Gimme advertisin' suggestions. For hosting.

www.hostsearch.com
www.findsp.com
www.hostpulse.com (new, but looks legit)

Advertising there should do okay, a lot of hosts, from what i've seen have a slow start, 30-40 people or something, but they tell others, and that is a very effective form of advertising. Even so, you should still advertise at those sites, it is good exposure, and generally will bring you a few clients.

[snip]

Originally posted by Lonny
If you could provide further information regarding the goals of the campaign, I'm sure we could help you out.


As a Computer Science student, and having never taken a business course in my life, I'm sure I lack an essential understanding of business methods. Surely there must be a plethora of possible reasons and goals for an advertising campaign which simply haven't occured to my limited mind.

However, lacking any further direction, I would surmise that the most likely goal of the advertising campaign suggested would be to gain new customers.

Getting new customers may not be the only goal, some companies are after branding which means getting your name out there... not necessarily getting as many clients as possible, but to show presence in the hosting market.

Some are after getting the highest number of clients, and some need both.

It all depends on the budget and strategy.

Hi,
You might want to put you company into all of the webhosting
search engines. For example: webhosters, ispcheck, webhostdir,
etc.

Just some ideas, :stickout

THe basic idea of advertising is always to increase reach or brand name recognition. However, a company may focus on ecommerce or high bandwidth or dedicated server hosting which all may preform differently from site to site. By knowing what the target audiance is, people can best aid the potential advertiser in finding a suitable site.

Branding is the new way of the media :)

Originally posted by Synergy
Branding is the new way of the media :) Yep, and it has been since, what, the 50s?

Branding campaigns are nothing new: "You meet the nicest people on a Honda," for example, designed to build an image for Honda motorcycles in contrast to the then dominant (in America) Harley Davidson image. It said nothing about the motorcycles, only about the brand. Similarly, "See the USA in your Chevrolet," "I'd like to teach the world to sing..."

Branding is about as new as media itself.


Back to cperciva's comments, even if the goal is to gain customers, it'd be important to know what kind of customers. Granted, most of the hosting companies represented here are pursuing the same basic group of customers, but what type of customers you're looking for and what type of hosting services you offer should influence where and how you advertise and market: host directories, search engines, paid inclusion, banner ads on gaming sites, print ads in industry magazines, local radio... they all have strengths and weaknesses depending on your services, your target market, and your budget.



Anyway, to appletreats, your best bet is probably to go with 30 second tv spots during the network telecasts of "Whose Line." Stay away from Comedy Central, though, too many people don't have cable.

;)

You can always try ad networks too :)

Here are a few:
FastClick.com
DoubleClick.net
(and my company, dkAds.com)

And affiliate programs (these may be the better choice)
CJ.com
FineClicks.com
ClickXchange.com
Others.

You should not confuse marketing with advertising. While both are in the same realm of the business they are two different things.

Go to Amazon and lookup books in the marketing/advertising area..

Good luck.

For some reason, I tend to make that mistake a lot. Oh well :)

Don't do banner advertising. It doesn't work very well.

In defense of banner ads:

Sometimes it does, sometimes it does not. It depends on how well the ads are targeted, and on the creative itself.

We've had campaigns that have generated amazing results, and campaigns which have generated very poor results. It all depends on how the campaign is executed, the targeted and the ads themselves.

Originally posted by Refsoft
In defense of banner ads:

Sometimes it does, sometimes it does not. It depends on how well the ads are targeted, and on the creative itself.

We've had campaigns that have generated amazing results, and campaigns which have generated very poor results. It all depends on how the campaign is executed, the targeted and the ads themselves.

Exactly, it depends on how you execute your campaign. If it is thought out, targetted well, and not excessive, then it will do well. But many largecompanies expect by paying a couple of million to advertise on a few sites here and there that they will do well, and have been proved wrong. With careful planning and management, there is no reason to not use banner advertising.

Originally posted by netsolutions
Don't do banner advertising. It doesn't work very well.

Like Lonny has said above, it depends on your goal. Primarily you acheive branding. But you can also acheive clicks. What would you consider to be a good Click Through Rate on a banner thats placed on a targetted site?

I have seen some companies make banners work in the very positions on websites where others have written banners off. It's all down to how you use the space you buy.