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EVERY small or home-based
business should consider a website. There are certainly some
businesses where a website offers nothing of value but for the vast
majority a website can be a very effective sales channel and
marketing tool. I've listed just a few reasons why a website can be
such a powerful tool but before you continue - and just to
underscore how valuable the Internet can be - consider these
statistics:
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Two billion orders
will be placed over the Internet this year.
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E-commerce revenue
will be $40 Trillion by the end of this year and will exceed $90
Trillion by 2005.
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Holiday purchases have
increased from $25 billion in 2003 and are expected to be $2
Trillion this year. |
Low Cost
Utilizing the Internet for your business is very inexpensive.
Unlimited connect accounts are generally available for less than
$20/month and include Internet access and e-mail. You can start off
with just using electronic mail (e-mail) as a way to communicate
with existing customers and new ones.
E-Mail
Communicate anywhere in the world with customers and employees
and pay NO long distance telephone charges. And while you're at it,
you can "attach" other documents to your e-mail. For example, you
can send an updated proposal to your representative across the
country - quickly and at no cost.
Customer Support
Provide personalized support for your customers with
answers to common questions; assistance on specific products or services,
provide a variety of ways in which you can be contacted. Do all this
without answering a phone or hiring additional staff
Be Open For Business 24
hours a day
This sounds bad but in reality it's a big plus. With e-mail, people
can contact you anytime it is convenient for them. You can respond
anytime that's convenient for you. Of course, we suggest
"timely-response" just as if someone called you. When you have a
website, potential customers can find out about your products and
services 24 hours a day.
Global Reach
The Internet is being used on a regular basis by millions worldwide
with more "connecting" every day. Many of the new users come from
countries around the world. They want to buy the "latest and
greatest" products. Compare the other mode of advertisement to the cost of a website. The information you provide
on your website is instantly available to every one of these users
Reach customers that
speak a foreign language
Why restrict your market to the "English-speaking" world?
Translate your website into a number of languages and offer a choice
to users when they come to your home page to further increase your
exposure.
Money Savings
Today your long-distance phone bill can run into the hundreds of
dollars. Using the e-mail to talk to your customers, suppliers,
partners, etc., can save you a large portion of this expense.
Try new ideas
Since the Internet is a "brand-new" medium, no one (including
us) really knows all of the ways you can make money from the
Internet. We do know there are a whole lot of great ideas already.
When you use the Internet, you can try new ideas usually for little
invested on your part. It doesn't work, OK, you learned. Modify it
your idea. Improve it. At the very least you'll know more than your
competitors. Who could imagine that authors would put their books on
the Internet? Well, that's what people are trying with the hope that
customer's will like what they read enough so that they'll buy the
paper version.
Update or Change your
products and services easily and at low cost If you have produced
"paper" catalogs, brochures, sales collateral's, you know how
difficult and expensive it is to change them. You want to add a new
item. Oh no! The phone company changed your area code. No, no! What
a pain with paper. With your Internet site, changing anything is a
simple and inexpensive process.
Specials
Say you just received a new product and you want to advertise a
"special." Reaching your customers via the phone, sending a letter,
or FAX would be time-consuming and expensive. With the Internet you
can send out an e-mail to 500 of your best customers with the click
of your mouse. You can put a "SPECIAL" notice on your website
advertising the new product
Why does your Company
need a Website?
Many small and medium sized businesses, ask the question
'Why do I need a Website?', and moreover
'Why should I pay for a Website when I cannot see any tangible
benefits?'.
The answers to both
questions can be summed up with the following three benefits...
Improved Corporate
Image
To a small company
‘Corporate Image’ can be seen as something for the big boys who have
money and time to spend on developing and refining a corporate
image. However, no matter what the size of your Company a
professionally designed website can both bolster and in many cases
help define or improve a Company’s corporate image.
At Vertex we pride
ourselves on designing each and every site, around the Client’s
requirements, we spend time, investigating a Client’s business, and
its customers need and perceptions. This enables us both to create a
website for the Client, which is visually stunning, and which
promotes and improves the Client’s Corporate Image.
Improved Customer
Confidence
Today, when a consumer is
searching for a new product or service, they tend to use both
traditional (newspapers, adverts, yellow pages, telephone, etc) and
newer (web, email, etc) methods in the search. Although the majority
of prospective customers of small businesses will still use the
traditional methods, for finding a suitable company, many will then
progress to (if available) looking at the Company’s website to
investigate whether their needs will be fulfilled, whether the price
is right, and perhaps more importantly, whether they like to look of
the company. By combining both traditional and newer methods, your
Company can exploit these tendencies, and given a well designed
website, provide the prospective customer with the right signals to
turn them into a paying customer, and with the right website into a
regular customer of your Company.
It is our aim at Vertex to
design and develop websites that are as individual as your Company,
which will provide for your Company, this improved level of Customer
Confidence and Loyalty.
Increased Sales
As a direct result of the
above two points, your Company will be able to increase the
conversion ratio, of prospective customers, into paying and repeat
customers. A well designed website, is not only a pretty face for
your Company, it is an essential part of the success and future of
your Company in the 21st Century.
A website designed by
Vertex, will provide your Company with an Improved Corporate Image,
Improved Customer Confidence, and in turn Increased Sales.
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