* Potential customers make critical judgments of both you and your company based on presentation, looks and image, regardless of your skills or expertise. No matter which industry you are competing in, or the size of your business, an attractive and informative web site will give your company more credibility in the eyes of customers and clients.
* Branding influences the perception that your target market has about the true character and purpose your company. A well designed web site will facilitate the company branding process.
Save Money
* The cost of developing and maintaining a web site is only a fraction of the cost of producing and placing advertisements in traditional media, yet it has the potential to reach a much broader audience.
* Existing and prospective customers can access product / service information directly; greatly reducing the need for costly printed materials and reducing the amount of time your staff must spend on the phone answering commonly asked questions.
* You can easily reduce the cost of customer contacts by driving correspondence via email, instead of more costly telephone and fax communications or lengthy snail mail distribution.
Integral Piece of Your Promotional Mix
* It is important to recognize that a web site is not advertising it is a marketing tool which compliments and empowers your existing marketing and advertising efforts. A web site will allow potential customers and clients to gain access to additional information that isn’t suitable for traditional advertising mediums.
* Visitors to your web site have found your site because they are interested in your products and / or services. Your marketing therefore becomes more focused on real customer prospects.
* In less than a decade, most consumers of goods and services will look to the Internet instead of their phone book for local business listings. Sure, your name and telephone number will be listed, but you will lose out to those competitors who provide a link to a web site. How will potential customers react if you aren t on the Internet?
Customer Service
* Your business is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year so that customers can learn more about your products and / or services and make inquiries without the pressure of a salesperson.
* A website allows your customers to get to know more about you and your company s background, optimizing the personal side of doing business.
* A Website provides detailed information regarding your geographic location, and answers to commonly asked questions by providing the information on your web site.
* Customer service is only an email away. Some customers may feel uncomfortable on the phone or coming to your store in person, and would therefore choose e mail as their preferred method of communication.
Gain an Advantage on Your Competition
* A web site will help strengthen your company’s identity making your business appear larger than it actually is, and allowing you to challenge superior competitors.
* Many people use the online Yellow Pages, or local searches such as Google Local to find businesses in their area. If your company does not have a web presence, you are losing business to competitors that do have a website.
* Get listed in the search engines. Search engines give higher rankings to companies with websites that have been established for many years. Therefore, it is imperative that the website implementation process is not delayed any longer.
* Do it now, before your competition does!
Author Resource:
Paul Coulter owns and operates a London Ontario Website Design Company. Visit http://www.ekonline.com/ for more articles by Paul.
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