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1.
To Establish A Presence
Approximately 1 billion people worldwide have access to the World
Wide Web (WWW). No matter what your business is, you can't ignore
1 billion 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.
2.
To Network
A lot of what passes for business is simply nothing more than
making connections with other people. Every smart businessperson
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
businessperson 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.
3.
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.
4.
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 jazz 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 color of jacket is
available in your store? All this can be done, simply and quickly,
on the WWW.
5.
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.
6.
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.
7.
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.
8.
To Make Pictures, Sound & 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.
9.
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.
10.
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 harried
phone operator.
11.
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.
12.
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.
13.
To Create a 24 Hour Service
If you have ever remembered too late or too early to call the
opposite coast, you know the hassle. We are not all on the same
schedule. Business is worldwide but your office hours are not.
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. No overtime either. 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.
14.
To Make Changing Information Available More 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.
15.
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 went wrong. That's great
for the big boys with deep pockets, 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.
16.
To Test Market New Services & 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, 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 have a crystal ball into where to position your product or
service in the marketplace. Amazing.
17.
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 output on tight deadlines. All these can be made
available on a Web page.
18.
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 K-12's
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.
19.
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 soon-to-be 100 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.
20.
To Serve Your Local Market
We've talked about the power to serve the world with a Web page.
How about your neighborhood? As more and more consumers get
on-line, more and more opportunities present themselves to market
products and services effectively over the Internet. More than
likely, your business can use the power of the Internet to
increase local awareness along with more traditional media. A Palo
Alto, CA restaurant 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.
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