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1. To Establish A Presence Before Your Competitors Do
At the start of 1996
approximately 50 million people worldwide were accessing
the Internet – and surveys showed that in America,
roughly 1 in every 10 people were using it. By the end
of 2001 this number was over 400 million worldwide - and
is predicted to reach 500 million (yes, one half of a
billion people) by the end of 2002! Surveys now show 7
out of 10 Americans are using the Internet. No matter
what your business is, you can't ignore any market of
this size. To be a part of the community and to show
that you are interested in serving them, you need to be
on the Internet. And if you don't, you can be certain
your competitors will.
2. To Network With Others
A lot of day-to-day
business involves nothing more than making connections
with other people. As the saying goes, it's not what
you know; it's whom you know. Passing out your business
card is part of every good meeting and everyone in
business can usually tell more than one story how a
chance meeting turned into a major business deal. Well,
what if you could pass out your business card to
millions of potential clients and partners? A card that
says: "This is what I do and if you are ever in need of
my services, this is how you can reach me". Well, now
you can - 24 hours a day, worldwide, inexpensively on
the Internet.
3. To Make Your Business Information Available
What is basic business
information? Think of your Yellow Pages ad. It tells
people what your hours are, what you do, how someone can
contact you, your location, and the methods of payment
you accept. But that's about all it does (or can ever
do) because the information it conveys is static. It's
the same 12 months of the year, just like everyone
else's. But now imagine a Yellow Pages ad where you
could have instant communication of regularly changing
news. Things like today's interest rate, today's
special, next week's sale or this month's newsletter.
Don't you think that if you could keep your customers
informed of every reason why they should do business
with you, you could do more business? Well you can - on
the Internet.
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4. To Serve Your Customers
Making business
information readily and easily 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 Internet technology. How about making forms
available to pre-qualify loans or have your staff do a
search for that rare spare part your customer is looking
for without tying them up on the phone to take down the
information? Why not allow your customer to punch in
sizes and check it against a database that tells him
what color of cloth is available in your store? All
this can be done, simply and quickly, on the Internet.
5. To Heighten Public Interest
You won't get a major
national magazine to write up your local store opening,
but you might get them to write up your Web page address
if it contains something new and interesting. And even
if a major magazine did 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 suburb sometime soon. But with Web page
information, anybody anywhere who can access the
Internet and hears about you is a potential visitor to
your cyber store and a potential customer for your
information. At the moment - and for the next few years
at least - there is no quicker way to draw attention to
what you do than to put your business onto the Internet.
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, and the merger news? Well, if you sent
out the materials to the press with standard
"do-not-release-before-such-and-such-time" statement you
can only hope for the best. And sometimes (too often
these days, it seems) this doesn't work. But now your
information can be made available at midnight - or any
other time you specify - with all related materials such
as photographs, plans etc. released at exactly the same
time. Imagine the anticipation of "All materials will
be made available on our Internet 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. Yes - this is very, very feasible on the
Internet.
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7. To Sell Goods and Services
Many people think that
this is the most important reason to mount their
business on the Internet, but we pushed it way down the
list to emphasizes that you should consider the many,
many other uses and benefits your business can draw from
the Internet apart from sales. Why? Well, the answer
is complex but the best way to put it is this: Do you
consider the telephone the best place to sell things?
Probably not. Like most people, you probably consider
the telephone to be a tool that allows you to
communicate with your customer, who in turn helps you
sell things. Well, that's how we think you should
consider the Internet. The technology is different, but
before people decide to become customers they will
always want to know about you, what you do and what you
can do for them. You can accomplish these tasks very
easily and inexpensively on the Internet. Then you
might be able to turn these inquiries into customers.
8. To Make Pictures, Sound and Film Files Available
What
if your widget is great, but people would really love it
if they could see it in action? What if your album is
great but with no airplay, nobody knows just how great
it is? A picture may be worth a thousand words, but you
don't have the space for a thousand words? Well, the
Internet allows you to add sound, pictures and short
movie files to your company's information. And in the
next few years, you'll be able to include live video
too. No brochure will ever do that for you. But the
Internet will.
