Web hosting is SO retail!
by M6.net

You have 1 or 2 seconds to make an impression, and 2 or 3seconds more to make a sale, or forget the web hosting business!!

Web hosting as a business has taken off in the last 12 months, with a vengeance.
How many web sites are on the Web today? They all have to be hosted somewhere,the result being, there are now thousands of web hosts around the globe today.How do people decide to choose you?

Potential customers will talk to friends; perhaps ask a local web design group;or consult their ISP (Internet Service Provider); but this may result inknowledge of only one or two hosting companies. There are hosting directories,and review sites which may be governed by whoever pays for the largest ad or personalopinions that seem popular. The visitor will still have to make the finaldecision.

 If these visitors make their own decisions, and there are thousands ofweb hosts to choose from, there are very few seconds to deliver your offer,which must be instantly obvious. What can you do to turn this streaming trafficinto sales? 

First View – The look of your web site 
Are the design, content and delivery up to customer expectations? If thepresentation has obviously been thought about; a conscientious effort todelivery and content; then it is likely the visitor will believe that thehosting company will also look after their site conscientiously. If thepresentation is poor, then forget it, there are more than enough web hosts thatlook good. Of course, to the other extreme, if the web host’s site looksa million dollars, it is likely that the visitor will be expecting to a pay a‘million’ too! 

The Initial Offers – What are your best packages? 
With the sudden growth of the web, the hosting industry has had to take aretail approach to content delivery. In the retail trade the offers are somany, that the customer has to learn to speed read, or speed view. Visitors to web hosting sites have not got the time to read all thedetails on each of every one of thousands of sites, so speed viewing is a must;or is it?

Web hosts who have nothing to sell usually hide this fact by showing columns oftext, expecting the visitor to sort out what is good to them or not. The usualexplanation for this is “ The visitor knows whatthey want and will find it without our hassling them.” The expectation isthat with less hassle the visitor will more likely become a customer. Not true.

Web hosts that have special offers, great deals, or offer specialized packagesfor say private, business or corporate customers; will tell you just that.Think about it, why hide the fact you have a winner? By taking a retailapproach to a very retail business, the real dealmakers are not ‘backwardin coming forward’.
Obviously making everything on the site an ‘excellent’ offer is theother extreme.

Most web hosts offer 90% of what their competition offers, so to point outevery good point offered would be overkill. The likely result would be that youwould show the visitor that you are new to the industry, and less experienced;not good in times of future support.

By pointing out the great points in the best reasonable packages, you willcatch the eye of the traffic, until previously, zooming past you. What to dowhen they have stopped for a visit is another matter. 

Congratulations on getting the traffic to stop and browse – Whatnext? 
Getting the zooming traffic to stop and browse is difficult enough. The look ofyour web site can catch that peripheral vision of theirs; in an instant theycan decide, “I will stop here and have a look”. Theoffers of 3 or 4 of your accounts, too good to be true, or at least warrantfurther investigation, entice a visit.  
These ‘highway signs’ make you stop andpull over. What happens once the visitors have pulled in? You will have to holdthem there, before they up and leave just as quickly.The ‘restees’ have seen the site, theyhave sampled the best on offer; now what? You know you have a capturedaudience, all be it for another 2 or 3 seconds. Be careful not to send thesevaluable potential customers off clicking around your site. They clicked onyour special package, the offer on the front page, so take them directly to it.

The visitor has been enticed to your web site; seen good offers and one or twoof those are just what they are looking for. Take them direct to the page withthe offer; include the price; include basic details that quantify very quicklythe worth of the package; and, provide an order form. Do not smother theseaccount pages in common details, or details of other accounts.

 There should be only two main pages, the front page and the accountpackage page, that which the customer clicks to. The front page is attractiveand entices you to stay, the offer encourages you tospend a few more seconds on the account page consisting of title, offer,basics, price and order form; all this should be on a secure page ready to takecredit card information.

 No two visitors are the same. There are those that will just sign upstraightaway and those that will ‘further investigate’. Put theremainder of your account packages’ details, along with the‘about’ information, the ‘help’, the‘support’ etc, on other pages, using links on navigation bars foreasy access, keep the offer clean.
You have one or two seconds to sell your product, don’t use it to educateyour potential customer, let someone else do that! Give them what they want,this is now a very retail industry, if you are stuck for reference material,then visit a supermarket or local store, retail research has been around foryears

By
M6.net
http://www.m6.net



Priyanka
http://www.m6.net
Fast, reliable and flexible web hosting at discount prices,usingCGI,PERL,.Net, PHP, ASP,Frontpage,MS-Access,SQLServer applications on Windows 2000/2003 server with 24 hour support.