Business Guidelines

The following points may help you define your website:

Attract more clients.
The Internet is national and international - you can extend your business as far as you can manage.

Put your portfolio online.
Show your customers what you can do. Get them excited about your products or services.

Tell your customers about your business and the people who run it.
Give them the confidence to do business with you. Tell them about your quality but also tell them what will happen if something goes wrong.

Use testimonials to sell your product or services.
Let your customers do the selling - they know how good you are.

Make doing business with you easy.
Supply the information customers want: descriptions, pictures, testimonials, prices, guides, guarantees, services, backup, and useful documents. Help them choose. Make buying from you easy, if appropriate, let them buy online. Provide good contact information.

Reduce the costs of doing business.
Move your processes on line. For example, provide enough information about your goods or services for customers to understand what they will get. This will avoid returns and reduce time-wasting calls for information. If there are documents such as contracts or terms and conditions to read, put them on your website and guide customers to them with links.
Another example, if you are recruiting, use smaller media adverts pointing to full job descriptions on your website.

Improve your products and service.
Use feedback forms to get your customers' views and experiences. This is also generates a good sales database.

Generate leads online.
Encourage visitors to your site to register online. Offer them something in exchange, for example, a product guide or a free sample.

Use a mailing lists.
Update people with news that would be of interest to them. The mailing list then becomes a good source of repeat business.

Become the industry expert. Tell customers about what is happening in your business - news, exhibitions, conferences, demonstrations, changes in legislation. Also, follow up with reports on conferences and exhibitions afterwards.

Too many phone calls?
Put product/services information online. Go further, put FAQs (frequently asked questions) on your website.

Make customers want to come back to your website.
Provide special offers, deals, freebies, etc. Make them seasonal, keep them up to date. Provide information that makes past and potential customers want to come back for more. Keep your customers, and future customers, up to date with what is happening. Provide advice, give your views, write guides - anything that customers will find useful and make them want to come back for more.