Why should anyone outside digital need to know about hosting?
You might wonder why we’d recommend a wider knowledge of hosting outside of the digital team. It is fair to say that we are in an increasingly online world and digital/creative/marketing agencies put a range of content into that space. Understanding how to make that content work for your audience will make your clients happy. And hosting has its part to play in that.
So who should know what?
We appreciate that, depending on the size of your team, you might not have all the roles below. Or that the team members might be wearing multiple ‘hats’ within your agency. Our advice below is for a steer on increasing hosting knowledge in your team. If they don’t know the benefits of hosting then they can’t introduce it into their role. With that in mind, our recommendations are:
- Your client-facing team – This might be your account managers, project managers or new business managers. They don’t need to know all the ins and outs of hosting as they can always refer to an expert. But to talk knowledgeably to your clients, we’d recommend that they have an idea of what hosting packages you offer and what might suit each project. Understanding the time it takes to configure hosting requirements as part of a project should also be in their remit. All so that they can keep your clients in the loop as accurately as possible.
- Designers (yes that’s right, we said designers) – Similar to your client-facing team, these guys don’t need to know everything. What they should know is how different design elements might impact page load or speed. Understanding how to optimise images or how complex animations might slow a site down can help a designer make better design decisions for your clients.
- Your content team – We realise this might seem even more unusual than your designers. But if your content team is adding images, videos and copy to your client’s website it is important that they understand how to optimise these for optimum performance. As well as that you might want them to understand the role of the hosting provider in updates and back-ups just to steer them clear of pressing any update buttons!
- Developers and your digital team – This is pretty much a given that this team needs to know about hosting. A host like ourselves serve as an extension of this team relieving them of needing to spend too much time on server architecture and instead focus on what they are good at: developing.
- Your IT team – If you’re a smaller agency you might not have anyone in-house that understands back-ups, SSLs, firewalls etc. Choosing a hosting provider that can cover this gap with your digital team, like ourselves, can pay you dividends,
- Your MD/Board – If hosting is a cost within your business, even if that is passed onto your clients, then your board needs to know which hosting providers you use and why. They need the big picture on how the host is providing them value for money. Have a read of our post on auditing suppliers to see how to report on hosting providers for your board.
What to do if they don’t know anything about hosting?
If you’re finding that your agency has put hosting in the domain of digital then it might be time to widen that knowledge. Training sessions, resources and inviting a hosting company in for ‘lunch and learn’ sessions can help bridge knowledge gaps. Looking for a hosting provider that works as an extension of your team can also help.
At ProStack, we’re happy to answer any question from any team member. There is no such thing as a stupid hosting question for us. If we have the knowledge we’ll pass it on and at the right level for each individual. Adding value to your business and your client’s business is what we’re here to do. Get your team to try it for themselves and see, use our live chat or raise a support ticket and see what questions we can help answer to widen knowledge.