|
Have you ever felt that your company is the only one without its own website? You say you don’t need it? You don’t know where to start from? You have talked to your neighbour, and he offered to create a website for you just for a tenner or two, while companies that are engaged in this business charge thousands? Have you thought about a website, still being in doubt as to what kind of a website you would like to have?
In order to dispel the obscurity among businessmen, the managing director of the company "Baltic Design Colors" Ltd. Igor Babich and project director Igor Suhinin comment on 14 most widely spread myths that might keep a businessman from making up his mind as to the creation of a website for his company.
Only large, well-known companies need a website.
Website is a great chance for everyone – both large and small companies, to establish their image and prestige, it is a nonreplaceable tool for influencing business favourably. A small company can also use its website for establishing successful customer service and providing information. Say, a small beauty saloon can develop its own customer data base and inform its customers on a regular basis about the new available services, price changes or offer on-line subscription for services, whereas a catering company can tell about new courses or special discounts, a sports center – to send its customers information on changes in workout schedules etc. There is no connection between the size of a company and the need for a website.
A website should be created only when business has been fully developed, otherwise there will be nothing to tell about.
In fact, a website can be created both when the business is just started and when the business has been active already for a long time, but the idea of using also Internet options for developing it has emerged. The main thing here is: you must know why you need a website. In order to achieve a high quality result, you must clearly outline to the website developer its goal, but not the way to achieve it. It must be noted though that a good website developer will help to determine also the goals and tasks of the website to be created.
I don’t need a website, as I have lots of customers anyway.
The manager of a company, who thinks this way, has fixated. Of course, when the manager has a small, impersonal rural shop without even a name, and the manager has neither the wish, nor ideas for further progression, he does not need a website either. Most likely, he does not think about development, promotion, and it is a business without future. A businessman who intends to develop his business and to offer goods or services to his customers after a year or ten as well, certainly needs a website - and the sooner, the better: competitors may get ahead and be the first ones to gain the probable increase in customer number by means of Internet.
I don’t need a website, since I advertise on TV and in press.
No matter how effective the advertising in press, television and radio is, it is wrong to miss the oppurtunities offered by Internet in modern information era. When your phone number or address are mentioned on television, customer may forget it, a newspaper with your add may also get lost, whereas on Internet the name and contact information of your company can be found any time, even in the dead of night, therefore customers can search for your profile and find it there day and night.
Customers will not choose my company by judging its website, but by judging its portfolio.
Increasingly more frequently the providers of customer services are searched by means of Internet. Just imagine: you need, for example, some constructor and you open websites of two companies. One of them is visually appealing, interesting and you can find there the necessary information, besides you get so carried away by browsing it, that you read even more than you initially needed. The other company has a website containing out-of-date contact information, texts with errors, besides the information is neither easy to find nor to read. Most likely, you will prefer the first service provider, as its image is considerably more appealing than that of competitor’s.
Websites are easy to create. In order to save money, this job can be entrusted even to a schoolboy.
A schoolboy can create a website too, of course, still you must be aware of the goal for creating a website – what exactly do you wish to achieve? If it is going to be just an informative website having no extra options or very limited ones, a schoolboy could then cope with it. Unfortunately, the experience indicates that website created by nonpros are obviously of a lower quality, and the customer often regrets his choice. The following comparison would be relevant here – soccer is played by both schoolboys and professional teams. Who is better at this? Therefore it is up to you to make a decision as to what level of service you would like to benfit from. But you cannot expect something in return and benefits from a website if you have invested little in it.
Read more: The right time for a website creation (continued)
|
