Ultimately, a website develops an electronic sales channel through which those goods and services can be purchased.
So, when considering establishing a website, you must be clear about what you're endeavouring to achieve.
Is it an electronic brochure, a sales channel to sell products or a mechanism to develop relationships with customers and potential customers?
You should research other sites you like the look of but in doing so it's essential you understand the way they function.
You will need to know how often you'll be required to update the information on the site and who is going to update the information.
Will it be a self-managed website or will you need to involve a web developer to make changes for you?
You will need to prepare the content you would like on the site.
This means developing copy or words for your site, photographs of the products you want on the site, a logo or branding for your company, price lists and product descriptions.
You may need to get help from designers, copywriters and photographers for this part. Remember, you know your product best.
It can also be helpful to have some promotional items available on the site -- something to give away, a fact sheet, product samples, a podcast, articles about your products, a quiz, or other downloads that are available.
Have a call to action on your site. Something such as: "Buy now, call us today, send an email, join up to receive a special price."
And make sure that people can take that action immediately. The web is all about now.
Finally, make sure your site is registered with all available search engines so they know you exist.
Also ensure you host your site with a reputable web host.
Your host collects statistics on your website and you can also
monitor visits to the site to regularly evaluate its effectiveness.
Follow the ground rules for cyber-success
THIS is a list of issues to consider when making your website choice:
•Decide how you can use some of the new social-media technology to build relationships with your customers
•Will you have a blog or customer forum where customers or potential customers can be part of the process, such as making helpful suggestions?
•Get to know the technology you plan to use as part of your website. For example, shop online, try PayPal, comment on someone's blog or become part of an online forum.
•Determine how you will drive traffic to your site such as by advertising, in-bound and outbound links, key words, updated content and viral networking.
•Put your web address on everything -- from business cards, emails and letterheads to your car, your staff uniforms and the message on your telephone answering machine.
•Be mindful of privacy laws andensure that all customers' personal and financial details aretransmitted securely.