2. Purpose & Objective for the Website
2.1. Sell Products & Services - E-Commerce
The ultimate aim of a website would be to generate more business for the company
whether it be through keeping existing customers happy, selling to new
markets, or expanding customer knowledge of your company that they would
begin to utilise more of your products and services. How can you make it
easier for your customer to buy from you?
Make
it so easy for a user to buy your products that even if you are more
expensive they would buy from you because of the hassle-free experience
With services, why should they use your company over another?
2.2. Marketing the Company
When
marketing your company you are building awareness in your customer's minds.
Whether it be a company name, brand name, service or new product that has
been developed, you will need to think clearly of how to communicate this
message effectively through the use of your website (other Internet
marketing methods will be covered in future newsletters).
2.3. Export Markets – Expanding into International Markets
The Internet has made the world a much
smaller place, previously we would think twice about dealing with companies
overseas. With the Internet you
have effective access to a company whether they are next-door or overseas. I have seen many cases where an individual was looking for a
product locally and after getting frustrated with local search engines, they
attempted 'Yahoo!' where they found what they were looking for.
They then proceeded to buy the product overseas instead of making use
of the competent local products and once again that country had lost out on
a valuable income source.
To convince someone to buy locally rather
than internationally, you need to be able to provide more information, so
that the person can answer all their questions through your website.
If they do not find the answers on your website they will merely go
to the next website on the search engine list.
It is a fallacy to think by supplying a summary and your telephone
number that users will go to the effort to phone you for more information.
That is defeating the entire purpose.
>For 24 hours a day, and seven days a week, a
website should thought of as your very own sales representative where
prospective clients can walk into the sales office and provide the client
with a full colour catalogue, entailing all the relevant detail that is
required.
Consider what type of people
will be viewing the website and what information they will require.
Internationally, sufficient detailed information needs to be provided
so that the visitor can determine whether or not the product or service is
suitable. Attempt to answer as many questions as possible that the user
may ask by providing good information.
2.4. Product and Service Awareness – (Expand Existing Customer Knowledge)
There have been many instances where
potential customers are not fully informed of the full range of products or
services a company offers, which results in the ineffective use of the
company’s resources.
This is another area where the website proves
to be extremely useful, as the entire product range is displayed detailing
all important product information. Therefore,
by providing the customer with the relevant product/service detail, vital
product awareness is created.
A write-up of the various projects completed
by the company and their applications enables the visitor to identify with
these examples, and helps in the product selection process.
With this previous experience list and detailed previous project
write-ups, the visitor can view exactly what the company’s services
entail, their capabilities, and the value of the contracts relevant to their
inquiry.
-
Help
users identify a need with your products or services, by providing
applications where your company's products and services have been used
in industry.
-
Display
entire product/service range effectively to ensure that products are
easy to find i.e. direct users from the homepage in the best possible
way.
2.5. Provide Customer Service & Assistance - Assist in becoming a Customer Partner
The market requires information that will
enable them to make the correct selection of the necessary products/services
and to assist them in their work.
The website can be used as a tool that
provides expertise in the form of relevant technical information, on-line
design calculation, information for design and estimating purposes, and
specific knowledge of relevant products and services that make the engineers
job as easy as possible.
This also reduces the time spent by the
supplier in providing customers with information in the form of costly faxes
and brochures that become obsolete within a short space of time, this way
the customer can obtain, up-to-date information any time of the day.
This cultivates a sense of partnership
between engineer and supplier and entrenches in the engineers mind that this
supplier is interested in furthering good customer relations.
2.6. E-Commerce
E-Commerce is receiving a huge amount of
media attention, and the figures are available for us to see that E-Commerce
is growing in leaps and bounds. Security
continues to put many people off, but these issues have been dealt with to a
large extent with new technology and software being developed.
Things will improve all the time.
There are certain products and services in
the Engineering industry where it would not be feasible to select a product
online to purchase. The
transaction, paperwork and communications could certainly be reduced and
conducted online, but there is too much design work needed before an order
can even be placed.
However, certain aspects of a purchase for
complex products can be ordered online by providing facilities on your
websites where users can select various scenarios, and they will be
presented with the correct item or part number that can then be ordered
directly.
We are seeing many companies that are
starting to order online through a website, and are being billed on account.
This is working well and we can expect to see more and more of this.
When direct bank transfers become common practice it will aid in
streamlining the ordering process. The
main hindrance to this is the individual company’s policy, limiting online
purchases.
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