The trading potential of being on the web varies from company to company;  however a corporate website automatically brings with it many benefits, including:

Having a website is a corporate status symbol – ‘www.xxx.co.uk’ on the back of a van or on a company’s letterhead does have impact.  In the 50’s and 60’s if a company vehicle boasted a telex number, it told you something about that organization.  To a slightly lesser extent in the 70’s, a fax number did the same.  But neither of those had the same impact that declaring a web presence has today.

It’s the most effective way of letting your customers know – ‘we’re ready for 21^st century!’  It graphically demonstrates that a company has their finger on the pulse and is willing to embrace tomorrow’s technology.

It’s a way of telling trading partners – ‘we’re geared up for E-commerce’.  Some people would like to dismiss E-commerce as an annoying buzzword - but the rest of the world is taking it very seriously!  Few people fully understand it yet, but everyone is aware of it, and the lucky ones are profiting from it.

It’s a way of portraying that you have the potential to trade worldwide.  The web knows no boundaries and is the only true global commercial medium.  The web is the largest trading market ever created in the history of mankind.  The web is expanding so rapidly that nobody can accurately state how big it is.

Despite being within the largest commercial market in the world, a website allows companies to develop personal business relationships by letting potential customers peruse photographs of the people they are about to contact from afar.

People who regularly use E-mail and E-commerce are instinctively drawn to trading with like-minded companies – preferring to deal with those who can match their ability to get things done quickly.   Once people appreciate the speed and efficiency of electronic trading, they take great exception to being forced to use ‘snail-mail’.

Personal e-mail addresses such as xxxx @compuserve.com and xxxx @freeserve.co.uk are acceptable for non-commercial entities, but company.name @compuserve.com would send out the wrong vibes to many companies.  Having a properly hosted website enables businesses to use their site name as their e-mail address, i.e. enquiries @ford.com - this not only looks more professional, but due to the logic and brevity of the name, it makes remembering both web and e-mail address much easier.  Why spend thousands of pounds advertising a meaningless and difficult to recall address?

Furthermore, the restriction of having just one e-mail address can be very limiting when sorting inbound mail.  A well constructed and professionally hosted website should allow the use of unlimited, multiple e-mail addresses, such as sales @ford.com and accounts @ford.com and parts @ford.com and fredbloggs @ford.com.  Apart from enabling efficient sorting, this further enhances the company’s reputation in the eyes of technically adept trading partners and potential customers.

The Information Highway is a very apt name for the web, for predominantly it is used to display and distribute information.   The beauty of the web is that it delivers data exactly when potential clients need it.  More and more people are commercially active after 17.00 and before 09.00hrs, not to mention at the weekend – just visit any supermarket!  However most employees work between 09.00 and 17.00hrs, Monday to Friday.  Fortunately the web is operational 24hrs a day, 7 days a week and 52 weeks a year.

Sadly, most workers have a habit of requiring meal breaks, cigarette breaks, endless cups of tea, periodic holidays and occasionally go on strike.  Answer phones are no longer acceptable out of hours.   Another vital factor to consider is the volume of requests that you need to cope with – again, engaged phones are no longer tolerated in the current competitive climate and they regularly loose potential and existing clients.  Happily the web can handle hundreds of simultaneous demands for data and record any number of enquiries in a format that can be dealt with later.  This reduces staff levels by eliminating the peaks and troughs of ‘On Demand’ contact.

The web introduces you to people you would otherwise never come in contact with.

Employees are able to say with panache, ‘checkout our website – anytime’.  It gives them confidence and pride in their company.

Most companies are faced with a dilemma when it comes to producing corporate literature and product catalogues.   Large print runs are often dictated in order to achieve reasonable unit costs, unfortunately the rate of change within industry means that brochures can be out of date before representatives get hold of them.  The web allows members of staff to refer to the relevant data on-line, happy in the knowledge that the company only has one source of information to keep up to date.

Strike up a conversation with the manager/director of a company not on the web and ask them if any of their opposition are on-line;  time and time again you will hear, ‘Oh well, so and so have a site!’ – with an ‘of course’ tone to their voice.  When you ask why it should be obvious that that particular company would have a site, you will be told that ‘they are the market leaders’, ‘they are very switched on’, ‘professional’!  This ought to beg the question - don’t you want to be thought of as being switched on and professional?  Don’t you aspire to be market leaders?  If there’s an assumed stature involved, shouldn’t you be benefiting from it?

An American survey showed that "53% of people have used the Internet when looking to purchase" and that "21% of all new car buyers are expected to use the Internet at least to gather information when buying their car".  The UK is now recognised as the leading European user of the Internet and is closing the gap with America with respect to user ratios and E-commerce.

Most sensible managers and directors come to realize that there are sufficient automatic benefits to being on the web to justify having a site, the rest is a BONUS...

Look at it like that - you can’t possibly go wrong!

TV advertising is the most expensive commercial media in the world.  The last screen shot within any advert is the most effective – leaving a lasting image relating to that product or service.   The most important data is always placed (or repeated) within that shot.  Just note how many adverts now end with ‘www…’.  Why should that be?

It is no longer unusual for an entire page within a Sunday magazine to contain the simple words ‘www…’.   The advert stimulates interest, but is too expensive to contain all the information required by the customer.  The web provides ample space to display data and it is pro-active in that the customer is left in control of accessing that data, making them feel safe within their own environment.

Advertising in many American papers has changed dramatically of late.  Whereas the pages typically contained a few, quite large adverts – the same number of pages now contain many, many more adverts, but very small in size – simply portraying the caption ‘www…’.

Digital TV is now being promoted vigorously and in the very near future will be the only serious option available.   Digital TV makes on-line web access possible from the comfort of the armchair – the current explosion in interest for all things web-wise will pale into insignificance compared with what is to come!

Every school is now on-line, the younger generation are fully computer literate and instinctively use the media to find the data they need – needless to say, as every week passes, the younger generation replace the old!

The majority of skills and occupations now bring people in contact with computers, necessitating that everyone come to grips with the technology.  Computers bought for children to do their homework are increasingly being used by parents, anxious not to be left behind.

The web makes it incredibly easy for anyone, anywhere in the world, to enquire about a product or use a credit card to make a purchase.  No pushy salesperson to contend with. Ample time to peruse the relevant information.  What you want, when you want to buy.

But be warned, once a Domain Name has been registered – it is no longer available to anyone else!  A business may have registered its name as a limited company to protect it from others using that style, but it DOES NOT have the right to the equivalent ‘.co.uk’ or ‘.com’ domain name!  Therefore any company delaying their entry to the web could be in for a very nasty surprise – www. xxxx.co.uk may well already exist.  Whether for today or the future, entry now is vital!

EVERY BRITISH COMPANY SHOULD SEEK IMMEDIATE WORLDWIDE INTERNET PROTECTION OF ITS CORPORATE NAME, LOGO AND TRADING STYLE.