HOSTING HOTLINE

Content Pages

[Part One]

Your site has to be loaded with content. It doesn’t have to be like CNN.com, but the more information you provide, the better.HOSTING HOTLINE

Content Pages

[Part One]

Your site has to be loaded with content. It doesn’t have to be like CNN.com, but the more information you provide, the better. The main idea is to catch the visitors’ eyes, and get them to sign up, or at least make a good first impression. Ideally, you’d like first-time visitors to bookmark your site for a return visit next time they decide to move to a new host.

The addition of a few extra resources and links is okay, but don’t make a portal out of your site. If you really feel the need to add some special scripts or directories, register a separate domain and start working on a new site, but try not to include these unnecessary add-ons to your hosting site – you’ll run the risk of appearing unprofessional.

Let’s now look at each content section, and what it should contain…

About Us

This should probably be the most advanced section of your site, and might include:

Corporate Overview

Show your ambitions, ideas and future plans. It’s not only attractive to possible investors and reassuring for customers, but writing a corporate overview allows you to set goals and check the progress you’ve made over time. Consider including:

· Introduction
· Goals and Milestones
· Virtual Tour
· Investor Relations

Media Section

This is the most important marketing tool, as it displays the achievements and activities of the company, as well as any awards or recognition the company has received for its services. In this sub-section, you might want to include:

· Press releases
· A list of job openings
· Awards
· Reviews and testimonials

Support

This area reassures potential customers by showing them that they can reach you by a number of means. Be sure to list:

· Phone numbers
· Email addresses
· Contact forms
· Instant Message contact details (optional but recommended)

Partners

The Partners page is also important in reinforcing the stability and reliability of your business. Show potential clients that you’re not on your own. You’ve got major companies who are using their best tools to back you up. Don’t hesitate to provide links to your:

· Technology partners
· Strategic partners

Legal Info

This section is really essential. It’s very important that you clarify all the legal issues up-front, making them readily available to your customers so as to avoid problems arising in the future. Be sure to display:

· Privacy policy
· Copyright notice
· Service agreement

Multi-Purpose Content

Each of these elements is extremely important to your About Us section. Potential clients, as well as potential investors, will really want to know that you’re a reliable, capable and growing business. If you can show activity and innovation through content such as press releases and active job openings, this may make it easier to convince customers to sign up with your company.

But this kind of content isn’t just appropriate for your site. Later on, you might submit those press releases to special search engines and the press; the jobs listings to recruitment sites like monster.com; and any support tutorials to community Websites, forums, and newsletters. This kind of activity is invaluable to your future promotional efforts, and the development of a strong reputation.

A note on virtual tours – the addition of a virtual tour may be a good idea if you have something to show, but if not, just post photos of your servers and machinery, and if possible yourselves, to the site.

Support is Critical

Try using the most advanced support tools you can, as this will:

· Reassure would-be clients that they have at their fingertips a number of ways to contact you should anything go wrong with their hosting;

· Attest to your company’s commitment to technological developments and innovation, and help foster the perception that your business is on the ‘cutting edge’;

· Put you in direct contact with your customers, opening up the floor for valuable dialogue, through which you can ensure that each service development or enhancement is built to meet customer needs.

Here are a few examples of the kinds of support tools you might consider:

How-To’s – Short explanations of the solutions to commonly asked questions

This section may end up saving you quite a lot of time, as more customers will read the How-To’s rather than email you with every little question they have. I recommend that you wait a little after the site launches to see what questions are the most popular. Once you’ve compiled these into a list, create a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page, containing links to short How-To’s that briefly explain the solution to the user’s problem.

Tutorials – More advanced descriptions of complex solutions

Tutorials provide more advanced explanations than How-To’s, and are often used for marketing rather than actually teaching customers. So, what are the benefits of writing a tutorial?

1. Tutorials look great in the Support section, as they illustrate to the customer just how much you invest in support, and that you provide all the tools required for the successful use of the servers by your customers.

2. They’re a great marketing tool. You’ll be able to publish your tutorials in newsletters and on sites with a short advertisement in the credits section. This works better than any CPM or sponsorship campaign, as any traffic you’ll generate is free and unlimited.

Glossaries – Like How-To’s, a glossary can save you considerable time answering emails.

For example, you might answer dozens of emails asking what a CPM campaign is. Add a short note explaining what a CPM is in the glossary of your Media Kit, and the problem is solved… no more emails with this kind of question.

Interactive examples

Since I don’t have access to most of the support sections of hosting companies, if you’d like to see the use of Flash for demonstrations, have a look at this example.

Live Support – Technical support and sales representatives

There’s nothing more important than live on-site technical support and good sales representatives. You need to assign knowledgeable people to work with your future customers. There are some people that need guidance and immediate assistance, and sometimes your sales and support staff will mean the difference between a potential customer and a real sign up.

Offer any kind of support you can, including ICQ, emails, forms, advanced help desks, etc. The users must be able to reach you from anywhere in the world at any given moment.

Add forums – Allow customer discussion

Allow your customers to discuss the pros and cons of your service among themselves. You may be surprised of the amount of information you can glean from your current customers.

Testimonials

Now, a controversial question: When you show customer testimonials on your site (and you must), should you link to Web hosting directories so that your users can rate your service there? On one hand, you drive users to sites with links to a large number of other hosting companies, but on the other, you also improve your rating on those sites. So, if your service is good and your customers are happy, go for it. If you aren’t rated as highly as you’d have liked, stop trying to get more customers and instead improve the level of service you provide to the current ones!

There are many marketing companies who are willing to write and publish press releases and other announcements you may have across the different PR engines. Here are a few links to get you started:

· Webhostmkt.com
· Google.com Press Release Services

Try to provide the customer with all the tools they’ll need on your site, and aim to answer all the questions they may have without making them leave the site to get answers.

Stay tuned for part 3 in the Jan 2 issue!

Lonny has been working on the Internet since 1996, and now has his own network of technology-related Websites, among them The Web Hosting Portal FindSP.com of which he is the CEO and Founder. Lonny can be reached at lonny@findsp.com.