As a small web hosting provider, it becomes increasingly difficult to compete within the industry. The only way to rise to the top in this type of competitive environment is to add value in other ways.

This means that you must sit down, look at the numbers, and draft some new ideas for services, which will add value for your existing and potential clients. To stay afloat and keep up with the competition, you must position yourself properly. You can no longer be a “pure-play hosting company.” You must continue to add value to your buyer personas. This article will discuss what you need to do if you want to survive as a small web host company and the services you can adopt to add value to your clientele.

Make Sure You Are Properly Positioned

It is critical to position yourself properly, and think about whether you are leading your company as a pure server hosting company or diversifying your products and services that you offer, and leading in a more value oriented approach.

Today, you do not want to continue working solely as a hosting company; you must expand to be successful. Think about the services that would add value to your customers; such as, web design, web development, custom application development, general IT consulting, managed services, or any other professional services. As a small business, to be successful in the website hosting industry, you must diversify your services.

Matt Sudowski, EVP of Handy Networks, says “web hosting is the commodity, so you need to move way beyond just hosting websites.” Sudowski also explains how website hosting is becoming less popular amongst small companies. Of course, there are plenty of hosting companies, but they are offering more added value services to compete with the larger hosting companies.

Why It’s Not Advantageous to Be a Pure Play Hosting Company

The primary reason as to why being a “pure play hosting company” is not an advantage, is because to compete with the major players in the industry. You must differentiate yourself, and you must have a competitive advantage that attracts buyers to your website hosting company.

People are all too familiar with the popular pure hosting companies, and most likely people will go with those companies as they are well-known. However, if your company provides hosting along with a variety of services, why wouldn’t potential customers want to work with you? Additionally, it is convenient for your ideal customers as they can go to one destination for all their IT needs.

Sudowski expands on this; he says “when you’re trying to compete with somebody at that scale, there is just no way to do it unless you are bringing other value to the table that they just can’t do because their focus is 100% hosting.”

Know How to Keep Up with Industry Giants

The only way to keep up with industry giants such as, 1&1, GoDaddy, and HostGator is to transform your business model from a pure hosting company to a company that provides its customers with a variety of services.

Ways Your Company Can Evolve Its Business Model

Sudowski recommends a variation of services that small and large hosting companies can use to progress their business models. For small hosting companies, he says “it’s about leading with that professional services aspect, people are buying your brand more than they are the service.”

In regards to the types of services, small hosting companies could consider website design, website development, consulting, and managed services.

For large hosting companies, Sudowski says “you can look at offering cloud services, private cloud, and virtualization enablement. Additionally, you could offer a combination of a private cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, public cloud, and getting that solution to your client as a turnkey system.”

There are plenty of ways that your server hosting company can differentiate from the rest. The primary way to set your company apart is by providing services that are known to add value to customers.

Is your website hosting company interested in expanding its services? Contact us today!