How to Build a Better Online Business
Practically any business these days should have some form of online presence, whether through a website, social media pages, or directory listings. The Internet – and specifically the World Wide Web – has now become a mature and prominent sector where companies have clearly demonstrated the effective use of the medium to generate new cost-effective business and to utilise the technology to achieve things not previously possible using traditional channels.
There can be many opportunities and advantages in developing an online business. Many of these revolve around the creation of a website which could be used for a variety of reasons, such as:
- enabling you to deal direct with customers in ways not previously possible
- allowing you to provide more efficient direct customer support, which can be beneficial to customers as well as reduce administrative overheads
- providing detailed product and corporate information to interested parties in both a cost-effective and immediate manner
- providing a source of further information to support offline advertising campaigns
- generating extra business and brand awareness via online sources such as search engines, banner advertising and links on other websites
- acting as a communications channel both internally and with other businesses that you deal with.
Developing an online marketing strategy
Whichever route you decide to take with your online business strategy, it will all be a wasted effort if it is not marketed effectively. Like any other area of business, the process needs to be carefully planned and costed, targets set and then continually reviewed to help develop the online strategy in the face of the developing and changing market conditions.
The initial decision to develop an online business, either in isolation or as an extension of an existing ‘offline’ business will raise such questions as:
- What are your overall objectives and what role will the website play?
- Do you want to use the web for marketing, to serve an important business function or both?
- How is the Internet being used in your market and what are the opportunities – and threats?
- What can you expect to achieve with the budgets available?
How Web Marketing Workshop can help
When you employ Web Marketing Workshop at any stage of your online business development, you will benefit from our specialist experience of working with hundreds of websites across different market sectors and utilising a variety of business models.
We will provide you with an independent assessment of your online objectives and potential. We can assess your current situation, your market and competitors to provide either a full online strategy assessment, or our consultancy at different stages of the process.
So, if you’re thinking of going online for the first time or want to review your current strategy, contact us to find out how we can help or request our FREE marketing assessment to get an insight into the possibilities available.