No where is web hosting more affordable than in the United States. Successful hosting companies in the U.S. attract clients from all over the world. Many website owners choose to host locally for particular reasons, but many look elsewhere for the best deals even if a little speed is sacrificed. Realizing this great potential for growth, many U.S. hosts create international branches of their main brand and hire support technicians who can help clients in different languages. And thanks to the wide recognizability of web icons it isn’t too difficult for anyone, no matter their language, to navigate through a control panel to manage their website. So with additional staff and translations of existing documentation, reaching out to a world market seems like it could be easy, doesn’t it? There’s much more to think about. Those of us who have lived in the U.S. all of our lives may not be doing proper research when determining how to attract and keep clients from other countries.

Let’s say you already see a growth pattern of clients from Iceland in the past few months. Sometimes many of us do forget to realize that the customs we are used to in our own country are not the norm in others. Years ago our own company began to offer more promotions to our customer base, many of these were focused around holidays. So does Iceland celebrate St. Patrick’s day with as much green gusto as Americans? I’m quite certain that they don’t, so it may not be the best idea to use each American-celebrated holiday to attract your newest clients. If you’re only concerned about receiving more American clients then of course, focusing on holidays will continue to be a great idea for you.

Another thought to always keep in mind is culture and respect. For example, many clients from South America will almost always greet their support representative with their own name, and then ask for the representative’s name if isn’t listed. It seems people in the U.S. are so used to anonymity that we’re more than ready to speak with the nameless or automated systems, and sometimes not even give out our real name. Depending on the country your company is targeting, you may want to reevaluate the types of replies your staff gives customers and even use alternative support methods to become more accommodating to them.