Finding the right web hosting company for your business can be a challenge. Whether you’re a small business owner doing your own marketing or a marketing manager with a larger organization, there are quite literally thousands of hosting providers to choose from. That can be both a good thing and a bad thing; it’s great to have options, but deciding which internet marketing hosting company is best for your business can be overwhelming. It’s like trying to decide what to order for dinner from a menu that’s six pages long.
Because there are so many choices, many marketers decide to go with one of the larger, better known service providers. And, on one level, that’s understandable. At least you know that you’re dealing with a genuine business that’s been around for a few years. Unfortunately, choosing a “cookie cutter” service provider is one of the worst choices a marketing professional can make. What you really need is an internet marketing hosting provider that understands the unique needs of a marketing campaign and can provide you with services that are particularly suited for marketing.
What to Look for in an Internet Marketing Hosting Provider
To make your choice a little less challenging, we’ve compiled this list of what marketing professionals should look for in an internet marketing hosting provider.
1. A Provider That Can Make Sure Your Infrastructure Is Prepared
A successful marketing campaign will no doubt bring increased traffic to your website. That means you’ll need sufficient storage and bandwidth, as well as optimum security and compliance measures in place to protect your customers’ data.
2. A Provider That Performs Testing Upfront
Make sure the hosting company you choose does an adequate amount of load and stress testing before you begin your marketing campaign. This will ensure that your network will continue to perform, no matter what the situation.
3. A Provider That Creates Personalized Hosting Packages
Choose a hosting company that’s willing to create a package specifically designed with you in mind – one that takes into account your performance, security, and compliance needs – rather than one that tries to pigeonhole you into an existing plan that may not suit your company.
4. A Provider That’s Proactive
It’s one thing to provide 24/7 customer service, which many large-scale providers offer their customers. But it’s another thing altogether to find a hosting company that are proactively monitoring and reporting on your infrastructure on a regular basis, enabling them to not only find current problems but also identify issues before they become problems. This proactive behavior has another advantage: increased security. Routine monitoring of your network will allow your provider to find breaches before any real damage is done. That – in addition to utilizing the latest security standards and software, as well as automatic failover measures – adds up to the highest level of security possible for your network.
5. A Provider That Understands What “Scalable” Really Means
Scalability has become a buzzword in the hosting industry. But you may be surprised at how few providers are offering truly scalable services. Make sure your internet marketing hosting company allows you to increase or decrease your services as needed, so you never have to pay for what you don’t use.
6. A Provider That’s Also a Partner
Finally, and maybe most importantly, you’ll need a hosting company that considers your organization to be a real business partner. One that really gets to know your industry; one that provides you with exactly the right information you need to make your marketing campaign a success; and one you can depend on to make sure your infrastructure functions smoothly and reliably without bombarding you with technical information that you don’t need to know.
Now that you understand what to look for in an internet marketing hosting provider, it’s probably pretty obvious that you’re not going to find all this with one of the large “cookie cutter” providers. At PointClick we pride ourselves on being just the opposite, offering flexible web hosting. We take the time to get to know each and every one of our customers, so we can identify exactly what services you’ll need. Even better – we understand marketing. Contact our expert team today to find out how we can help you.
