If you’re in a competitive industry (like web hosting), the content on your website needs to be distinguishable from the crowd. You must be willing to do what’s needed to stand out, whether that means adding to or refining your content, pricing, backlinks or marketing strategies. Most prospects realize they can purchase similar products or services from hundreds of providers.

Why should they choose yours?

Given the multitude of competing websites, plus the reality that the major search engines have to rank one of you as Number 1 and another Number 29 and another Number 6,145,009 - which number would you prefer? In many instances, the differences will be minute. Is the price realistic or just ‘too good’ to be true? Has Number 1 been in business longer than six months, or are they just great at developing websites that perform well on the search engines?

A search engine result, or SERP, is not a measure of the quality of a provider.

Perhaps, Number 1 employs strategies to develop good backlinks, possesses great social networking skills, successfully tweaks keywords to maximize keyword density and thousands of members follow them on Twitter. Does that speak to their level of customer support?

Standing apart

Standing apart can be a good thing or a bad thing. You want to be rememberable for all the right reasons. The providers that stand out for me are those that are honest. You can’t please everyone, so its always best to manage your prospect’s expectations. They’ll appreciate your honesty. Don’t be fooled by the economy. There are plenty of folks out there looking to buy, but very few looking to be sold to. Integrity goes a long way in any industry - helping to build long lasting business partnerships that survive the ups and downs of the market. Become the ultimate professional, offering business class solutions.

Why else would you want to be a wall flower?

For me I like to be the girl in the hot pink skirt, lime green shirt & purple banana in my hair with a orange flag waving it around that we have web hosting.

Do not blend in, stand out.

Good advice and I enjoyed the read.


PS No that is not my work attire.

Particularly in the very competitive marketplace of webhosting, a new business must come up with a killer USP (unique selling position) and your USP can't be on price alone or you'll make no profits. It's hard to come up with a uniqueness factor in this area but you need to in order to stand above the rest.

Any tips on how to stand out in the good way and not the bad one?

Try studying up on your competition to see what kind of offers they are offering their consumers and finding out what areas they tend to be weaker in (customer service, ease of ordering, etc.). Then tailor your business to offer what the competition isn't.

This depends on your products and services. You need to differentiate your firm in a good way by emphasizing the value of your services - how it will provide real solutions for your prospect that will sustain the test of time.
There are countless ways to do this - I love video testimonials and case studies - most hosting providers have neither of these.

Great follow-up to a great OP! I think standing out, especially in our industry, starts with the online experience and ends with the hands-on experience. Offer your visitors a clean, intuitive and attractive interface with which to conduct business and treat them like royalty when they come to you with questions and concerns and you can't lose.

Excellent post and from what I've observed, a good way to help promote your new web host is to offer a heavy discount for the first month to motivate users to give your web host a try in case they're skeptical. I've given several hosts a try because of this as I was able to try them out at a very low fee, for free even at times. As for the uniqueness, the web design can play a role in this, try not to use the same template everyone else has.