| Why
website
Much discussion centers around
the value of having a business website. But what really is
the internal and external value of having a presence on the
Internet? The best answer may be in looking at the major independent
reasons that should make sense for many companies:
Increase visibility
- Reaching global market
Think of your website as a
continuous method of promoting your company on a national
and international basis every day of the week. All of this
chance at promotion and at a fraction of the typical traditional
costs for such coverage through traditional advertising means.
Functional expansion
- 24/7 service
Your company can effectively
multiply the customer or vendor interfacing capabilities very
quickly and again, very cost effectively. This means that
you can provide more timely information on your products,
pricing, updates, company literature, manuals, and answers
to commonly asked questions. The beauty of this is the speed
and ease in how these things can be offered on a 24 hour-a-day
basis.
Allow customers to self-help
themselves - Improved customer/vendor relationship
It has been proven
that customers do not mind helping themselves electronically
in order to get information or buy products that they desire.
In fact, customers have come to expect some elements of website
self-help to be available to them. No question that the old
paradigm of doing business has shifted in large part thanks
to the ease of the interface with the company website. Vendor
and partner relationships can also be improved by this ease
of access to information. Allow customers to help themselves
and allow vendors and partners to help themselves and help
you at the same time.
Collection of
customer data - Know your customers
Many statistics can
be gathered from the customer traffic to your website. Information
such as when information is accessed from the website can
be useful. Additionally, where they go within your website
and where they come from to your site, can also be gathered.
It is also easy enough to gather relevant information, facts,
or opinions from your website visitors by asking them to fill
out forms or a questionnaire. It is no real threat to visitors
as they can either choose to provide information and opinions
or not, leave the choice to them.
Reduce cost of
doing business - Less expensive
Think in terms of how
you can still provide information that customers or potential
customers seek but make it available via the website. What
winds up happening is that your thinking begins to supplant
traditional rules of "how things should be" with
what makes sense in the new millennium. Things that naturally
fall into this category are things such as printing and marketing
expenditures, customer service information, manuals, or product
catalogs. All of these types of hard expenses with a good
strategy, can be substantially reduced or eliminated by proper
use of your website.
Use as a sales
tool - Be Supportive
Your website can become
a tremendous sales support piece to your marketing or promotions.
This especially becomes true when you utilize the website
as a complete literature piece or an expanded web-brochure
explaining the full story of a product or service. The website
can be a tremendous competitive differential advantage to
sales and support personnel as it provides for the customer
or potential customer to be directed to full collateral material
and most current product and company information.
Matching customer expectation
- Be detailed
Not having a website
these days or worse a site not reflecting the quality of your
business can create a detrimental perception among your market,
customers, and vendors. This is especially true, if customers
expect a website to be a common part of the business that
you are in. There is not an especially good answer when a
customer asks why they cannot locate your website on the Internet.
Natural company growth
- Strategy for the era
A company that is really
wanting to grow beyond the natural limitations imposed by
the non-web business environment has to consider e-business
possibilities. A prerequisite for companies that want to grow
into e-business, is that they have a solid business foundation
supported by strong strategy. At the heart of that strategy,
is a professional website that has common elements of proven
success. The website should have a blended strategy that complements
the existing company's policies, practices and strategy in
order to create strong synergy.
Learn our methods:
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