By Gregory A. Farley

You can't swing a cat in any realm of the business world these days without hitting an Internet consultant. And some of them are very sharp. But for every thoughtful, careful, sophisticated professional out there, there is a Tom, a Dick or a Harry who possesses only the wherewithal it takes to put a name on a business card and hang out a shingle. And behind that consultant's hardy handshake and pleasant smile is a promise to open up the doors to the online bazaar, to introduce your enterprise to millions of virtual shoppers, all hunched over their keyboards with their fingers itching to pound out their credit card account numbers and send them pulsing through the cybersphere, ready for download to an e-mail invoice.

It probably is not going to happen like that.

While industry may embrace the Internet and utilize it without compunction to conduct business online, it remains to be seen whether consumers will buy into the promises of security and adopt the World Wide Web as an instrument of commerce. For now, most of us (consumers, that is) will happily trade our e-mail address for a catalog or fill out a survey online for some downloadable freebie, but most of us use the Internet not for shopping, but to gather information. Keep this in mind: The Internet is the ultimate desktop reference book.

In the last three weeks I've downloaded forms from the U.S. Postal Service and the IRS. I've determined the fair market value for my Toyota sedan and learned what it will cost to replace it with a pickup truck. I learned a cheat code for a computer game that makes my son invincible as he does battle with Imperial storm troopers, and I reviewed the rules of grammar regarding the use of "which" and "that," which led me to brush up on restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses.


You're moving way too fast
Among the pitfalls you're likely to fall into when developing an Internet strategy is the idea that a Web site is automatically a solution, that your company only has to have a presence "out there," that a URL on your business card is as much a priority as a fax number. This mind-set finds many companies paying good money to consultants who, because there is no strategy, develop ill-conceived, largely useless Web sites. The fact is, you'll be better off if you don't jump into the Internet fray until you've considered the technology and determined what it can do for your enterprise. This can be especially difficult for those small businesses (and some large ones, too) that fail to set long-term (or even short-term) goals.

So what should your Web site do for you? That's a question you'll have to think about and answer for yourself — if you can't, chances are you're getting ahead of yourself. At the very least, your Web site should be designed to meet these two goals:

• It should differentiate your company from its competitors. A well-written and carefully designed Web site will put critical information about your goods and services in front of your prospects and serve to set your company apart from others in the same industry. Like all your marketing materials, the site should be carefully written and designed. You can put an entire catalog online and include as much information as you like. Include case studies of successful applications of your products.
• It should make it easier for prospects to do business with you. You can do this by including contact information for your sales staff. Offer a one-time discount for customers who fill out a survey form online. Include an e-mail directory of key staff members and encourage browsers to contact them directly for answers to specific questions. Load your sight with the information that you know your prospects will want.

Consider these points
Once you've decided what you want your Web site to do for you, get started. Draw a diagram of each page and indicate all of the links between pages. Keep the site flexible and expandable, and update it frequently.

Take advantage of the technology. Unlike print materials, your Web site can be changed quickly and cost effectively.

Design the site and write text for it as carefully as you would any marketing material. A typo in a Web site is as damaging and embarrassing as a typo in print (although much easier and cheaper to fix).

Certainly part of the Web's appeal is its non-linear nature, and that holds true for a prospect looking for specific information within your site. Navigation must be intuitive and sensible, and the index or home page should always be just one click away. Whatever navigation scheme you adopt, it must accommodate those users who know exactly what they are looking for, as well as those who do not.

Perhaps most irksome is a Web site that wastes your time. I recently sought to investigate investment options with my bank, but its Web site offered only the most superficial marketing bilge with no concrete information for me to consider and no options to weigh. The end result of a frustrating search was a telephone number I could have looked up in the phone book.

If you use this tremendous technology only to frustrate your prospects and waste their time, it's time for you to reconsider your strategy.

Copyright © 2020 by APICS — The Educational Society for Resource Management. All rights reserved.

Web Site © Copyright 2020 by Lionheart Publishing, Inc.
All rights reserved.


Lionheart Publishing, Inc.
2555 Cumberland Parkway, Suite 299, Atlanta, GA 30339 USA
Phone: +44 23 8110 3411 | br> E-mail:
Web: www.lionheartpub.com


Web Design by Premier Web Designs
E-mail: [email protected]