Why your business needs a Web site.

• As a means of branding, marketing and advertising, a Web presence is inexpensive, and unparalled in it's ability to reach a target audience.
  
  
• It can react to customers individually, automatically and immediately.
  
  But before you rush ahead and commit to the project you must decide on the amount of resources, (including most importantly time) you are willing to devote. Simple Web pages can be designed and finished within a working day, while more complex pages that use forms, CGI scripting and other functions can take considerably longer to implement. Based on this you will have to decide on what you want your Web page to achieve, it's complexity, and most importantly of all the audience you wish to target.
  
  
• One of the advantages of the Internet for small businesses is the lack of bandwidth.
  
  This means that very large complex pages take a long time to download, so a lot of people don't bother with them. This makes smaller, well designed pages a favourite with people surfing the Internet. So a small company with limited resources can compete quite easily with a large corporation because the large company is stuck with the same bandwidth restrictions as everybody else. The Internet levels the playing field.
  
  

What are your Goals

As with most other business efforts, it's important to decide on your goals before you start on a Web site. Focusing on the results you expect before you start helps clarify the path for attaining those results. You may be able to adapt some of the following goals.

• Provide Better Customer Support
  
  Software house are using the Web to provide customers with better support taking pressure off their telephone support lines. This is a direct huge saving for such companies (and because people can if they wish solve their problems at 2 O'clock in the morning it is also good for a companies image). Information relating to products that have long been discontinued is still available on these sites. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's) sheets can solve the majority of peoples problems, while an email reply still provides quicker and often better solution finding for unusual problems. A technical support engineer can also have files uploaded to them, which allows support engineers to better see (and more quickly resolve) the reported problem.
  
  
• Reach More Potential Customers
  
  If a customer doesn't know about a product then they won't buy it. Large companies like Ford or Microsoft can combine a large advertising budget with lots of retail outlets; this mix ensure that potential buyers are aware of their brands and have a place to buy them. Smaller companies, or companies that compete in narrow markets, have to do more with less to reach new customers and make a sale. But the great thing about the Internet is that it levels the playing field. A "home-grown" site if it is done with style and flair can compete very favourably with the likes of Ford and Microsoft.
  
  
• Earn Bragging Rights
  
  Don't forget the publicity value of a well designed site. This bonus attention can be huge. With interest in the Web still booming, being able to cite a www address in your letterheads and print advertising can draw favourable attention. In the United States at the moment even something as low tech as a carton of milk has a Web address on it.
  In some markets just having a Web site can be a big marketing boost. The perception is that you are cutting edge, ahead of the times, even without people coming to visit your site. An email address on a business card has much the same effect. Many people still use the telephone and fax numbers, but do still notice the email address.
  
  

How to achieve your Goals

Having decided that you want a Web site, and secondly have some idea on what you would like the Web site to achieve, you can start deciding on what form your Web site will take.

Who's The Audience

Depending on the nature of your business, you may already have a very good idea of who your customers are. For example, if you sell fishing equipment, most of your customers are probably fishermen. On the other hand if you were setting up a storefront for your giftware business, your customers may not have much in common.

It is important to think about who you are trying to reach with your Web presence. An appealing well-designed Web site will draw in lots of casual browsers, and that's good - but an appealing, well-designed, well-tailored site will draw in casual visitors and the customers you hope to reach. Think about the following issues when picturing your audience:

• What ties their interests to your products? Once you know what your audience is interested in, you can cater for that interest on your site.
  
  
• Does it matter if your audience is young or old? Experienced computer users or neophytes ? If you're selling to an easily identifiable group you may want to consider slanting your artwork and text to appeal strongly to that group.
  
  
• How are your users connecting ? If your product is targeted at the home, for example, most of your users will be using modems and may not like large lavish graphics that takes ages to download!
  
  
• If you are not sure who your customers are, ask them! Put up a survey form in your normal retail outlet and tell customers what you need to know, speak to your sales staff they will often have a very good idea. To draw a good response offer a T-shirt or other small prize as an incentive. But remember however detailed your picture is, you don't want to turn off other customers who don't fit your expectations.
  
  Return to Slide Show
  

• Keep your look consistent. Use your existing logos and company colours on your site.
  
  
• If users can't find it, it's useless. make sure that you build your pages with a clear structure. Use links so that users can quickly jump to an area that they are interested in. You also need to register with all the search engines.
  
  
• Be vigilant about looking for dead spots, broken links, missing image files etc. It's very frustrating to see a link to an interesting page only to get a "Not Found" error message.
  
  

• Keep your site regularily updated.
  
  There is nothing more frustrating than visiting a well liked site only to find that it has not been updated in months. A Web site needs constant updating to keep people interested in it. A Web site is not a "once off" cost that can be forgotten about.
  
  
• Make Information easy to find.
  
  Follow the three link rule. Any piece of information should be found within three links of the home page. A good example of easily found information is the Cinema link from Dalkey Home Page.(Don't be afraid to activate this link, it will open an extra frame which can quickly be closed to bring you back to this point).
  
  
• Keep it simple.
  
  Remember you are in a very competive enviroment. Any more than 20K on your home page and people will get bored waiting for images to download and move on elsewhere. Once you have a users attention you want him/her to revisit and tell their friends. Keep it simple and well laid out, with easy to find interesting information.
  
  
• Tell the World
  
  Firstly tell all your customers, send them a postcard with a 28p stamp. Not expensive. Add "www.yourcompanyname.ie" to all your company stationary and print advertising.
  Register all your pages seperately with as many different search engines as you can find. Get your friends/employees to join appropiate news groups and have messages sent saying "There's a really good site at such and such". If there is, this will have a snowballing effect. Ask/(Pay) for links from other heavily used sites with similiar content to your site.
  
  

• Friendly professional service by people who understand the issues in Internet design.
  
  
• Designs to meet your budget.
  
  
• Graphics and logo Service, because we already run a graphics and printing office we use the expertise we already have "in-house" to produce first class work.
  
  
• Site Hosting, we can host your site for you and provide email facilities.
  
  
• Training Sessions available. HTML and Java Script are not difficult to get to grips with, in fact after one days training most computer literate people will have their own web site up and running and have enough expertise to maintain and update it.
  
  
• Site Management, we can take over the running of your site for you with different rates, depending on the quantity and the frequency new material to be added to the site.
  
  
• Internet Marketing, we will advise you on how to get your target audience to visit your site.
  
  

• To increase the visibility of Cyber House Computer Services and the radius which it serves, i.e. reach more potential customers.
  
  
• To earn some "bragging rights" which will improve the image of Cyber House services.
  
  
• Form a show piece for our Web Page Design Service.