I thought it would be a good time to relook at the 3 basic strategies that can be used to grow any business and yes this includes the hosting industry. These are not so much alternatives but strategies that should be used simultaneously. The first way is to grow your business by getting more customers. The second way is to increase how frequently these customers purchase from you and the third way is when they…
Appetite for Risk Purchasing customers is certainly more risky than growing organically due to some of the areas I’ve mentioned. The upside however is growth is much faster and may give you a boost in market share and will ideally lead to economies of scale that may provide you with a boost to your bottom line. Access to Capital How do you intend to fund an acquisition? Generally it will require a significant upfront cash…
“Should I grow my business through acquisitions or organically through marketing?” Sometimes I hear variations on this question – “I would much rather grow through acquisition than through marketing – it’s much less risky”. More and more frequently I am being asked some form of this question so I thought I would share some of my insights. There are a number of considerations to evaluate. This is not a comprehensive list but a few of…
The previous two marketing tools I have written about – white papers and special reports – need to be free of obvious bias, or they lose their strength to persuade readers. But case studies cover some of the same ground, while making your case, entirely. One of the beauties of case studies is that they can be long and exhaustive, short and sweet, or any length in between – it all depends on what you…
I was talking with our copywriter John here at eBridge and a number of years ago he wrote for a marketing newsletter in a natural resource industry. At various times the publisher would approach him to tell him that he needed more subscriptions in order to keep paying the big bucks. These were the days before the Internet, so everything he tried had to be based in direct mail, faxes and phone calls. Not a…
Sooner or later if you do any marketing online, you will hear about using whitepapers. But I wonder how many of the people who talk or write about them really know what a white paper is. The term has been around for at least 100 years and was first used to describe deep background documents or position papers published by the British government. They were called white papers because they were printed on white paper…
Well it seems Hostingcon has taken its toll on myself and our team in the sense that we have been very busy following up with clients since we got back hence my delayed post. I mentioned last time that I would like to explore the airline industry from both a marketing and operational angle. One of my theories, albeit I know next to nothing about the industry, is that I wonder how disappointed an airline…
Many of the Hostingcon sessions have been commented on by various bloggers and unfortunately mine was not one of them. Due to two flights being cancelled, I had an unexpected overnight stay in an airport hotel in Toronto meaning that I didn’t arrive until 6pm on Monday night – 24 hrs later than planned and 9 hrs late for my presentation. I had many people mention to me that they were in the room ready…
In writing about inexpensive forms of advertising or promotion, I asked you to think about “sudden attacks sprung from hiding.” Did the term “ambush marketing” come to mind? It’s a form of marketing or advertising that lets you enjoy the benefits of sponsoring major events, without actually paying big bucks to be a sponsor. I know, I wrote about ambush marketing a few posts back, but it deserves revisiting. Briefly, during the 1990s, a clever…
Countless thousands of dollars get spent every year on viral advertising, in pursuit of the Holy Grail of one million-plus views on YouTube. But the truth about viral videos and games is that you can’t really plan and design them – you can only create them, release them in the vicinity of a suitable host, and hope it spreads. A viral ad or video is viral only if it actually goes viral, so be skeptical…