"Aw, C'mon, do I REALLY need a website?"
By Ralph Moore

If you want to SURVIVE in today's marketplace, you must have
an Internet presence, just to keep up with your competition!

The size, type and location of your business, as well as the
needs and expectations of your customers will very likely
determine the type and degree of Internet site that you require.

And the extent to which your COMPETITION offers superior
Internet-based services WILL have an impact upon your ability
to thrive in the changing economy.

Some of the purposes of a business website include...

Advertising:
In some cases, a simple email messaging system, and a
"billboard" type website, may be enough to keep you connected
to your customers, and offer necessary information to potential
customers. Targeted Internet and offline advertising of a company
website can be much less expensive than traditional methods.

Customer Support:
Simply put, customers who are searching the Internet EXPECT to
find your website, AND important information such as location,
driving instructions, and types of products and services that
you offer, as a bare minimum.

If you own a restaurant, for example, customers may expect to
find your address, as well as nutrition information for all of
your food items.

Technical specs for a product, added to a web page, can help to
reduce the number of repeat telephone calls for the same data.

Wise business professionals will strive to use the power of the
"web" to satisfy customer needs, and stay ahead of competitors.

Education:
More and more, educating your customers is proving to be a key
to increased and repeat sales. Informed customers often order
new products and upgrades (or refills) for existing items.

By providing up-to-date information about new and existing
products, at your website, you increase customer loyalty and
instill the idea that your company is on the frontlines of
customer service.

Furthermore, by offering an online and email newsletter, you
maintain vital contact with your customers, and bring them new
and interesting information which they otherwise might have
missed, or worse yet, received from someone else.

By maintaining an archive of important information, the value of
your website, and business, increases, as your visitors return to
your site, time and time again.

Lead prospecting:
As web "surfers" encounter your website, you have the opportunity
to begin a relationship, and build your customer list, by offering
free information in exchange for the visitors' contact information.

Online website "forms" offer an easy and convenient means for
visitors to find out more about your business.

Online sales:
Individuals and businesses are using the Internet to order directly
from online websites. The ease and convenience of ordering online
is changing the nature of commerce throughout the world.

Regardless of whether or not you offer "real-time" ordering from
your business website, you can still offer tremendous value to
your customers by publishing an online catalog of all of your
products. By including prices and descriptions, as well as
photographs, at one location on your website you can reduce the
cost of distributing offline printed catalogs.

And website visitors have the opportunity to IMMEDIATELY call and
order your products, during business hours. If you do opt for a
fully functional online shopping website, customers can order your
products at ANY TIME, day or night.

Increasingly, it is becoming essential that you use the power of
the "net" to keep in touch with your customers. In a very short
time, the Internet has become woven into the fabric of our
society, in such a way that we are increasingly dependent upon
it for basic needs.

If you are an owner or professional who is responsible for the
success and growth of a business today, you cannot expect to
succeed without a professionally designed company Internet presence.

Ralph Moore, editor of the FREE Eagle Flyer Newsletter,
Provides "Motivational, Marketing and How To Technology
Tips That Can Multiply Your Business Online".
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