How can the web help your business make more money

Don't see the value in a web site investment? Below I'll outline how a web site can help you promote your company's image, help with sales and marketing, provide better customer service and staff management, and find more networking opportunities.

Online presense

  • The internet is equal opportunity, everyone gets the same amount of screen space.  It gives the small business owner the chance to level the playing field with their larger competition.
  • If you're a small business in a small niche, you'll find many of your competitors don't have websites, or have old easily "beatable" web sites.  Taking advantage of this puts you ahead of the pack.
  • Increasingly the general public is becoming more internet savvy and using it to find new businesses.  Being new to Nanaimo, that is how I found my dentist, chiropractor, auto mechanic, and print shop.  It works!

Marketing

  • The web is by far the cheapest form of advertising when compared to tradional forms of advertising like direct mail, newspaper, magazine, radio, or television ads.
  • Your web site can be kept up to date and fresh while traditional marketing forms can become outdated quickly in circulation.
  • You can collect customer information and build databases to improve and target your marketing
  • Give your customers incentives like online coupons without the cost of printing or postage.
  • The web allows other sites to link to yours which can be a valuable marketing tool.
  • Your web site can supplement other forms of marketing by adding your web address to advertisements.
  • Thanks to search engines like Google, your business is now available to anyone, anywhere.  With a well designed and optimized site you can target your market worldwide.

Customer Service

  • Provide your customers with up-to-date resources such as printable forms and documents.
  • Publish "Frequently asked questions" or similar problem solving information and save your customers a hassle.
  • Receive instant feedback from your customers by using web forms or surveys on your site.
  • With the popularity of the web continuing to build, your clients will expect you to be online and will be dissapointed if you're not.

Sales

  • E-commerce is getting easier every day, allowing your customers to browse and purchase your products without your direct involvment.
  • Online sales are open 24-7 and available to anyone with internet access.
  • Specialized or rare products can reach their specialized market on a much larger scale.
  • Multimedia such as video and photos allow you to demonstrate your products to your customers, making them feel secure about their purchase
  • Your competitors may not yet be selling online!

Networking

  • New age web applications like Drupal make it easy to host online discussion boards or receive user comments.  Visitor interaction and discussion can help generate interest and retention for your web site.
  • Having related websites link to you is a great way to network and get targeted web traffic to your site.

Staff Management

  • Recruit staff by posting job openings on your web site.
  • Use password protected areas of your site to post training material for new recruits.
  • Set up authorization levels on your web site to allow certain staff members to keep certain parts of your web site up-to-date.

There you have it, just a few good reasons why the web is a great way to expand your business and whoop the competition.