Written by Renee Quinn
B.S., M.B.A. in e-Commerce and e-Business
Vice-President of IPWatchdog, Inc.
How often do you search in the online yellow pages for a particular
business, only to find that they do not have a website? How often do
members of the business community hand you a business card with an
email address @yahoo.com or the like? In today’s business world it isamazing to see just how many businesses still do not have a web
presence.
A website is a fairly inexpensive business tool that serves a purpose
for both you and your clients. For you, it is a fairly inexpensive way
to advertise. Obtaining an appropriate domain name for your business
does not cost very much any more. In fact, you can obtain a domain
name from Register.com for $35 per year. You can even obtain domain
names for less at other places, but beware because when you pay less
than $35 per year you are almost certainly going to be tied into a
long term webhosting service contract as well. You may also want to
give GoDaddy.com a try as well. IPWatchdog.com has used both services.
GoDaddy tends to be cheaper, but in our experience Register.com is
easier to use.
Once you have the domain name it can be yours forever, as long as you
keep your registration current, but now you are going to need a
webhosting provider. We have had some good experiences and bad
experiences over the years with webhosting providers, having been with
Earthlink, Yahoo and Ipower to name a few. We are presently using
Glowhost and we have been quite happy with them. They have plans
starting as low as $4.99 per month. You can find webhosting services
for less, but make sure you check customer satisfaction by doing a
Google search.
Once you have a website you can list your website address on your
business cards, flyers and pamphlets, bulletin boards and even the
company sign that you have hanging on the side of your building. In
fact, you can save money on these other marketing tools by having a
website. For example, you can feature an electronic version of your
catalog on your website, with no limit on size. You can describe all
of your products and services in greater detail because space on your
website is significantly less expensive then full color print. And
what happens if you need to make a change, such as if you delete or
add products or services? Are you going to reprint all of your printed
marketing materials? On a website, you have the ability to make the
necessary changes at no additional costs.
For your clients, they will have the convenience of reading about your
company and the services and products you offer on their own time. In
today’s world, people lead very busy lives when you consider the
commitment of their careers and family. By having a well presented
website, you lend yourself to the convenience of your clients. They
can come to you when they want to. If you add a “Contact Us” link onto
your website, it allows your customers to contact you 24 hours a day,
7 days a week. You can drive traffic to your site to learn all about
your company and what you have to offer. Your clients can get a much
better idea about your business because you can feature multiple pages
on your site with greater details about the different aspects of your
company, products and services. You can even provide directions to
your place of business, making it easier for customers to find you.
By having a web presence, you expand your market significantly. You
make yourself available to people in other time zones and even across
the globe rather than the limited market audience you can reach in
your local geographical area. And at a fraction of the cost! With a
website there is less need to send out expensive mailings to purchased
mail lists that are often unreliable. Even those mailings that do make
it to the target audience are thrown away without ever being looked at.
Internet advertising is more targeted to a specific audience. The
clients who visit your website are there because they have a specific
interest in your company’s product or service, which you can use to
your advantage. You can allow customers or potential customers to sign
up for a newsletter or sales flyer, which you can send to them via e-
mail. By collecting e-mail addresses from willing visitors to your
website you can stay in contact with them without having to pay for
printing or postage. At IPWatchdog, we use GraphicMail.com to help us
maintain our e-mail subscription list and to send newsletters. There
are other services you can use, such as Constant Contact, which is
very popular. GraphicMail.com is less expensive, but they do not offer
the number of features that Constant Contact does. Another advantage
of Constant Contact is they offer a free trial. If you are an computer
novice, Constanct Contact would likely be a better choice because it
is an all in one solution.
The morale of the story is this – whether you are a small business
owner, inventor, entrepreneur, artist, author, musician or band, you
need a website. In the world we live in increasingly people are
turning to the Internet to find information, and if you don’t have a
presence on the Internet you will not only be making it more difficult
for people to find you, but you will be sending the wrong message.=
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment