In a Nutshell
pros
- Strong PPC campaigns
- Customized marketing plans
- Easy and free website builder
cons
- Confusing pricing structure
- Upsells occasionally
Network Solutions Marketing Tools at a Glance
Best for: SMBs, local businesses
Key uses: Email marketing, SEO optimization, social media integration, website design, PPC
Price: Varies based on features included
Free trial: 60-day free trial
SEO
Since SEO is the first step, we’ll start there. Network Solutions has a handy SEO optimizer to help maximize your web presence by boosting your search engine results rankings. The optimizer delivers a customized action plan, so businesses without any SEO background can still optimize their sites for optimal results. The SEO tools include things like search phrase selections, website cleanup, adding search engine-friendly phrases, tags, and codes to your website, and building quality inbound links. It’s also nice that Network Solutions gives businesses a monthly consultation with an SEO expert. So, you are constantly getting your site critiqued by an industry-knowledgeable advisor who will show you where to improve and what’s working well.
Email Marketing
Network Solutions offers email marketing that’s powered by Constant Contact. CC is one of the biggest names in email marketing services today, which would make you think that they’d be competitors. But Constant Contact really focuses primarily on email, whereas Network Solutions has a whole range of marketing solutions. So, it’s actually a smart partnership for both companies, and it benefits businesses most of all by providing powerful marketing solutions across every channel. A win-win!
Network Solutions' email marketing is extensive (obviously, since it uses the CC tools which are solely dedicated to email marketing, as mentioned before). You can choose from loads of beautifully-designed, responsive email templates to kick things off. From there, users can customize the design with a handy drag-and-drop editor, specify recipients, and send off your branded email in no time.
One really neat feature Network Solutions has is the social media buttons add-on. You can drag a social media button into your email that lets customers share the post or talk about it directly on their social media profile pages. Network Solutions lets you track email performance as they happen, providing details like click-thru rates, open rates, bounce rates, and more. Oh, and Network Solutions' mobile app lets you check all those stats in real-time from your phone.
There are also things like list management, segmentation, and scheduling. As we said, the email marketing tool is exhaustive.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is another huge frontier for marketing your business offerings, and Network Solutions provides some solid tools to help you achieve that goal. In fact, Network Solutions has marketing experts that specialize in Facebook marketing. They are available to help businesses set up and maintain a social media presence, build a Facebook Ads campaign, target the right followers, and convert them into customers. Network Solutions will even help you craft inviting text and design attractive promotions to get your audience to come directly to you.
Additionally, Network Solutions offers reputation management, an essential feature if you want to keep your brand name positive. The best feature is the reputation alert monitoring service. This monitors your social media accounts across the web and sends you a notification whenever your brand is mentioned. This way, you can interact with your audience in real-time, acknowledging praise with appreciation, and responding to negative feedback or complaints quickly.
Website Design
We really like the Network Solutions web design product. For one thing, you can utilize the free website builder tool to create your own website without any design know-how. And you can have the design be as simple or as involved as you'd like. Network Solutions has attractive templates that you can use to get your site up and running in minutes.
Alternatively, if you want more personalization, there are plenty of options. There's a huge stock-image library you can choose from to spruce up your website design. And Network Solutions has a delightful variety of add-ons (free) that you can include in your website to give it more power. Add things like a blog, event calendar, or dynamic content to make your site stand out.
Finally, the website design comes with a lot of perks for any business. Things like personalized email accounts, online storage and file sharing, and free domain name really sweeten the deal.
PPC
Network Solutions has several online advertising solutions, including Pay Per Click. The PPC advertising tools are meant to increase visibility for specific, targeted keywords. Network Solutions offers features like a tailored PPC campaign geared towards delivering more qualified leads to your website, ongoing campaign optimization, and deep analytics. As with other features, Network Solutions provides customers with a dedicated marketing expert who will sit with you and flesh out your PPC campaign till it’s just right.
Pricing
The biggest downside to working with Network Solutions is the vague pricing model. You can't get a clear picture of how much you are going to pay until you are already checked out and ready to purchase. We'd like to see a more comprehensive pricing list so that we could make comparisons with other brands.
The way Network Solutions works currently is that you choose the features you want to include in your plan, a la carte style. Then, Network Solutions creates a pricing plan for you. So, you have to decide which features are important to you before you get started.
It's nice that the website builder comes free with all plans, though. That's a huge saving and definitely makes the whole thing more affordable.
Hosting plans begin at $5.90 per month and go up to around $20. Meanwhile, an e-commerce site will start at $9.95 per month. Email for professionals can run as little as $1.85 per mailbox. And the list goes on. So, you have to decide what you want from Network Solutions. And then you can get an idea of how much it’ll cost.
Customer Service
Network Solutions has dedicated customer support that you can get in touch with via phone or email. It’s nice that Network Solution provides different lines for the various departments. This way, you don’t have to waste time being transferred once you finally get in touch with someone.
We were also impressed with how willing and capable the customer support staff was, obviously trained for troubleshooting technical problems. The rep was even able to fix a problem with our connection remotely.
SEO/PPC:
1-877-438-8599 (Option 2)
Hours:
8:00 AM - 8:00 PM ET, Monday-Friday
Email Marketing:
1-866-374-9318
LSV:
1-866-391-4357
Gorilla Online Marketing:
1-877-557-9693
General Support:
1-800-333-7680
Bottom Line
One of the oldest and also the most reputable brands in the industry, Network Solutions, has been providing solid hosting services for decades. Adding marketing tools to its lineup has only worked to strengthen this service's reputation and appeal. With a solid email marketing platform, PPC ad campaigns, SEO optimization, and social media integration, Network Solutions provides an all-in-one solution for any business to grow their reach and web presence via actionable and effective marketing campaigns.