9. To Reach a Highly Desirable Demographic Market
The demographic of
Internet users shows that - as a whole - the Internet
constitutes probably the wealthiest market on the
planet. Although individual studies vary on the
details, it's safe to say that the majority of Internet
users have 4 or more years or tertiary education, a high
disposable income, fit in the 25 to 55 age bracket, have
access to credit cards and like using them. It's no
wonder that Wired magazine - the magazine of choice to
the Internet community - has no problem getting high-end
companies to advertise. And it's no wonder that many
very highly priced goods and services are already freely
traded on the Internet. The Net is an affluent market,
and will stay that way for many years to come.
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10. To Answer Frequently Asked Questions
Whoever answers the
phones in your business can tell you that a large slice
of their time is usually spent answering the same
questions over and over again. These are the questions
that customers and potential customers want to know the
answer to before they deal with you. Post them on an
Internet page and you will have instantly removed
another barrier to doing business with you – and freed
up some time for your phone operators as well.
11. To Stay In Contact With Salespeople
Your employees on the
road may need up-to-the-minute information that will
help them make a sale or pull together a deal. If you
know what that information is, you can keep it posted in
complete privacy on the Internet. A quick local phone
call can keep your staff supplied with the most detailed
and up-to-date information without long distance phone
bills and without tying up staff at the home office.
And your remote staff can access the complete company
files online, if you wish, to allow them to travel light
and fast.
12. To Open International Markets
You may not be able to
make sense of the mail, phone and regulation systems in
all of your potential international markets, but with an
Internet presence 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 Internet, 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 to you, whether it is part
of your plan or not. The Internet is inherently global,
and no other media can provide you with the facility to
broadcast your products and services to the entire
planet the way the Web can.
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13. To Create a 24-Hour Service
If you've ever
remembered too late or too early to call someone
interstate, you know the hassle. We're not all on the
same schedule! Business is worldwide but your office
hours aren't. Trying to reach Asia, the USA or Europe
is even more frustrating. But Internet pages serve your
prospects, customers and trading partners 24 hours a
day, seven days a week - when it suits them! You can
customize your information to precisely match your
customer needs and you can collect important information
that will put you ahead of the competition, before they
even get into their office. Best of all, you can become
a 24-hour-a-day operation - through the Internet - for
less than the cost of a suburban newspaper classified
ad.
14. To Make Changing Information Available Quickly
Sometimes, information
changes before it gets off the press. The result?
You're left with a pile of expensive, worthless paper.
But electronic publishing on the Internet changes with
your needs. No paper, no ink, no printer's bill. You
can even attach your Internet page to a database which
customizes the page's output - and you can change the
content as many times as you need to. No printed piece
can match that flexibility. Ever.
15. To Allow Feedback From Your Customers
You pass out your
brochure, catalog or booklet. But it doesn't work. No
sales, no calls, no leads. Nothing. So what went
wrong? Was it the wrong color, the wrong price, the
wrong market or a mixture of all three? With
traditional marketing you need to scrap everything and
try again (...and again, and again) until you get it
right. But it's very, very expensive to do this - and
even then, you're never sure you'll get the feedback you
need. But with an Internet page you can ask for
feedback and get it instantaneously at no extra cost.
An instant e-mail response can be built into your
Internet pages and can get the answer while it's fresh
in your customers mind, without the cost and lack of
response of business reply mail. Instant feedback like
this can allow you to rapidly fine-tune your offerings
until you DO strike the successful formula. Again, it's
something that's only possible on the Internet.
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16. To Test Market New Services and Products
Related to the reason
above, we all know that the costs of rolling out a new
product are exorbitant. Advertising and PR are
expensive! But once you've been on the Internet 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
proposed new 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. But true. And
only on the Internet.
