You may asked yourself, why do I need a presence on the
Internet? How will my business or firm gain?
The following information will provide you with the knowledge to
make and educated decision whether to advertise on Internet or not:
To Establish A Presence
Approximately 320 million people worldwide have access to the World Wide Web
(www). No
matter what your business is, you can't ignore 320 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.
To Network
A lot of what passes for business is simply nothing more than making connections and
contact 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.
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.
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 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 colour of jacket is available in your
store? All this can be done, simply and quickly, on the www.
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.
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. Then you might be
able to turn them into customers.
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.
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.
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.
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 freed
up some time for that busy phone operator.
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.
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, 365 days a year.
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.
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.
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 database you can change as many times in a day as you need. No
printed piece can match that flexibility.
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 what went wrong. That's great for
the big boys with huge advertising budgets, 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.
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, more
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
obtain feedback where to position your product or service in the marketplace. Amazing.
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 outputted on tight deadlines. All the these can be made available on
a Web page.
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 schools 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.
To Reach The Specialized Market
Sell fish tanks, art reproductions, flying lessons? 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 80 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.
To Serve Your Local Market
We've talked about the power to serve the world with a Web page. How about your
neighbourhood? If you are located in Pretoria, the Gauteng Province, Cape Town or
Bloemfontein, there is probably enough local customers with Web access to make it worth
your while to consider Web marketing. A local restaurant can 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. Remember to advertise your web address on all your stationary
and other advertisements.
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