|
Why_You_Should_Do_Business_on_the_Internet
| Why You Should Do Business on the Internet
With a little money and a good idea, you can reach anyone who
uses the Internet. According to the latest statistics, that’s
158.5 million people.
You can use the World Wide Web to open new sales channels,
extend your current business into a different product line,
enhance customer service, or shape the first impression your
company makes on its target market. You can reduce your
marketing costs (printing, mailing, and travel) by pointing
prospective customers to your Web site for preliminary product
and service information.
There are many success stories on the Web: · A small
manufacturer that now sells its products retail · A local shop
that now competes with established mail order houses · A golf
outlet that discovered Japanese businessmen would pay the high
shipping costs to get new golf equipment as soon as it became
available on the U.S. market.
You can find 23 million-dollar success stories in the book
StrikingItRich.com, which has a Web site at
http://www.strikingitrich.com/.
Use the Internet to move into new product areas. The ease of
posting new pages to a Web site and the ability to gather
instant information about how customers react to new product
offers lets you test-market new goods and services safely.
Enhance customer service. Even if your site doesn’t offer a
direct way to purchase your products, it can be a useful,
cost-effective tool for customer service: · Post a list of
frequently asked questions (FAQ) to answer common customer
questions to reduce the expense of toll-free telephone lines. ·
Use e-mail to allow communication between your customers and
your customer service staff. · Use e-mail to combine your
customer service campaign with your marketing campaign, by
sending your customers notification of sales, new product
releases, and special offers.
Make a strong first impression. A Web site makes small
businesses appear much larger than they are. The way your Web
site handles the technology of the Internet — serving up Web
pages, taking orders — can make visitors feel they are dealing
with a large, established business. Check out WorldSpy
(http://www.worldspy.com/). This company’s Web site gives
customers the impression it’s a large shopping mart, when in
reality it’s staffed by a handful of employees.
Reduce your marketing costs. Putting up your Web site makes your
marketing information available to millions. You can save the
cost of printing and mass mailing a brochure by publishing your
Web site address on your letterhead and business cards.
The Web is a huge opportunity to launch or expand your business
at a fraction of the cost of the offline world. If you’re
considering a business or looking to expand, mastering the Web
should be a top marketing priority.
About the author:
David Johnson is the founder, president and director of
workz.com. He is a lifelong entrepreneur, small-business expert,
and Internet pioneer. Frustrated by the lack of small-business
resources available to help him launch and promote his own Web
site he decided to create a trusted resource of objective how-to
information to help other small businesses.
|
|
| |
| |