17. To Reach The Media
Every kind of business
needs the exposure that the media can bring, but what if
your business is reaching the media already 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 - and on-line
press kits are becoming more and more common since they
work with the digital environment of more and more
pressrooms. On-line publicity means that 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 the these can be made
available on an Internet 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 primary and
secondary schools will be on the Internet within the
next few years. Most in America already are - even as
you read this. Books, athletic shoes, study courses,
youth fashion and anything else that would want to reach
these overlapping markets needs to be on the Internet.
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19. To Reach Specialized Markets
Do you sell tropical
fish tanks, art reproductions, flying lessons, and
hand-made rugs? You may think that the Internet is not
a good place to be. Well, think again. The more
specialized your product or service - the more unique it
is - the better you're likely to do. If you sell
commodity goods (like tins of baked beans), people can
buy them from anywhere - and will. But if you sell
something unique, you can attract more interest through
the Internet than anywhere else. People look to the
Internet for hard-to-find things they can't get
locally. And they'll get them from you - if you're
there too.
20. To Serve Your Local Market
We've talked about the
power to serve the world with a cyber store on the Net.
And how about your own neighborhood? If you're located
in or near any of the country's capitals, there are
probably enough local customers with Internet access to
make it worth your while to consider Net marketing right
now. And naturally, if your clients have Internet
access you should be there too. Your competition
certainly will be.
21. To Create New Businesses
We haven't mentioned
this so far, but one unique advantage of the Internet is
that it also allows you to create completely new
business opportunities that may not be feasible - or
even possible - in the day-to-day world. For example,
you might create and market an electronic newsletter
that may not ordinarily be economically feasible
(because of the heavy costs of advertising, postage and
packing) but quite feasible on the Net (where you can
advertise and distribute effectively for nothing, and
easily reach specialty niche groups previously
considered unreachable). Many new businesses have
already arisen on the Internet in the last few years
that really have no parallel in the everyday world but
their owners are doing very nicely with them, thank
you. Why not you too?
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22. To Provide A Personal Touch
Many people prefer to
meet others face-to-face. And when they can't do that,
they prefer the telephone. But when a prospect or a
client is overseas, a telephone is usually out of the
question –and the post is way too slow. However, if
you're on the Internet, you can use email to provide
quick, effective, personal contact with your prospects
and customers - and they can do the same with you 24
hours a day. It's worth pointing out that most people
largely enjoy email the same way they enjoy a personal
letter - because it's direct, one-to-one communication
that they can send when it suits them and read when it
suits them. And because they like it, is has high
impact. But this form of communication is only
available to you if you're on the Internet.
23.
To Do Pro-Active Marketing
If
you're in a business-to-business service area, having a
cyber store on the Internet allows you to pro-actively
market your services to other businesses that are
already on the Net. And you can do it more economically
than any other form of marketing available to you. No
one is ever offended if you tell them you have a service
or product that might interest them and the address of
your cyber store if they'd like to look it over...and
many new business contacts have been acquired this way.
But of course, if you don't have your business on the
Internet, you can't do this. Your competitors who are on
the Net already can, though - and probably are.
24. To Take Advantage of New Opportunities
At the
moment, the Internet is still in its infancy. And right
now is the best time to take advantage of all the
unfilled niches and services that demand to be filled.
Because every day, those opportunities are being filled
- by other people who saw how wonderful the Internet is
for business and who acted on it. The Internet is still
growing exponentially. You can be a part of it or you
can sit on the sidelines until you're forced to be a
part of it - by which time you'll enter a market where
all of the best opportunities have gone.
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25. To Survive In The 21st Century
The Internet is rapidly
pushing us into a global marketplace. Whether we like
it or not - and whether we want to be a part of it or
not - the Internet is turning the Earth into a very
small planet where anyone can go anywhere and buy, sell
or swap anything from anyone else they wish. The
barriers that isolated countries and people in the past
are being blown away.... and so will the businesses that
duck their heads in the sand and try to pretend that
none of this is really happening. Sooner or later,
every business will have to be on the Internet. It's
just the same as needing to have a phone and a fax, a
mobile phone and a 1-800 number too.
25 Reasons to Put Your
Business on the Internet
PDF copy click here.
- Maui Web Design
Maui Web Design
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