Hosting Companies Sport Unconventional Marketing Techniques - An Attempt to Explain It
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So you have to ask yourself, "What would drive a company to these kinds of lengths just for a little exposure?" The answers are actually relatively simple.
Take the market, for instance. There has been a dramatic market shift over the past few years. Rachel Ringler, a writer for Ezine Articles, reported, "With the evolution of web hosting and website builder tools, as well as the ongoing education of the common person, the average web hosting customer is no longer a Webmaster."
Traditional advertising may not be enough. Online banner ads and trade magazine ads would limit a company's exposure. With so much of the market being non-technical customers, there is a huge gap in the traditional advertising methods. The latest forms of "buzz advertising" are a way to counter that effect. Advertising is only effective if you put it where your potential market can see it.
Then take into consideration that web hosting is not exactly a household industry.
"The Web hosting market is extremely crowded and highly competitive, and let's face it, Web hosting isn't the most exciting thing around," Globat President and CEO Ben Neumann said. "We wanted to stick out a bit more... we wanted people to look at a product such as web hosting in a little more of an exciting light, and get people talking about us."
Recent reports show as many as 1600 web hosting companies are actively fighting for their piece of the market share. In a market that competitive, it stands to reason that any mention at all would be considered positive publicity to provide even the slightest edge over the competition. It would seem that any amount of public exposure would be desirable just to keep their name in the minds of consumers.
You also have to consider than people aren't afraid to switch hosting providers either. They're perfectly comfortable jumping around for the lowest prices and best services. In the past, this was not the case. Hosting customers were less likely to switch for fear of downtime and lost data.
With that changing, hosting companies are not only concentrating on gaining new customers, but also on keeping their existing ones. That means being the first name on someone's mind when the time comes to choose a provider.
Next: Perhaps There are Other Reasons >>
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