Why Have a Web Site?
The World-Wide Web
Offers Many Reasons
Here Are 20 Good Ones
Originally Authored
by
Net 101
1. To Establish A Presence
Approximately 27 million people
worldwide have access to the World Wide Web (WWW) and it is estimated that by the end of
1997 36 million will have Web access. No matter what your business is, you can't ignore 27
million people. To be a part of that community and show that you are interested in serving
them, you need to be on the WWW 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 WWW.
3. To Make Business Information Available
What is basic business information? Think of a
Yellow Pages ad. What are your hours? What do you do? How can someone contact you? What
methods of payment do you take? Where are you located at? Now think of a Yellow Pages ad
where you have instant communication. What is today's special? Today's interest rate? Next
week's parking lot sale information? 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?
You can on the WWW.
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 WWW technology. How about making forms available to
pre-qualify for loans, or have your staff do a search for that classic jazz record your
customer is looking for, without tying up your staff on the phone to take down the
information? Allow your customer to punch in sizes and check it against a database that
tells him what color of jacket is available in your store? All this can be done, and more,
on the WWW.
5. To Heighten Public Interest
You won't get Newsweek magazine to write up your
local store opening, but you might get them to write up your Web Page address if it is
something new and interesting. Even if Newsweek would write about your local store
opening, you wouldn't benefit from someone in a distant city reading about it, unless of
course, they were coming to your town sometime soon. With Web page information, anybody
anywhere who can access the Web and hears about you is a potential visitor to your Web
site and a potential customer for your information there.
6. To Release Time Sensitive Materials
What if your materials need to be released no
earlier than midnight? The quarterly earnings statement, the grand prize winner, the press
kit for the much anticipated film, the merger news? Well, you sent out the materials to
the press with the 'Do not release before such and such time" statement and
hope for the best. Now the information can be made available at midnight or any time you
specify, with all related materials such as photographs, bios, etc. released at exactly
the same time. Imagine the anticipation of "All materials will be made available on
our Web site at 12:01 AM". The scoop goes to those that wait for the information to
be posted, not the one who releases your information early.
7. To Sell Things
Many people think that this is the number 1 thing
to do with the World Wide Web, but we made it number seven to make it clear that we think
you should consider selling things on the Internet and the World Wide Web 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 WWW. 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 on the WWW. 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.
8. 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 WWW allows you to add sound, pictures and short movie
files to your company's info if that will serve your potential customers. No brochure will
do that.
9. To reach a highly desirable demographic market
The demographic of the WWW user is probably the
highest mass-market demographic available. Usually college-educated or being college
educated, making a high salary or soon to make a high salary, it's no wonder that Wired
magazine, the magazine of choice to the Internet community, has no problem getting Lexus
and other high-end marketer's advertising. Even with the addition of the commercial
on-line community, the demographic will remain high for many years to come.
10. 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.
11. To Stay In Contact With Salespeople
Your employees on the road may need
up-to-the-minute information that will help them make the sale or pull together the deal.
If you know what that information is, you can keep it posted in complete privacy on the
WWW. A quick local phone call can keep your staff supplied with the most detailed
information, without long distance phone bills and tying up the staff at the home office.
12. To Open International Markets
You may not be able to make sense of the mail,
phone and regulation systems in all your potential international markets, but with a Web
page, you can open up a dialogue with international markets as easily as with the company
across the street. As a matter-of-fact, before you go onto the Web, you should decide how
you want to handle the international business that will come your way, because your
postings are certain to bring international opportunities your way, whether it is part of
your plan or not. Another added benefit; if your company has offices overseas, they can
access the home offices information for the price of a local phone call. Plus, you can
find out how many international customers can access you that could never reach you before
at a reasonable cost.
13. To Create a 24 Hour Service
If you've ever remembered too late or too early to
call the opposite coast, you know the hassle. We're not all on the same schedule. Business
is worldwide but your office hours aren't. Trying to reach Asia or Europe is even more
frustrating. But Web pages serve the client, customer and partner 24 hours a day, seven
days a week. No overtime either. It can customize information to match needs and collect
important information that will put you ahead of the competition, even before they get
into the office.
14. 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 web
page 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.
15. To Allow Feedback From Customers
You pass out the brochure, the catalog, the
booklet. But it doesn't work. No sales, no calls, no leads. What went wrong? Wrong color,
wrong price, wrong market? Keep testing, the marketing books say, and you'll eventually
find out went wrong. That's great for the big boys with deep pockets, but who is paying
the bills? You are and you don't have the time nor the money to wait for the answer. With
a Web page, you can ask for feedback and get it instantaneously with no extra cost. An
instant e-mail response can be built into Web pages and can get the answer while its fresh
in your customers mind, without the cost and lack of response of business reply mail.
16. To Test Market New Services and Products
Tied into the reason above, we all know the cost of
rolling out a new product. Advertising, advertising, advertising, PR and advertising.
Expensive, expensive, expensive. Once you have been on the Web and know what to expect
from those who are seeing your page, they are the least expensive market for you to reach.
They will also let you know what they think of your product faster, easier and much less
expensively than any other market you may reach. For the cost of a page or two of Web
programming, you can have a crystal ball into where to position your product or service in
the marketplace. Amazing.
17. To Reach The Media
Every kind of business needs the exposure that the media
can bring, as we touched on in reason #5 "To Heighten Public Interest", but what
if your business is reaching the media, as a newswire, a publicist or a public policy
group. The media is the most wired profession today, since their main product is
information and they can get it more quickly, cheaply and easily on-line. On-line press
kits are becoming more and more common, since they work with the digital environment of
more and more pressrooms. Digital images can be put in place without the stripping and
shooting of the old pressrooms and digital text can be edited and output on tight
deadlines. All the these can be made available on a Web page.
18. To Reach The Education and Youth Market
If your market is education, consider that most
universities already offer Internet access to their students and most K-12's will be on
the Internet within the next few years. Books, athletic shoes, study courses, youth
fashion and anything else that would want to reach these overlapping markets needs to be
on the Web. Even with the coming of the commercial on-line services and their somewhat
older populations there will be nothing but growth in the percentage of the under 25
market that will be on-line.
19. To Reach The Specialized Market
Selling a very specialized product? You may think
that the Internet is not a good place to be. Well, think again. The Internet isn't just
computer science students anymore. With the 27 million and growing users of the WWW, even
the most narrowly defined interest group will be represented in large numbers. Since the
Web has several very good search programs, your interest group will be able to find you,
or your competitors.
20. To Serve Your Local Market
We've talked about the power to serve the world
with a Web page. How about your neighborhood? If you are located in San Francisco Bay
Area, the Raleigh NC area, Boston or New York, there is probably enough local customers
with Web access to make it worth your while to consider Web marketing. A local Palo Alto,
CA restaurant even takes lunch orders through the Internet! But no matter where you are,
if the big client has Web access, you should be there too. You can make the Web a part of
your sales team no matter where your market is.
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