I'd like to satisfy my own personal curiosity (as I'm scratching my head and wondering)...

For all of you who have thought about starting a web hosting company, or startups who are already in the middle of establishing the momentum for your hosting company -- how many of you actually have a marketing plan with strategies that show feasible ways of getting customers?

I see a lot of people wondering whether they should hire salespeople, or completely automate the entire sales process, spend money on local advertising or banner ads -- there are so many options out there.

But how many of you actually have a plan on paper?


JP

We've been doing hosting since 1995, so not exactly a startup, but we still discuss marketing strategies for gaining new customers, write down ideas and plans, and try to keep focused on the goals we have set. In the early stages, it does not have to be a 50 page document, but you have to set goals and plans, and then try to adhere to them all the while updating these plans as things evolve and change.

Marketing and knowing your target market is often the crucial piece of any hosting company, as anyone can get a server, setup accounts, and answer support questions. It's how you market these "commodity like services" that sets you apart, and that takes focus, vision, and perseverance, both in the beginning and 9 years later. :)

- John C.

A marketing strategy should be written down and revisited frequently to make adjustments. Sure, you can just have it in your head, but it makes it more difficult to keep track of all your marketing efforts and keep track of the results.

Having a plan written down is the best option, I've liked word of mouth advertising before but ultimately doing that alone wont get you to grow like most want to. I've also seen advertising and being mirror's for popular software packages tend's to get your company's name out(Like PHP, APACHE, MYSQL) but you'll want to have your new signup's tell you where they learned from your company so you can track trending and keep focus on which method's attract new clients and which one's dont. Simply going out there and implimenting advertisments without tracking isnt going to work.

I come up with a new marketing plan usually every quarter, sometimes more often when I really need to change it in the middle of a quarter when it isn't working that good.

I'm a great fan of budgets and marketing targets.

I set a weekly sales budget and aiom to meet that budget with the plans I have on paper...