Services/Internet

The Internet is based on Information.

Your website should provide all the information necessary for the visitor to make a decision, in their own time and without the pressure of a salesperson.  By the time the potential customer approaches you directly, they are already a good way to making the decision to use your services.

Your customers do not want a 'hard sell' approach and with a well designed site, it is unnecessary.  The anonymity of the Internet allows people to compare services from competing suppliers and make their decision at their leisure.  If you provide your visitors with good quality, comprehensive information, in a format that is easy to navigate, you have every chance of attracting their custom.

With a conventional advertising medium, you are stuck with your advert content for the duration of the print cycle.  With a magazine, this may be a week or a month.  With Yellow Pages it will be a whole year.

But on the Internet, you can change your content daily.  This allows you to continually expand the range of services that your business advertises and respond quickly to perceived changes in the habits/requirements of your visitors or market.

With a conventional advertising medium, you can find out the viewing potential by examining the published circulation figures.

On the Internet you can see all sorts of information about the way that visitors access your site - where they come from, which of your pages they view, how long they spend on each page and much more.

Using this information, you can tailor your site to meet the ongoing needs of your visitors.

The information contained on your website is available to your potential customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  This is convenient to your customers and convenient to yourself.

The ongoing cost of making this information available on a 24/7 basis is minimal and the quality and quantity of information that you can display is far greater than could be made available by conventional means.

Your website should be viewed as a member of your sales force and an integral part of your Marketing Strategy.

Behind the anonymity of the Internet, it is possible to significantly raise the profile of a small company.  You may consider this to be a good or a bad thing, depending on your point of view.

Either way, it enables a smaller company to potentially compete more effectively with the larger players in the market.

The interactive nature of the Internet means that you can offer services on your website that you would not be able to offer by other means.

• Instant automatic delivery when selling goods in electronic format (e.g. information, software, music, graphics).
• Instant exchange of information via email and file upload/download.
• Instant automatic electronic order confirmation, payment collection and invoicing.
• Easy order tracking.
• Easy electronic mail shots.

There are many interactive facilities that can be built into your website, according to your requirements and circumstances.

Conventional advertising media will always have a place in your Marketing Strategy but a website allows you to expand on that, giving your prospects/customers a much deeper understanding of what you are offering.

Your conventional advert could contain text directing potential customers to your Internet site and an email address for contact.  You may find that this encourages sales, because of the ease of communication.  It is easier to send an email than it is to write a letter and it will arrive at your office just a short time after being sent.  This allows for a much faster response to the customer, with the obvious increased potential of securing a sale.

Like a mail order company, your business does not have to provide premises which your customers can visit.

• Your website is your Showroom but behind the scenes you need hold little (or no) stock.
• Your website is your Sales Force but behind the scenes you have no staff worries or costs.
• Your website could be your Delivery Medium (perhaps you sell online information or software) but behind the scenes you have no packaging problems or late courier worries.
• Your website is your Credit Controller, because all transactions are dealt with online by credit card.
• Your website is your Stock Controller, as it maintains a database of stock levels.
• Your website is your Revenue Accountant, as it maintains a database of sales information.