A guide on how to find your target audience, how to market to them, and how to follow up.

The best part about reseller hosting is that very little falls on your shoulders, your hosting provider should take care of nearly everything (depending on the services included in your reseller package). One thing that is up to you to manage in order to have a successful reseller hosting business is marketing. Below are some tips on how to reach potential customers successfully.

Pre-Marketing

Before you do any form of marketing, you need to decide on your niche. Whether this is WordPress bloggers, other resellers, or local businesses, you need to be able to narrow down your target audience so that you know how to market. If you cast too wide of a net, you may spend lots of time and money on ads that reach the wrong target market.

Once you have made this decision, do some research. Find out what services or features your target market would find most important in a hosting provider so that you know what your selling points are. You should also research where you can reach your target market, so effort isn’t wasted in the wrong places. You can obtain this information by reaching out in forums, Facebook and LinkedIn groups, as well as sending out surveys via services like SurveyMonkey.

This research will also help you determine what reseller hosting packages to purchase. For example, if your target market is WordPress users you would want to purchase a reseller hosting package that includes WordPress optimisation. This will perfectly cater to your customers’ needs, without any extra work on your end. To learn more about WordPress optimised reseller hosting, check out UKBSS’s reseller hosting packages to see exactly how much value you can offer your customers.

Marketing

Now that you’ve done your research, you should be able to market your business effectively. All of these tips are going with the assumption that you have your own website dedicated to reseller

hosting. If you do not, you will likely not have many -if any- sales. As the saying goes, “Never trust a skinny chef,” as in, if you don’t use and love your own product or service why would anyone else?

1. Paid Advertising

One of the easiest ways to market your business is by using paid advertising. This includes search engine ads like Google & Bing as well as social media ads. With your market research, you should be able to determine which advertising channels will be most effective as well as determining your ideal keywords. Make sure to highlight the features that your target market may be most attracted to. You can also do some A/B testing to see which features or ad styles get more clicks. This can be incredibly effective, but also incredibly expensive.

2. SEO

A cheaper alternative to advertising is search engine optimisation (SEO). Make your website easily discoverable on search engines by including keywords as well as valuable information on your site. Search engines care mostly about user experience when ranking sites, so they want to make sure that your website is friendly as well as relevant to those searching for your service. Use a service like Marketgoo to help scan your site and create easy to follow tasks to help you improve your SEO rating. One example of this is by using backlinks from trusted online business with user friendly content that is relevant.

3. Referral/Affiliate Program

Another effective way to market your business is by offering a referral or affiliate program to your existing clients. You can offer a cash reward or discounted hosting services to those who refer clients that successfully sign up. You can set terms such as a required amount of time someone must be signed up for in order for the referring party to be paid out, this way you don’t lose money on a client who just signs up and cancels.

4. Participate in Social Media Groups

One of the best ways to meet your niche market is by joining Facebook or Linkedin groups. There are generally rules against self-promotion in these groups, but that is only when it is irrelevant or unprovoked, if someone asks a question or for a recommendation, you are allowed to promote yourself. This is also a great way to make connections and start networking.

5. Cross-Promoting

You can make partnerships or just short-term relationships with people in a complimentary business (i.e. web design or marketing) and do cross promotion. You can set up deals and bundles that if you purchase a web design plan with your hosting package, you get X% discount for Y months. You can also exchange leads with your partners, someone who purchases a hosting package may need a web designer and vice versa.

6. Self-Promoting

This is essentially the same as cross-promoting, but you’re doing it with yourself. If you offer another service like web design or development, you can offer a hosting package as well in a bundle. You can also send email campaigns to your established list of clients promoting your new service.

Post-Marketing

Now that you have marketed your new reseller hosting business, it is time to follow up. Get feedback from your customers about what they would like more of, send out surveys to better understand their needs. This will help with future marketing efforts.

Another important part of post-marketing efforts is ensuring that your customers are happy and will promote your business to others. If you do not have time to provide support yourself, you can opt to get white label support. This requires no effort on your part, your hosting provider will take care of customer service all under your business name. To learn more about reseller hosting, visit UKBSS.COM.

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