Can my business benefit from a web site?
The answer is usually yes. The things you need to consider are what type of web site do I need, how can my web site increase my sales and how can my web site reduce my costs.
Types of Web Sites
Your web site may simply be a way of informing people of who you are, what your products or services are and how to contact you, or it may be an e-commerce site selling products locally or internationally. What ever the case may be, it should allow you to either increase your sales and/or reduce costs and save you time.
How Can My Web Site Increase Sales?
Your site doesn't need to sell goods online to increase your sales. Your web site should build awareness of your product or service and enhance your brand.
Use your web site to showcase your products and encourage customers to visit your shop, showroom or office. Many people use the web to research products and services, and then buy offline.
If your business provides a service, your web site should promote your expertise and tell people why they should use you (and why other people do) - try to encourage enquiries and gain new customers. It's about building confidence in what you do.
Provide added customer service by sending an email campaign to clients to let them know about new products or services and special deals, this is also cost-effective targeted advertising.
Having an informative, well designed web site will present your business as a professional organisation enabling you to promote your business to a huge number of new customers (locally or internationally) and provide up-to-date info to existing customers, 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
How Can My Web Site Reduce Costs and Save Me Time?
No other advertising can reach so many people in so many places and still be affordable for any size business.
Having your web address on your traditional advertising allows people to easily get more information without having to make a phone call, which in turn saves you time and it increases the value of your traditional advertising and brand.
Your web site allows you to offer instant information to new and existing customers. Having the ability to tell customers they can find the information they require on your web site rather than having to send brochures or faxes is convenient, saves money and time for both parties.
Make use of email marketing to inform clients of new products or services, special deals, media releases, industry news... the cost of sending an email campaign is minimal in comparison to normal postage costs.
A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page on your site is often helpful for customers and can save you time not having to answer the same enquiries time and time again.
Benefit From the Internet
The web holds a wealth of information and resources used for many purposes and the number of users is growing every day. Your web site should be an investment for your business which either increases your sales and/or reduces your costs. Don't just have a web site for the sake of it, take advantage of the Internet and use it as a business tool.
What is eBusiness?
eBusiness is the use of the internet to conduct transactions online. An eBusiness site provides a way for the customer to see what products are available, order the products, provide shipping information, and pay for those products in a way other than in person.
What is eCommerce?
eCommerce is the ability for an organisation to sell products and services, provide online payment solutions and to process transactions via a website. eCommerce is the essential ingredient for doing business with visitors directly from a website.
What does eCommerce accomplish?
eCommerce empowers your organisation to do business with anyone, anywhere, dramatically expanding your market potential.
Are eBusiness & eCommerce the same?
eCommerce has to do with the monetary side of online business or the actual online transaction. While eBusiness encompasses eCommerce. It means that eBusiness deals with the whole business function such as finance, marketing, inventory and etc.
What is HTML & URL?
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard for formatting text and images to create web pages. It defines a number of tags that can be used to modify the appearance of text and to load, size and position images (web content). The most important feature of HTML is an addressing scheme for linking to resources, called the URL. The Universal Resource Locator (URL) can be written into web pages, creating clickable links to other pages and/or images located on other web Servers.
Why do we need a domain name?
A domain name is needed when one is going to build a web site. Domain names must be registered with one of the Internet domain authorities, in which they make sure that there are no duplicates. The domain name becomes both the 'address' of the site, and can be an essential part of your brand
Nobody ever visits my website, what do I need to do?
Set aside a marketing budget to promote your website. We can help with web development and online marketing services such as Email Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, and Pay-Per-Click Advertising (Search-engine Marketing).
What is a Search Engine?
A search engine is a very large scale computer system connected to the Internet. It operates by linking to websites and reading through the available web pages identifying keywords, titles etc. These words are retrieved and stored in large, fast searching indexes. When people refer to Search Engines nowadays, this almost always refers to Google. Search Engine Optimisation and Search Engine Marketing have become an essential marketing tool for online businesses.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website from search engines via natural search results. SEO can be done by optimising a site’s coding, presentation, and structure to a website
I want to know who has been visiting my website?
You need statistics. There is statistical software such as Google Analytics, Webalizer and LiveStats that you can use to collect and analyse your visitor traffic to your website. In doing so, you will be able to identify whether your website performance is“good” or “bad”.
How can I accept payment on my website?
You need a merchant account, which normally you get from your bank. The bank will provide information on how to process credit card transactions and tools to do the transaction. If you are unable to set up a merchant account via the banks, there are other alternative such as third party payment providers like Paypal.
I don’t want to send emails that get treated as Spam. On the other hand, I know email marketing is an effective tool.
First of all, spam mail is described as sending bulk mail to recipients with whom you’ve had no prior contact or permission. Bulk Email is when you send the same message to some number of recipients at the same time. And you are right, sending Spam usually impacts the reputation of a company doing business online. We can provide online systems in which you can effectively use bulk email as a marketing tool. It will allow you to keep in touch with your clients and customers, send newsletters, service messages, specials announcement and more. These systems are also an effective database tool to keep in contact with our current clients or generate new business.
How can I get a merchant account?
Getting a merchant account can be a confusing and difficult process. Many business owners avoid or prolong expanding their online business due to the overwhelming nature of the Internet. We can walk you through that process, handling the majority of it for you, with the exception of actually filling out the merchant bank application.