Why A Business Website To provide basic information that establishes credibility – just as a listing in the Yellow Pages shows you are serious about your business, having your own company domain reinforces your legitimacy as a serious business. 1. To sell your products and/or services. 2. To make business information available to customers and clients 24/7 with the ability update as frequently or infrequently as you choose. 3. To reach your local market. 4. To reduce costs, improve operations, answer your most frequently asked questions. 5. To obtain feedback from customers. 6. To stay in contact with salespeople, customers and suppliers. 7. To test market new services and products. 8. To reach the media. 9. To reach specialized or international markets. Think of a Yellow Pages Ad - provide your basic business information What do you do? What are your hours? How can someone contact you? What methods of payment do you take? Where are you located? How long have you been in business? Encourage Purchases Before people decide to become customers, they want to know about you, what you do and what you can do for them. Think of your website as the clerk who works 24/7. More information can be put on your website at a lower cost than any other communication medium. Use the web as a low or no pressure sales tool that gives people information they want on their terms. By providing detailed product information and pictures you can turn the “just looking” browser into a customer. Serve Your Local Market There are enough local customers with Web access to make it worth your while to consider Web marketing. In these busy days people have less time to “shop” around by going place to place. Many people pressed for time use the internet to narrow their choices to those locations that have the products or services that they need and are “on their way”. Save Money A website reduces postage or other distribution costs since your brochure is already in your prospects hands. A website reduces printing cost since it can reduce or replace your 4-Color brochure and miscellaneous order forms. A website can reduce phone charges because you don't have to FAX immediate information to prospects, or explain your product on expensive 800 lines since your information is on-line. Product information, sales, even coupons can be updated on short notice, if not immediately. Answer Frequently Asked questions Whoever answers the phones in your organization can tell you, their time is usually spent answering the same questions over and over again. These are the questions customers and potential customers want to know the answer to before they deal with you. Post them on a WWW page and you will have removed another barrier to doing business with you and freed up some time for that harried customer service person or yourself. Knowing that the information is available 24/7 can make the difference between buying from you or from your competitor. Customer Feedback You pass out the brochure, the catalog, the booklet. But it doesn't work. No sales, no calls, no leads. What went wrong? Wrong color, wrong price, or wrong market? Keep testing, the marketing books say, and you'll eventually find out went wrong. That's great for the big boys with deep pockets, but who is paying the bills? You are and you don't have the time or the money to wait for the answer. A website is a great way to get instantaneous feedback from your customers, through customer surveys, contact forms, and e-mail addresses at little or no extra cost. Feedback forms can be built into Web pages and can get you the answer while it’s fresh in your customers mind, without the cost and lack of response of costly business reply mail. People are more likely to answer question on the web when they can submit anonymous answers when they chose to be on the site instead of being called at home or stopped at a mall. That sounds good but I don’t have a dotcom budget. Remember, you can start small. One of the nice things about the web is that it is easy to add or subtract content. Related article