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Customers today expect every legitimate business to have an online presence. There are various options for a small business to consider before hitting the yellow pages for a web design company. Outlined below are a few of the main strategies to get your company on the web and start driving sales to your business today.
Strategy 1 – Online Brochure or Single Page Website
If your business is a startup, you might consider starting out with a brochure style or “single page website”. These simple 1-5 page websites are usually filled with information and details about your products and services, complete with images and graphics and contact information. Online brochures are quite similar to a standard website, except they are have less features, are easier to set up, and are less expensive to create and maintain.
If you don’t currently own a website, online brochures are a great alternative until you decide to build a more sophisticated web presence. If you do have a website, online brochures can make a perfect supplement to market your business and create an even stronger online presence.
There are several online companies that can design your online brochure for you, usually for significantly less than you’d pay for website design. At Tip Top Website you can build a website in 60 seconds for only $1.00 per month (with custom domain $25.00/annually). Obviously you get what you pay for...and of course there are better packages offered by Network Solutions, Yahoo! Hosting or 1and1 just to name a few that are outlined at the bottom of this article.
Each of these companies use templates for a quick start on your brochure. Simply decide the layout of your site, write the content you would like to include and publish the web page. Also, each host offers user friendly text editors or site builders, with functions similar to Microsoft Word or Corel Word Perfect, so the learning curve is pretty low.
Strategy 2 – Information Only Website
If an online brochure or single page site is not enough for your business then you’ll definitely need a full website to help grow and expand your business market. A typical standard package website includes three to five main sections and various number of sub pages depending on your need. Some people look to skilled friends or family members to help you design a website. Others hire a professional website designer, but there are also ways for your to create an online presence through do-it-yourself website design using an online company’s website “builder” program, which does a lot of the work for you.
With site builders you won’t have as much control over the overall look and setup because you are locked into the layout of the template, but it will save you time and be less complicated for you. Many businesses can have a 5 page website set up and running within 24 hours once you have planned out the category headings and written some basic content for each section. Other companies offer alternative web templates (complete with custom-coded external style sheets) you can buy, customize and use to create your own website.
Strategy 3 – Selling Online
At some point in time most businesses grow out of an information only website and move to an ecommerce strategy. Ecommerce essentially refers to the capacity to or the process of buying and/or selling something electronically—“online transactions.” From an eCommerce prospective, you have two choices to make build the website first and integrate the shopping cart & merchant account later or choose a ecommerce solution that offers an already integrated payment processing system. The latter is typically more expensive on a monthly basis but less expensive initially. Again eCommerce packages are outlined below for several of the more popular providers.
The most beneficial feature of these packages is that the shopping cart, merchant account and online gateway (the payment processing system) is already built into your website with no additional programming or cost. The downside is that the monthly fees are more expensive and can add up over the long term. A new offering in this segment by eBay called Pro Stores which gives the user the advantage of integrating online auctions and other eBay/Paypal features into their online store tracking sales in one place.
Online transactions are safe and secure and are considered to have the same risk as any other type of business transaction. Two of the most commonly accepted forms of payment for ecommerce are credit cards (usually Visa and MasterCard) and PayPal payment. You could also look into electronic checks, e-cash (or digital cash). Accepting payments through PayPal to begin with is recommended, seeing as it is widely used, widely accepted, user-friendly, and fairly uncomplicated to set up.
Strategy 4 – Customer Relationship Management
A final aspect of your online presence is Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions as an online strategy to grow your business. CRM refers to software applications (online or offline) businesses use and do in order to manage and maintain their relationships with their customers or potential buyers. The continual influx of new customers as well as the stability and loyalty of returning customers is necessary for your business to succeed, whether you’re ultimately selling products, services, or information. Successful CRM creates customer loyalty, which can make or break a startup business.
You can actually find web-based CRM solutions online, and you can often take advantage of them and their benefits free of charge. Some software programs require you to install their program onto your computer; other programs are installation-free. But most online CRM programs allow you to interact with your customers and buyers (often through the channel of their choice), record real-time records of these interactions, and access customer information, profiles, and experiences quickly and securely.
Some programs are free such as FreeCRM.com and others offer a free trial like SalesForce.com one of the most popular and robust CRM solutions on the market. Each CRM software solution you may find will vary in its makeup and quality, so conduct some thorough research in order to determine which type is the best one for you.
Strategy 5 – Online Auctions
An alternative to a personal website is the use of online auctions, which is a marketplace to bid on, accept bids on, buy, and sell items. There are a number of different online auctions out there, but eBay is probably your best bet, because it has the largest number of users, it is easy to get started and has many features friendly to small business. eBay is an excellent and inexpensive way to help grow your business.
Once you registered your business on eBay as a seller, you can start posting your items for sale and (hopefully) receive bids. The highest bidder “wins,” meaning they pay you for it and you ship them the item. By selling items or products related to your business, or the actual products you sell on your business website (listing them for a lower starting bid price), and then posting a link back to your website, you can first of all generate interest in your other products as well as drive more traffic back to your own website.
Summary
Regardless of your strategy having an online presence for your business is imperative for most industries. Nowadays getting online is easier and more affordable than ever. Below is a table with links to three of the most popular website hosting companies on the web today to help your small business get started. Check them out, compare prices and features and we will see your business on the world wide web very soon.
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Single Page
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Starter
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Standard
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eCommerce
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N/A
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*Pricing Current as of 03/2007
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