Written July 2001 by Tom Umstattd, CPA.  Why your business should get and use a website to promote its products and services.

Having a website is a new way of reaching your targeted clients and customers. With today’s computer savvy economical climate, it is becoming more and more imperative that we have at least a minimal website for our businesses. So, what are some of the other reasons to use a website?

• You would like to refer to pictures, plats, charts, graphs, reports, and other information, when promoting your goods or services with your customers on the phone.
• You have answered the same question repeatedly and would like to refer someone to an article (frequently asked questions) that would answer their question.
• You would like to have detailed information about your company, its employees, mission, purpose, locations, directions, maps, hours, readily available to someone who wants to know.
• You would like to have detailed information about your products or services that can be in an electronic brochure that can be bigger, more colorful, continually updated, and perhaps cheaper, than a preprinted brochure.
• You want to reach potential customers who will visit your store or office or contact you directly.
• You want your customers to be able to check your product availability any time, day or night.
• You’d like to sell directly from the web.
• You have products or services with a visual or auditory impact: real estate, sculpture, interior designs, art, music – and you want potential customers to see and hear your work.

It is critical that whatever you are trying to accomplish, your website must be integrated into your sales and marketing strategy. Have your employees: sales people, receptionists, etc. frequently refer to your website to receive and deliver information about your business. They should be very familiar with what information is on the website, so there is more time for salesmanship, and less time spent reporting technical data to potential customers. While communicating with my clients and perspective customers, I find myself referring more and more to my websites, as well as other websites, while we talk on the phone. Listening to my voice while simultaneously looking at my website’s pictures, forms, contracts and the like is tremendously effective, facilitates the communication of difficult subjects, and saves lots of time.

Your marketing strategy must take into account the new and often-ignored characteristics of the World Wide Web, the technology behind it, and the attitudes of the public as they update to connect into this culture-changing phenomenon. Also more and more people are expecting savvy businesses to be on line. Advertisements everywhere include a website address. Perspective customers ask: “What’s your website?” Web presence alone could be the difference of making a sale or not. I think that sooner or later most businesses will have websites.

I frequently refer to my own websites, so that clients, perspective business associates, buyers, sellers, mortgage lenders, governmental bureaucrats, brokers, and yes, even friends, can quickly familiarize themselves with the technical qualifications, capabilities, services, products and experiences of my businesses. That way we can spend more time on the phone, at lunch, etc. negotiating the deal, connecting, winning favor, and best of all having a little fun together.  I used to be obliged to render a pontification my credentials and accomplishments, running the risk of being interpreted as merely having an ego trip.  Now I just refer to my website; and when they get enough, they do not have to be rude, but just click <back.