Microsoft Small Business Resource

Key Considerations
Whatever your goal, here are some things to consider for making your on-line presence successful. First decide, what is your core purpose?

Sales Force Automation
Appropriate Tone
Image Development
Extending Your Reach
Call to Action
Get Ready to Change

Sales Force Automation
If your purpose is sales or support oriented, build a navigation system that's intelligent, that anticipates what users want, then lead them to it without a lot of dead ends. Each page on your site should sell - an idea, a product, your business image. Web page design with sales force automation in mind should lead visitors through a screening process to identify needs and desired results, then take them quickly to potential solutions.

Appropriate Tone
Are you interested in business-to-business or consumer communication? The tone of your communications may change for either of these - facts and figures for the former, jazzier and more sell-oriented tone for the latter. Unlike one-dimensional media - print, TV, radio - the Web is an opportunity for conversation with the customer. View like an in-person presentation, rather than a static advertisement.

Image Development and Enhancement
Are you more interested right now in image than immediate sales? Assess how you can influence your market and promote your advantageous differences. Here, professional marketing assistance and graphic design for a powerful and persuasive "visual voice" may be helpful. Tailored marketing messages, not just a mass of on-line data, are critical.

A successful Web image is analogous to targeting direct mail, building brand identity, promoting a corporate identity, and generating credibility. Image shouldn't supplant timely, easily accessible information, though. Both should work together to inform Web page visitors while imprinting a consistent message.

Extending Your Reach
Is integration with existing communications your goal? Then don't just put up a Web page - advertise it! Add the URL address (http://www.yourcompanyname.com) to your:

Business Cards
Letterhead
Advertising
Newsletter to Customers
Customer Proposals
Electronic Mail Correspondence

Anything that promotes your company, services or products.

Also distribute your new URL to all pertinent "What's New" pages already on the Web, searching engines, and all relevant news groups and forums. Continually generate new, appropriate links to and from your Web site to complementary others. Nobody will visit if nobody knows you're there.

Call to Action
Just like direct mail or a sales call, a Web visit should present a call to action - a built-in mechanism that drives the visitor toward a sale, inquiry, or related activity. Interactive dialog boxes and periodic prompts from within the page's text and graphics compel visitors to action. Or simply giving the user a way to send you e-mail with a question can lead them closer to purchasing.

Some businesses use their web-site as a catalog or "virtual" sales call where the user can do everything from getting data on your product to actually placing an order.

Get Ready to Change!
The worst kind of Web page is a static Web page. Short term, new information is one way to keep visitors coming back. Changing information daily is ideal, but weekly or monthly could work as well, depending on how timely your site needs to be. Longer term, be prepared to evolve and modify the interactive format to meet your changing needs and to respond to the market. But that's the beauty of the Web - it's easy to reshape, update, and enhance your presence on a continual basis. In fact, it's necessary.

1.) Building a Successful Online Presence
2.) Benefits

3.) Communicate with Customers and Employees
4.) Key Considerations