Stay in
touch!
Over 30 million people worldwide have access to the internet. No matter what your business is, you can't ignore 30 million people. To be a part of that community and show that you are interested in serving them, you need to be on the web for them. You know your competitors will.
2. To Network
A lot of what passes for business is simply nothing more than making connections with other people. Every smart business person knows, it's not what you know, it's who you know. Passing out your business card is part of every good meeting and every business person can tell more than one story how a chance meeting turned into the big deal. Well, what if you could pass out your business card to thousands, maybe millions of potential clients and partners, saying this is what I do and if you are ever in need of my services, this is how you can reach me. You can, 24 hours a day, inexpensively and simply, on the internet.
3. To Make Business Information Available
What is basic business information? What do you do? How can someone contact you? What methods of payment do you take?
Where are you located? If you could keep your customer informed of every reason why they should do business with you, don't you think you could do more business?
4. To Serve Your Customers
Making business information available is one of the most important ways to serve
your customers. But if you look at serving the customer, you'll find even more ways
to use internet technology. How about making forms available to pre-
5. To Promote Interest
With website information, anybody anywhere who can access the web and hears about you is a potential visitor to your website and a potential customer for your information there.
6. To Sell Things
Many people think that this is the number one thing to do with the internet, but we made it number six to make it clear that we think you should consider selling things on the internet after you have done all the things above and maybe even after doing quite a few more things from this list. Why? Well, the answer is complex but the best way to put it is, do you consider the telephone the best place to sell things? Probably not. You probably consider the telephone a tool that allows you to communicate with your customer, which in turn helps you sell things. Well, that's how we think you should consider the internet. The technology is different, of course, but before people decide to become customers, they want to know about you, what you do and what you can do for them. Which you can do easily and inexpensively with a website. When you are ready to sell, make sure you have the information people need to help them decide available on your web site, without paying so much that you won't make a profit until the next century. That's smart business.
7. To Make Pictures, Sound and Film Files Available
What if your widget is great, but people would really love it if they could see it in action? The album is great but with no airplay, nobody knows that it sounds great? A picture is worth a thousand words, but you don't have the space for a thousand words? The internet allows you to add sound, pictures and short movie files to your company's information if that will serve your potential customers. No brochure will do that.
8. To 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 free up some time for that harried phone operator.
9. To Make Changing Information Available Quickly
Sometimes, information changes before it gets off the press. Now you have a pile of expensive, worthless paper. Electronic publishing changes with your needs. No paper, no ink, no printer's bill. You can even attach your website to a database which customizes the page's output to a specific need or customer, and you can change as many times in a day as you need. No printed piece can match that flexibility.
10. To Allow Feedback From Customers
An instant email response can be built into your website so that you can get instant feedback from your customers while the information is still fresh in your customers mind, without the cost and lack of response of business reply mail.