WHY DO YOU NEED A WEB SITE?

PEOPLE EXPECT BUSINESSES TO HAVE WEB PAGES.
One of the first places many people look for information about you your products or services these days is on the internet. Not the Yellow pages, not the newspaper, but the internet. A 1997 study by International Data corp. showed that over 50.2 MILLION people used the internet that year, and this figure is expected to rise to 175 MILLION by the year 2000!!! Only when they can't find you there do they turn to older more conventional methods.

YOU CAN REACH MORE PEOPLE IN A MUCH WIDER AREA.
Advertise in the local newspaper, it will cost you a bit. Advertise in the State wide newspaper it will cost you a bundle. Still the people who see your advertisement is limited to the people who have access to that newspaper. Maybe that is enough for you but why settle for the small stuff when you can have the world. LITERALLY. With a web site... YOU DON'T JUST HAVE ACCESS TO THE PEOPLE IN YOUR AREA, YOU HAVE ACCESS TO EVERYONE IN THE COUNTRY, HEY EVERYONE IN THE WORLD!!!!!

A WEB SITE ADDS PRESTIGE TO YOUR BUSINESS.
You can add your web address to your business cards, advertisements, sales cards, letters, in the window of your store. It shows people you are serious about your business and your prestige increases. Just make sure it's a GOOD web page.

IF YOU ADVERTISE AT ALL, WHY NOT THE WEB.
It costs a fraction of what you would pay for a newspaper run, and intros there all the time for anyone in the world to find. Even if you only want to tell people what you do, where you are and when you are open, it's still important to be where the new wave of customers are looking for information. You don't have to have a big fancy web page if you don't want one. But it's like many things in today's world like answering machines, when you got your first one you wondered what on earth you were going to do with it. Now you wonder how on earth you ever managed before without one! Web pages are like that.

COSTS A FRACTION OF CONVENTIONAL ADVERTISING.
Say you want to take out a full page advertisement in a newspaper. If you have ever done this you know just how much that can cost. A full page in the Star Ledger for example will cost you $22,220 on weekdays and $29,607 on Sundays and that's for just one issue! Sure you can get a discount if you want to run an advertisement once a week but each advertisement will still cost you at least $10,883 weekdays and $16,165 on Sundays, and it's still all in BLACK AND WHITE!!! With a web page you can have that self same advertisement for a lot less money, AND ITÕS THERE ALL THE TIME!! It doesn't go away with the next issue of the newspaper, consigned to the garbage or the bottom of the guinea pig cage.

A LOT MORE SPACE ON THE WEB.
You can use use a set amount of space to advertise, but with you can expand what you want to say on the web. With all that extra space you can tell everyone in detail about the products and services that you offer, you can have a series of linked pages that make it easy for customers to find exactly what they want. If you sell a series of products you can describe each one in detail rather than having to cram a lot of small words onto that one ad and hope that they customer's eye will catch on the product that he or she is interested in. If you are service oriented, you can be as detailed as you want.

YOU CAN USE FULL COLOR AND PHOTOGRAPHS.
Color always attracts, and because you can use photographs you can show pictures of your business, products, people or anything that you want. Web Site visitors like to see the products and services that are on offer and your sales will increase if they know what they are getting beforehand.

YOUR WEB PAGE NEVER GOES AWAY!
Unlike the print advertisement, the web page is there all the time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can reach your customers and potential customers at any time of their choosing. You don't have to worry that they missed the issue of the newspaper with your advertisement in it, or your radio or TV commercial, it's there any time they want it. If the desire to buy something comes upon them they can just go straight to their computer and find you NOW. With a web page you are there to fill their need and capture that market when the thought inspires them.

YOU'RE NOT RESTRICTED WITH WHAT YOU CAN SAY.
You may take out a print advertisement to promote a sale, or a new service available. But with a web page, you can do all that and a lot lot more. You are not limited by space and can give as much information as you like. You can give potential clients information they might need, so they come back to your site for more information.
You could:
* Tell customers where you are located.
* State your opening hours are
* Show all your products and/or services
* Announce sales and special promotions
* Create coupons that customers can print and bring in.
* Describe in detail what services you offer
* Provide full descriptions of your products
* Offer your sales brochures online in full color
* Plus anything that you can think of, the possibilities are limitless

YOU CAN SAVE MONEY FOR YOUR BUSINESS.
Do you have customers calling you and asking for the same information time and time again? If you do, you might even have to hire someone just to deal with these calls and give out this information. If you are mailing out information you have to pay for printing and mailing. It takes time and money. Put all that information on your web page. Many people will now check to see if the information they want is available to them online before they bother to call you. Think of how much time and money you could save if they can access that information without you having to do a thing.

CUSTOMERS APPRECIATE A GOOD WEB SITE.
Offer your customers a good well designed informative web site and they will appreciate you more. They can find the information that they want when they want it. They don't have to wait for your business to open in the morning when they want the information at 2am. A well designed web site can increase your customer appreciation and build your business faster and more effectively than any other form of advertising.

CREATE A NEW CUSTOMER BASE.
Many people who use the internet do so instead of reading the newspapers, so having a good web site will promote business that you may not have had otherwise. Many office workers now have access to the internet from their desks so they can look up your site at work, while they can't read a newspaper. You will be reaching a whole new set of people as well as those that you reach now using your normal advertising methods. New customers are always welcome in any business.

YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR PAGE ANY TIME YOU WANT.
With print advertisement, to get a discounted rate, you have to run the same advertisement all the time. Otherwise you need to run a series. With a web page you can change the content at any time you want to reflect new products or services.

YOU CAN BUILD YOUR WEB PAGE INTO A WEB SITE.
You don't have to delete the information that you already have on your page if you want to say something else. If you add a new product or service to your line, you can add a new page to your web site. You can start small if you wish and work up to big just like your business grew, your web page can grow right along with you. As your business grows you can add more pages, and more information.