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Catching Customers With Your Website
Are your newspaper ads failing
to hit the mark? Have TV and radio commercials become too pricey for
you? Are you tired of delivering your own pamphlets? Is word-of-mouth
just not working?
Don’t despair - all is not lost - because
the most effective way of
getting your message out there is now arguably the cheapest: the World
Wide Web.
But please take note. Establishing an online presence is not as simple
as it may sound.
“The first thing you want to consider is the fact that your website will
be a big selling point; a label for your company and service,” advises
Beau Henderson from IMInteractive, a provider of hosting solutions for
businesses and individuals.
“Potential customers will get an
idea of how professional your company is by the look and feel to your
site, so you want to ensure that navigation is simple, non-confusing and
easy to find on each page,” he says.
“People sometimes make the mistake of including too much information,”
adds Andre Ferreira, from Phase New Media. “Let's face it, people are
lazy and it's still difficult to read large chunks of text on a computer
monitor; simplicity is key.”
Software to Create a Website
Website building applications are ‘a dime a dozen’, so it’s important to
choose carefully, keeping in mind that the best software will always be
the kind you feel the most comfortable with. As Henderson says: “It’s
good to experiment and see what works best for you and your skill
level.”
Kris Howard, a provider of web design and hosting services, disagrees:
“Personally, Macromedia Dreamweaver is the ONLY program,” he says.
“Others do not have the functionality and do not simplify the process of
designing sites from start-to-finish nearly as much as they could.”
On the other hand, Ferreira believes that while Dreamweaver is the
industry standard, it is best left in the hands of people who use it
daily. “In other words, hire a web developer,” he says. “Pay for
expertise and spend your time doing the things are you are best at.”
(Cornerstone Business Solutions builds its site
using MS FrontPage)
Website Content
While keeping your site as simple and easy to navigate as possible is
key, there are several other things to remember that will make the
entire process – from the planning phase to ‘going live’ – much easier.
“Stick with a maximum of three or four colors,” says Henderson. “Too
many is not aesthetically appealing, and will cause your site to look
overcrowded. Stick with those that match the feel of your company or
product.
“Also, remember to keep file size to a minimum,” he adds. “The majority
of Internet users are still on dial-up Internet access, and if it takes
longer than three to five seconds to load, they tend move on to another
site.”
“Create a logging system so every contact from your site, by email, form
or phone call is logged; even the seemingly casual enquiries,” Ferreira
adds. “This will help you track your conversion rate: number of
enquiries to proposals, to meetings, to purchases.”
Online Transactions
You may ask yourself how a website can help you make some money. Will it
help you to directly increase your sales in a substantial, quantifiable
way?
The answer, unequivocally, is ‘yes’. For example, online credit card
purchases have been possible almost as long as the Internet has been in
existence. Even if your company is essentially a service provider, you
may be able to sell research reports and other documents through your
website.
“This kind of e-commerce is really quite safe and widely accepted these
days,” says Kris Howard. “A standard 128 bit encryption is robust enough
to encrypt and decrypt online visitor form inputs, with no loss in data
confidentiality or integrity.”
“You want to ensure any credit card information sent from your customers
is encrypted via a Secure Socket Layer,” warns Henderson. “These can be
purchased relatively cheaply from such places as GeoTrust.com,
FreeSSL.com and InstantSSL.com.”
“It is important to never keep client credit card numbers in an area
where they may be accessible to people online,” he adds. “Keep them
either locked up, or manually enter them into a computer which isn’t
connected to the Internet … and keep them password protected.”
While establishing a ‘net presence’ can certainly lead to a higher
profile for your business, as well as increased revenue, Ferreira warns
that setting up a website just for the sake of having one can become a
real burden.
“Unless your site can make you money or save you time, focus your energy
elsewhere,” he says. “In saying that, if you think carefully about what
your website's purpose is, it can become an important part of your
business operation.”
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