What way can a hosting company get a solid reputation in today’s hosting market which has so much strong competition?

If a hosting company has been slowly growing over a few years, how could they get a good reputation and word to spread about their company?

For example, say a company started in 2001 and has been growing at a very slow rate but has very satisfied customers.
The host’s clients don’t spread their experiences, how can others know about the services provided by the host?

All hosts could spend $$ on advertising, but all that does is get the name known (hopefully, and maybe get some clients) but people still most likely don’t know about the actual service from the host.

I’m sure most people here have seen hosts recommending other hosts, even though they may not have tried their services.

I did a bit of research on companies like this and it does seem many have a lot of customers, but I didn’t find many testimonials. I have also seen a lot of people referring others to not so well known hosts, and even new hosts.

How do these hosts gain such a good reputation that has their competition recommending them?

I've tried several of these options and here is what I've come up with:

-Advertising works well in regards to brand recognition.
-Testimonials help out in regards to closing the deal; along with referrals.

Try to do some charity work; host local businesses, non-profit organizations, etc. I've received several (around 70) good shared, reseller and ded. customers by hosting about 10 free sites for several years now; granted that these sites do receive decent traffic.

It's a two way street, and word-of-mouth is probably my biggest marketing asset; think long term.

Referals are good as well as testimonials. Both, are good for business. Also, having your customers if they like you at least, post on a public forum a review of your service. Improves your rep and status.

Offer a referral fee or offer a prize for something that brings you more customers. A support forum or a newsletter might be helpful, too.

Christoph

Purely don't even bother trying to force it. If you are going to get a good PR / rep. you need to let it come naturaly.

I dont think thats a good way to improve your PR and reputation, you can do quite a lot to help improve it yourself.
Try to promote your company through advertising, like Alex said, its very good for brand recognition.
If you do a lot of advertising, people will remember your name and your company, they will most likely also remember what you put on your banner.

I wouldnt ask someone to do this, I dont think they would like being asked to do it, and it may seemed forced if you are asking them to do it.

oh see I love this topic.
I would rather my company grow strong at a slower rate rather than the shove all you can on the server mentality. I used to get jealous when I first started if I heard someone gets 10 or more customers every day but then I realized those same companies were losing the same amount of customers each day because they couldn't manage what they have, so don't be misled into thinking bigger is neccesarily better for your individual business.
Also look at what a lot of these other companies offer, they let any and everyone host with them from spammers to others that do a lot of file sharing, even if I wasn't with ThePlanet servers I wouldn't want that kind of activity on my business.
As for getting your customers to spread your name around, what incentive are you giving them to do that. Is your service A1 at all times, response ticket time less that 1 hour etc. If someone feels your service is great they may not actively promote your business but they will say your name if someone asks them directly if they are happy with you. You could also offer a discount to those sites you host with you, something along the lines of if you put a link to us on your site we will give you X amount off your price. That works for some.

Thing to remember, none of this happens overnight, Even if you spent 1000's in advertising it won't guarentee you solid business. Just keep doing superior work and it will happen for you I promise. You may not be as big as some but your name will be highly regarded and that is what if important.

Also think of it this way too, If you never belonged to a hosting forum, and you were looking to get a hosting site You would do a search for hosting companies, many newbies will click on the powwebs and ipowerwebs but once they get more savvy and start looking again because they can't get what they need there, they may just ask around and find you.

Well Im sure a lot of people will disagree with what I am going to say but this is my opinion

If I saw someone on a forum representing their hosting business or the host they are working for, I would judge the host by the quality of their posts and the knowledge they show in their posts.
I have actually gone with a host because they did quality posts which helped others with hard topics related to hosting.

Not only does this show how they are at helping people, it shows they care about others who are even in the same profession, it shows they take the time to help out people when they don’t need to and aren’t required and it shows me their knowledge of the industry their business is in.

Some people might think this isn’t a good thing to do, but the posts made by a host on a forum reflect a lot on the company for me.

If a host takes the time to put effort into their posts and post to help others out without wanting anything in return, it shows a lot to me.

I have seen people get flamed for selecting a host by something like this, but they just have to think about what is shown in a post.

I don’t just go by one post, or the post count of a host on a forum etc. etc. I look at everything mentioned above and so far its been a great asset that helped me

Always keep customers happy. and ask them to recommened me.