This is a question many people ask themselves and I guess the answer depends on the nature of your business. In my opinion, every small or home-based business should consider a website. There are certainly some businesses where a website offers nothing of value but for the vast majority a website can be a very effective sales channel and marketing tool. Here's just a few reasons why a website can be such a powerful tool …
Low Cost
Utilizing the Internet for your business is very inexpensive. Once you set up and establish your site, which can cost as little as $150 and your time (if you know how to do it yourself) to between $2,000 and $10,000 (for someone else to do it, depending on its complexity) what you can do online is almost limitless.
Communicate with the World
Communicate anywhere in the world with customers and employees and pay NO long distance telephone charges, and if you have Skype, you can see them when you speak to them, plus you can keep in touch with them as regularly as you like with eNewsletters.
Customer Support
Provide personalized support for your customers with answers to common questions; assistance on specific products or services, provide a variety of ways in which you can be contacted. Do all this without answering a phone or hiring additional staff.
Be Open For Business 24 Hours a Day
This sounds bad but in reality it's a big plus, especially if you streamline your online chopping cart and it basically runs itself. When you have a website, potential customers can find out about your products and services 24 hours a day.
Global Reach
The Internet is being used on a regular basis by millions worldwide with more "connecting" every day. Many of the new users come from countries around the world. They want to buy the "latest and greatest" products. They have money. With the Internet they can become your customer! How much do you think it would cost you to advertise in the London or New York Times, the Tokyo Daily, and Moscow Today? Compare that to the cost of a website. The information you provide on your website is instantly available to every one of these users.
Reach Customers that Speak a Foreign Language
Why restrict your market to the "English-speaking" world? Translate your website into a number of languages and offer a choice to users when they come to your home page to further increase your exposure.
Try New Ideas
No one really knows all of the ways you can make money from the Internet, but it's a great place to test new ideas for next to nothing establishment fees. Once you have a site, you can put anything online you like, and market it with audio and video (which the search engines love and rank highly), and if it doesn't work, it hasn't cost you a fortune. And if you still think it's a good idea but perhaps need to adjust your strategy, you can modify it and improve it and give it another shot. At the very least you'll know more than your competitors.
Update or Change Your Products and Services Easily and at Low Cost
If you have produced "paper" catalogs, brochures, sales collateral's, you know how difficult and expensive it is to change them. You want to add a new item. On a website, changing anything is a simple and inexpensive process.
Instant Promotion
You've just devised and created a new product and you want to advertise a "special." Reaching your customers via the phone, sending a letter, or advertising via traditional means is time-consuming and expensive. With the Internet, you can send out an e-mail to 500 of your best customers with the click of your mouse. And you can put a "SPECIAL" notice on your website home page advertising the new product.
The internet is the shopping mall of the future and everything will be just a click away. If you don't already have a website, you're well and truly not in the 21st century.
Once you've made the decision to have a website, then you need to decide how you're going to us it, as this will determine what type you need. My next post will be how to go about that.
© Victoria Hansen 2010.
Low Cost
Utilizing the Internet for your business is very inexpensive. Once you set up and establish your site, which can cost as little as $150 and your time (if you know how to do it yourself) to between $2,000 and $10,000 (for someone else to do it, depending on its complexity) what you can do online is almost limitless.
Communicate with the World
Communicate anywhere in the world with customers and employees and pay NO long distance telephone charges, and if you have Skype, you can see them when you speak to them, plus you can keep in touch with them as regularly as you like with eNewsletters.
Customer Support
Provide personalized support for your customers with answers to common questions; assistance on specific products or services, provide a variety of ways in which you can be contacted. Do all this without answering a phone or hiring additional staff.
Be Open For Business 24 Hours a Day
This sounds bad but in reality it's a big plus, especially if you streamline your online chopping cart and it basically runs itself. When you have a website, potential customers can find out about your products and services 24 hours a day.
Global Reach
The Internet is being used on a regular basis by millions worldwide with more "connecting" every day. Many of the new users come from countries around the world. They want to buy the "latest and greatest" products. They have money. With the Internet they can become your customer! How much do you think it would cost you to advertise in the London or New York Times, the Tokyo Daily, and Moscow Today? Compare that to the cost of a website. The information you provide on your website is instantly available to every one of these users.
Reach Customers that Speak a Foreign Language
Why restrict your market to the "English-speaking" world? Translate your website into a number of languages and offer a choice to users when they come to your home page to further increase your exposure.
Try New Ideas
No one really knows all of the ways you can make money from the Internet, but it's a great place to test new ideas for next to nothing establishment fees. Once you have a site, you can put anything online you like, and market it with audio and video (which the search engines love and rank highly), and if it doesn't work, it hasn't cost you a fortune. And if you still think it's a good idea but perhaps need to adjust your strategy, you can modify it and improve it and give it another shot. At the very least you'll know more than your competitors.
Update or Change Your Products and Services Easily and at Low Cost
If you have produced "paper" catalogs, brochures, sales collateral's, you know how difficult and expensive it is to change them. You want to add a new item. On a website, changing anything is a simple and inexpensive process.
Instant Promotion
You've just devised and created a new product and you want to advertise a "special." Reaching your customers via the phone, sending a letter, or advertising via traditional means is time-consuming and expensive. With the Internet, you can send out an e-mail to 500 of your best customers with the click of your mouse. And you can put a "SPECIAL" notice on your website home page advertising the new product.
The internet is the shopping mall of the future and everything will be just a click away. If you don't already have a website, you're well and truly not in the 21st century.
Once you've made the decision to have a website, then you need to decide how you're going to us it, as this will determine what type you need. My next post will be how to go about that.
© Victoria Hansen 2010.
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