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 is the editor of the FREE Eagle Flyer Newsletter, which offers "How To Technology and Tips That Can Multiply Your Business Online". To subscribe to the Eagle Flyer and receive a FREE report, visit: Eagle Flyer