Mike is responsible for planning and executing HOSTING’s marketing strategy and leading the marketing team. He brings over 20 years of experience creating and implementing successful marketing and branding strategies at technology companies ranging from small startups to large multinationals. (From Hosting.com’s website)
Interview
What is Hosting’s overall marketing strategy?
We target the mid-market which we feel is underserved and we specialize in manage services this helps companies who don’t have the resources to do it themselves. We sell direct and we market primarily through Google.
What do you think is the biggest key to successful marketing?
Understanding the market, who in the market has the problem that your product solves then finding those particular people or allowing them to reach out and find you. If you don’t have a clear picture of problem you are trying to solve and the solution then it’s tough to get even started.
What market segment is Hosting going after?
We target the mid-market, companies with revenues of $50 to $500 million dollars. Any type of company that uses applications for conducting business. In the near future we are looking at focusing on the health industry. It is actually better to have a narrower target market defined. We are on a horizontal technology plain that can be used by a lot of people for a lot of different things. One risk we have is if we are too broad then people cannot figure out how to use our service for their specific problem.
When Hosting first started what was the toughest marketing hurdle to get past?
This company was created through acquisitions Hosting bought a company then bought a second, and later bought a third. The toughest thing was getting all the companies on the same page as far as communication and strategies being a 3 company merger.
Does Hosting use social media to conduct marketing? If so which ones and how do you use it?
We do use some we have a linked in presence, Facebook, twitter, and YouTube. At this point we don’t advertise we use it to listen and transmit. We look for hashtags of keywords through Twitter and we can see what people are saying about our competitors, so if they are dissatisfied with one of our competitors we will reach out and to those individuals and offer our services. We have videos on YouTube, since people are constantly searching YouTube for videos these days we use it like a search engine where possible clients might come across one of our videos and see a need for our services. Our sales Team uses Linked in to target markets as well.
If I were a Director of Marketing what kind of advice would you give me?
You really have to know your market first, you have to understand the people you sell to and how they decide to buy things. Figuring out how to reach those people is a huge factor as well. People buy things on emotion so you need to think about how they are thinking emotionally instead of logically. While logical thinking is the most practical people buy mostly on emotion.
What is the biggest factor to marketing failure? Why is that?
Not understanding your market, in our world we have lot of technology and it’s easy to tell people what the technology does, but that doesn’t mean it’s the technology they need.
Do you have anything else to add?
I think especially if you are an entrepreneur you need to think about what problems are you going to solve and with those problems, which are not being solved efficiently. People are more likely to buy from an established company than a startup. One thing is that technology creates new problems. Every time a new technology comes out and solves one problem it sets up a new whole new set of problems. There is always a new problem to be solved. Being an entrepreneur you need to solve a problem, but the problem has to be a big enough problem for enough people to make it worthwhile for you to solve.
