
well now, if you are starting a new webhost, you do not only have to make it local, I would find dog forums, and game forums and such, im sure you can find people on there that want a website. and need a good webhost.
Craigslist is competitive (it also depends on how popular you city is on CL). Again, these mediums of advertisement really depends on what you're trying to sell For webhosting services.. I would emphasize on advertising online. Maybe there are similar directory sites like CL but local (I know toronto has.. redtoronto.com). * to add: local is a neat strategy (it could work). I know for local newbies who are looking for a host are probably going to trust local businesses better, rather than some hosting company from across the country
We do mostly local advertising for our web hosting and design service. It's worked really well for the design part, but I find a number of people still shop around for the hosting part. Depending on your market you could be competing with only a handful of companies.
A strategy that has worked well for me is to offer 6 months of free hosting with design - once the 6 months is up, most people stick with you because moving their site is jut too big of a pain!
I believe local advertisements may help. They will purchase hosting package from you because they trust you and you can provide fast customer support.
For local advertising, consider local business journals and/or technology media. For example, in Boston, there is the MassHighTech newspaper and also the Boston Business Journal. Both of those monthly publications (especially MassHighTech) should be chock full of your prospects. You may also want to consider your neighborhood weekly newspaper because it will be cost effective, though not targeted to your best prospects.