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You only have 5
seconds to make an impression, and 4 or 5 seconds more to
make a sale, or forget the web hosting business!!
Reseller Web
Hosting as a business has exploded in the last year.
How many
millions of web sites are on the internet? They all have to
be hosted by someone, somewhere, the result being, there are
literally thousands of reseller web hosts globally. Why
should someone decide to choose you?
In searching
for a web hosting company, potential customers talk to
friends, family, a local web design firm; or their ISP
(Internet Service Provider) There are hosting directories,
and review sites many of which offer biased information
that's determined by who pays for the largest ad and many
are actually owned by the hosting companies themselves.
Visitors still have to make the a decision based on the
information available to them.
If these
visitors make their own decisions, and there are thousands
of (resellers) web 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 traffic into
sales?
First View — The look of your
web site
Are the
design, content and delivery up to customer expectations? If
the presentation has obviously been thought about; a
conscientious effort to delivery and content; then it is
likely the visitor will believe that the hosting company
will also look after their site conscientiously. If the
presentation is poor, then forget it, there are more than
enough web hosts that look good. Of course, to the other
extreme, if the web host's site looks a 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 a retail approach to content delivery. In the retail
trade the offers are so many, 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 the details 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 of text, expecting the visitor to sort out what is
good to them or not. The usual explanation for this is " The
visitor knows what they want and will find it without our
hassling them." The expectation is that with less hassle the
visitor will more likely become a customer. Not true.
Web hosts that
have special offers, great deals, or offer specialized
packages for 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 retail approach to a very
retail business, the real dealmakers are not 'backward in
coming forward'.
Obviously
making everything on the site an 'excellent' offer is the
other extreme. Most web hosts offer 90% of what their
competition offers, so to point out every good point offered
would be overkill. The likely result would be that you would
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
will catch the eye of the traffic, until previously, zooming
past you. What to do when they have stopped for a visit is
another matter.
Congratulations on getting the traffic
to stop and browse — What next?
Getting the
zooming traffic to stop and browse is difficult enough. The
look of your web site can catch that peripheral vision of
theirs; in an instant they can decide, "I will stop here and
have a look". The offers of 3 or 4 of your accounts, too
good to be true, or at least warrant further investigation,
entice a visit.
These 'highway
signs' make you stop and pull over. What happens once the
visitors have pulled in? You will have to hold them there,
before they up and leave just as quickly. The 'restees' have
seen the site, they have sampled the best on offer; now
what? You know you have a captured audience, all be it for
another 2 or 3 seconds. Be careful not to send these
valuable potential customers off clicking around your site.
They clicked on your 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 two of those are just what they are looking for. Take
them direct to the page with the offer; include the price;
include basic details that quantify very quickly the worth
of the package; and, provide an order form. Do not smother
these account pages in common details, or details of other
accounts.
There should
be only two main pages, the front page and the account
package page, that which the customer clicks to. The front
page is attractive and entices you to stay, the offer
encourages you to spend 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 take
credit card information.
No two
visitors are the same. There are those that will just sign
up straightaway and those that will 'further investigate'.
Put the remainder of your account packages' details, along
with the 'about' information, the 'help', the 'support' etc,
on other pages, using links on navigation bars for easy
access, keep the offer clean.
You have one
or two seconds to sell your product, don't use it to educate
your 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 for years.
written by: www.m6.net |
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