Arsip Piksi-L

Tanggal Sebelumnya Tanggal Berikutnya Ulir Sebelumnya Ulir Berikutnya

Indeks - Tanggal   Indeks - Ulir Diskusi

[PIKSI-L] Thirteen Reasons to Put a Business on the World Wide Web

From "Heru Sunandar" <heru @ somewhere.in.the.world>
Date Sat, 29 Jan 2000 16:53:19 +0700
Cc <asisten @ somewhere.in.the.world>

Thirteen Reasons to Put a Business on the World Wide Web

To establish a presence.
Globally, approximately 50 million people have access to the World Wide Web.
Quite simply, there are few businesses that can ignore a market of this
size. In the near future, having an e-mail address and Web site will be like
having a phone number and business card-crucial to even small companies.
To network. By linking your pages with those of your networked contacts, you
are referring clients back and forth. If, for instance, your product
complements, is used within, or uses a product from another manufacturer, a
potential client can get a complete package of information with just a few
clicks of a mouse.

To provide availability advertising.
There's little doubt that the most used resource directory is the Yellow
Pages. Imagine a book of Yellow Pages that covers the globe-all a client
would need to do is tell it what he or she was looking for, and it would
automatically open to your listing. That's exactly how the WWW works. Not
only can you list basic information (your business expertise, location,
hours, how to contact you, methods of payment, and so on), but you can
update this information instantly (time-sensitive specials, current interest
rates, announcements, and press releases). You can even have an entire
catalog, including full-color photographs and graphics, available for
instant viewing and ordering.

To augment traditional advertising.
Imagine including a brochure with every business card, piece of letterhead,
print or broadcast ad, and even in your telephone's on-hold messages. By
including your WWW address, that's exactly what you can do. A WWW address,
such as www.hampton.org, is small enough to fit anywhere, yet it provides
instant access to your entire sales argument. Furthermore, an instant e-mail
response can be built into Web pages to get and give feedback while the
questions are still fresh in your customer's mind, without the cost and lack
of response of business reply mail.
If you read any of the nation's largest magazines and newspapers, you'll
notice more and more WWW addresses printed within advertisements. The reason
for this is simple: The WWW allows a much higher degree of communication for
the advertising investment-"more bang for the buck."

Customer service.
People wiser than we have often said that it's easier to keep an old
customer than to get a new one. Keeping an open line of communication is one
of the most important ways to serve your customers. Via the WWW, you can
post information, troubleshooting tips, request forms and the like that will
enable you to "keep your finger on the pulse" of your customers.

Publicity.
The media is perhaps the most advanced profession today in regard to
electronic communication, since their main product is information, and they
can get it more quickly, cheaply, and easily online. Because of this, online
press kits are becoming more and more common. Most pressrooms have gone
digital in the past decade, so it is much easier for them to simply take a
press release and photos from a Web site than it would be for them to
strip-in hardcopy. The easier you make it for the press, the more likely you
are to have your press releases turn to articles in a timely fashion.

To open international markets.
We were recently confronted by an issue where a foreign customs official
held a package of print proofs for ransom. If these proofs had been made
available on the WWW, this could not have happened. As the United States is
discovering, digital information has little respect for international
boundary lines. Because of this, markets that may have once been too
difficult to approach can now be very profitable.
With a Web site, you can open up a dialogue with international markets as
easily as with the company across the street. We'll go so far as to say that
you should decide how you want to handle the international business that
will come your way before you start a Web site, because it is a good
possibility that your online marketing will bring international
opportunities-whether it is part of your plan or not. We once posted an ad
for an old Jeep on a local Usenet group (not even the Web) and were
contacted by people as far away as the Netherlands.
Another added benefit: If your company has offices overseas, it can access
(and even add to) the home office's information for the price of a local
phone call. So the Internet and Web make possible easier international
communications within a company as well.
To test market new services and products.
The advertising costs of rolling out a new service or product can be
enormous. Many times, because of the cost of printing and mailing, companies
hold off releasing new products until the next generation of their catalog.
On the Web, new products and services can be released globally and
instantly; updating a Web page to include a new item costs a fraction of
what it would to print a new catalog. The Internet's two-way communication
also enables you to receive immediate feedback from your markets.

To reach a highly desirable demographic market.
The demographic of the WWW user is probably the highest mass-market
demographic available. College educated, high income, credit card holders
(most ISPs require credit card deposits)-it's no wonder that magazines that
deal with the Internet and WWW are easily able to get high-revenue ads on a
regular basis.

To reach the specialized market.
Thinking of selling nude photos of George Bush? With millions of Internet
users, even the most narrowly defined interest group will be represented.
And, because of the search capabilities of the WWW, your potential customers
will be able to find you.

To provide 24-hour, 7-day accessibility.
A FAX may come in from Tokyo at 2:00 in the morning. By the time someone
comes in to open the office, the sale is lost. By accessing your WWW system,
however, the same potential client could have surveyed your brochure and
placed an order-for less than it cost to send the FAX.

To save money.
Say your company prints 10,000 copies of a brochure. You send 2,000 out via
the mail, give 2,000 to the sales staff, and put 6,000 in a warehouse for
later use. Over the next few months, you add new products/services, or you
move offices, or you add partners. You now have thousands of outdated
brochures. One of the main reasons that so many of the largest corporations
in the world have rushed to the WWW is to try to contain print and
print-storage costs.

To sell.
Obviously, sales is the most important part of any business-so why didn't we
make this the first item on the list? Because a good businessperson will
have seen that all of the other points listed add up to increased sales. The
WWW is perhaps the most powerful marketing tool ever devised, but it is only
a tool. Even the most perfect promotional system can't make up for a poor
product or service, inept staff, or any of the hundreds of intangible
stumbling blocks that lie in the way of successful sales. However, with the
powerful communication tools and enormous market available in Internet
marketing, there's far less of a gamble. The fact is that clients can find
you; review your information in text, pictures, and even sound and video;
contact your sales staff; and place an order from their own desks within a
matter of minutes, 24-hours a day. No other form of business communication
provides this degree of sales support.


------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-~>
eGroups is now Yahoo! Groups
Click here for more details
http://click.egroups.com/1/11231/0/_/48885/_/980756300/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

----------
Piksi-L @ somewhere.in.the.world merupakan 'mailing-list' alumni asisten Piksi,
ITB, Indonesia.

Opini yang disampaikan di forum ini merupakan pendapat/sikap
pribadi, kecuali secara eksplisit dinyatakan lain, dan *sama sekali*
tidak berkaitan dengan kelembagaan Piksi ITB secara formal.

Untuk berhenti, kirim email ke piksi-l-unsubscribe @ somewhere.in.the.world
Pengelola Piksi-L: piksi-l-owner @ somewhere.in.the.world
Informasi Piksi-L: http://www.egroups.com/group/piksi-l


 

Dihasilkan pada Thu Sep 22 18:41:46 2005 | menggunakan mhonarc 2.6.10