HostRocket.com Quadruples Revenues, Doubles Prospect-to-Customer Conversion in Brand and Website Initiative with Ceonex

Feb. 01, 2005

Web hosting company HostRocket.com has quadrupled its revenues and doubled its prospect-to-customer conversion rate since initiating a website and branding program with Ceonex. And, site traffic continues to increase by over 8% each month.

Ceonex' relationship with HostRocket is entering its fifth year, seemingly a record in the fickle world of Internet initiatives. The companies have collaborated on three distinct phases so far, each pushing HostRocket to a new level and bringing significant company growth. The first project stretches back to 2001, when Ceonex addressed their weakest points: branding, image and navigation.

"It is amazing to work with a group of such dedicated professionals who deeply embrace our business goals and objectives," said HostRocket's co-founder and CEO Brendan Brader. "After our initial site launch, we have continued working with Ceonex on numerous other projects, and this ongoing work relationship is contributing immensely to our company's ongoing success."

In its early days, HostRocket was caught in both internal and industry growing pains, enjoying its status as a medium-sized company with its own data center, yet struggling with its image as a small, untested web host. In addition to presenting the right image, there was the challenge of communicating this image to the brief attention span of the target audience.

Finally, HostRocket found that staff were spending time assisting prospects and customers with site navigation, often answering a variety of repetitive, basic questions, thus negatively affecting HostRocket's bottom line with internal costs and stagnant conversion rates.

"Web hosting had reached a strange new stage as an industry in 2001," reflected Ceonex founder and CEO Theodore Agranat. "Simultaneously growing exponentially as businesses and individuals signed up for services, competition became intense, and price wars began to affect web hosts of all sizes. HostRocket had to make an impact quickly, and keep prospects engaged during the process of converting them to customers, and retaining them over time."

After launching the Ceonex solution in 2001, HostRocket was ready to leverage its initial – and already significant – results into further expansion.

The first phase had concentrated on building a strong and memorable brand, and improving site usability to help people navigate. After this phase helped HostRocket grow their company significantly, they were ready to invest more into a solution that would lead to market expansion. The major challenge of this second phase was reaching certain audiences that were not optimally connected to HostRocket's ultra high-tech image.

"Since this image was most suitable to HostRocket's core market, we did not want to water down their brand, but instead find a fresh and unique solution to expanding their customer base," related Agranat.

The second phase entailed building highly specific sites for those new markets, coming up with the URLs and brands for each one of those. This phase also brought growth to the company and allowed it to take the next step in updating their brand and planning for new marketing pushes.

By 2003, HostRocket had matured into a highly respected web hosting company, and was ready to develop on a marketing level to connect with its audience and gain additional ground in this competitive IT industry, which represented the third phase of the project.

The look and feel of a site was an important early step, but to Brader that represents only an artifact, a stepping stone to a bigger advantage: increased business. "While it is true that with most companies, you will receive a great looking site," commented Brader, "Ceonex delivers something more: a site that makes money. Ceonex is one of only a handful of companies that understands that in order to have a truly successful web presence, you need more than just a design...you need a solution."

"What has been achieved over several years of collaboration has not only been enormously satisfying on a professional level, but also extraordinary on a personal level as well," said Agranat. "It has been a genuine pleasure to see HostRocket grow into the company it is today, and I have enjoyed the part that Ceonex played in that success."

About HostRocket

HostRocket.Com, Inc. is a privately owned, multi-million dollar corporation located in upstate New York, and was founded in 1999. Today, the company provides shared hosting services to approximately 50,000 top websites. The company serves hundreds of additional clients by providing services such a dedicated hosting, e-commerce hosting, collocation, and application hosting. The company can be reached at 518-371-3421 and www.HostRocket.com.

About Ceonex

Established in the USA in 1998, Ceonex is a proven global Internet consulting and development company helping clients to create and implement full-service digital business solutions. Combining diverse expertise in business strategy, technology, usability and design, Ceonex produces highly scalable business solutions and online user experiences.

Enabling businesses to heighten brand awareness, Ceonex strengthens customers' competitive advantage and provides them with opportunities to increase revenues and enhance productivity.

Ceonex has worked on projects for national and international firms, including Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Berkshire Life, Hewlett Packard, Intel, KPMG, Phillips, RadioShack, Texas Instruments, Xerox and many more. The company has offices in the US, Pacific Rim and Europe, and can be reached at 413-663-9798, and www.ceonex.com.