Going back to the second leg of your marketing stool – tactics – I want to talk here a bit about your media buying and planning. If you decide that a paid campaign, whether it be pay-per-click, ads in trade magazines, radio, television – anything that costs you more than your time (article marketing and networking on social websites and forums are examples) – you’ll need to get a clear view of your budget. More importantly, you'll want to get a clear vision of who your target market is and where they hang out.
Yet there’s a third step in creating your vision. This may the most important of all. You'll want to decide the what of your campaign, your objective. That is, do you want people to buy right now, today, this minute? Or are you looking at raising brand awareness. The first will result in a shorter, more intense media buying plan. The second takes a long-term view and you should expect that results may not come quickly and this must be factored into renewal decisions that are solely based on ROI calculations.
As a web hosting company, your target market is a relatively narrow niche. So you'll probably want to stay away from buying spots in such media as radio, television, general interest magazines, untargeted online banner networks, etc. Instead, you should focus your media buys to trade websites/publications. This is good news for several reasons: 1) keeping your media buying targeted will keep your advertising costs relatively low and 2) you’ll find relatively quickly if your ad campaign is working. You’ll be able to track your results easily and you’ll see soon enough if one media buy brings you better results than another. For my next post, I'll talk about what you need to do before you purchase even one banner ad.
About Hartland Ross
Hartland Ross is an online marketing strategist, entrepreneur, and founder and president of eBridge Marketing Solutions - an online marketing agency and consulting firm catering to technology companies.
An expert in the principles of marketing, strategy and business development, Hartland began his entrepreneurial career in the building materials industry as a successful franchise owner and operator. He followed this up with a stint in the pulp and paper industry before landing positions with two different internet marketing startups in the online advertising sector. He then took his online success and moved on to become VP of Sales and Marketing for a national training and development company.
Considered a pioneer in the online world, Hartland has been working in the sales and marketing of web based technology companies since 1999. He is well recognized and regarded in the hosting industry and to date has worked with over 150 web hosting companies providing business growth, marketing strategy and industry direction advice and recommendations.
With 15 years of business development experience, plus over 10 years experience in working specifically with technology companies, Hartland is a sought after speaker and online authority who is often interviewed and quoted in various industry related case studies and articles.
Corporate philanthropy is also top of mind for Hartland who believes it's important to give back to his community. Hartland is a past board member of Young Entrepreneurs Association and is an active mentor for Junior Achievement helping our youth become the business leaders of tomorrow.
A graduate of UBC, Hartland holds a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master degree in Business Administration with a focus on Business Strategy.
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