10. Offer service 365/24/7
It may not be of great value to you (it may even be a burden…), but to your customers it is very empowering and important. The Internet puts the web browser in control – and if you are not there, you will be more and more passed over in favour of an online competitor.
11. Answer frequently asked questions (FAQs)
You will agree with me that answering the same questions over and over again can be a great waste of money and employee morale. A carefully crafted list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), posted on a website, can reduce the stream of repetitive questions so your Customer Support department can actually start supporting customers, and your Sales Department can really devote their time to selling!
13. Improve branding
Branding is a way to differentiate your product, service or company from its competition, and create loyalty. The content of a website, its style and tools such as newsletters allow for many ways to differentiate yourself, make the visitor feel good about you, and build loyalty. More worrisome: if you do not do this, a competitor may snatch not only your prospects sales, but also their loyalty away from you with their website! Eat, or be eaten!hahaha.
14. Reach a local/Regional/National/Global and International market
More and more people use locally defined keywords in the search engines, which indicates that they use the Internet do find local information. A website is one of the easiest tools to expand your exposure into a wider geographical area.
15. Solicitate feedback from customers
A contact form on a website can provide you with a lot of valuable information from customers, prospects and other interested people. You may even get them to take an online poll – especially if you say they can win a prize as a reward. And if the stakes are high enough, the free word-of-mouth promotion will start automatically…
