Can anyone offer any tips or advice about marketing a web hosting company?

We are running a google ppc at the moment but this only generates 1 sale a week. I can appreciate that you won't want to give away your secrets, I am just asking for ideas.

Things seem to work best when you market to one or more niches or focus your marketing in your local area.

Right off, here are a few tips, whether you're niche marketing or not:

1. Write a press release anytime you have something newsworthy to share and submit it to newspapers, hosting news sites, etc.
2. Advertise on as many free classified ads as possible (this has worked best for me, so far).
3. Include your site in webhost directories.
4. Get links from as many other sites as possible.
5. Include a signature with your site address and a little blurb on all emails and forum postings.
6. Hand out business cards liberally. Even leave them at restaurants, etc. - you never know where that new customer might come from.

If you are going after a certain niche, figure out where they go, what they read, etc. Then direct your marketing to those areas. Also, say you're targeting used car dealerships- why not stop in at each one in your area that doesn't have a site and let them know you're there.

Here's another idea: see if your hosting clients will let you put a little seal on their site saying 'Hosted by xxx'.

The main thing is to be creative. Somehow, you've got to stand out. Ask yourself, How can I make my company stand out? What can we do that no other hosting company can? And if there's nothing you can think of, develop something and use it in all your marketing.

You may have already read them, but if not, make sure you get some of Jay Conrad LEvinson's Guerilla Marketing books. They're all really good reading.

There are many no cost ways to promote your hosting site, use them.

Word of mouth and some sort of reward for referrals work well too.

Before market your web hosting company, I suggest you must first find out what are the advantages of your company over your competitors and who will your target customers.

Establish your niche market, and everything will goes.

You can be an active user in a forums of website builders.

Are there any forums that spring to mind? (urls please)

There are many good suggestions here but they only scratch the surface... If you're serious about marketing, spend some major time

here http://www.sitepoint.com/articlelist/333

and here http://www.sitepoint.com/blog-view.php?blogid=14

and consider joining up here (http://www.attractnewclients.com) for at least a quarter, it will help you to really pick apart your marketing opportunities and teach you how to build and deploy a real live marketing calendar/schedule.

:D Bailey