Integrating a Website With Your Business

by David Risley

It has been one of my continual themes when talking with
clients about their websites that their site needs to serve
their business. When I work with a client, I look at their
website as an extension of their business model. I take a look
at their overall business and evaluate:

* How do they make their money?
* Who is their public or target audience?
* How can their public be promoted to?
* How can the web be used to help automate their business?

I'll listen to what they want to achieve with their website and
then recommend options to help that website achieve the points
above: making money, automate and promote to their target
audience.

Anybody looking to put up a website for business purposes needs
to look at this. Too many business sites are very poorly thought
out and underutilized. A good website is a lot more than good
design. A good design and some content means only that a
website is acting as a glorified brochure. Its better than
nothing and any business today which does not at least have
that really needs to get on the ball. However, beyond design,
you can look at how the site will achieve the points above.

Now, a business which is all web-based is very straight-forward
in this department. A web-based business is going to want to
collect payments from customers via the web, so we're going to
want a secure payment system on that website. We also want that
website to be well-designed so that it does not confuse people
and attracts the customers' eyes to those things which make the
business money. We're also going to want to discuss how the web
can be used to promote. A business which is not web-based would
want to consider what they can provide on the web to extend
their business. Traditional brick-and-mortar businesses may
have a storefront or may need to deal with clients in person,
but what can they do on the web to extend their reach?

Promotion is paramount to success in business and on the web. A
website can perform any of many promotional tasks such as:

* Collecting sales leads by asking visitors to fill out a form.
Perhaps give them some free, valuable content in exchange for
their information.
* Collecting email addresses for use on a mailing list
* Auto-responders sending targeted emails automatically based
on customer's indicated interests on a form
* Providing metrics on customer interest using landing pages
and keyword advertising
* Running polls and surveys to find out what your potential
customers want
* Running free articles which educate your customers on the
subject matter of your business and get them interested.

A website is a footprint on the internet which is viewable
worldwide. Depending on the nature of your business, visitors
located well away from you may not be that useful in terms of
potential clientele. However, there is no reason why you cannot
still gather information from them to use with your local
clientele. After all, if they arrived to your website, they
were interested enough to come. They are a public for you
regardless of their location. Perhaps you can even find a way
to change your business model to include these people which are
not located locally to your business.

In terms of automation, keep something in mind. A web server is
simply a computer. Computers are great at doing repetitive tasks
that humans either hate or would find a huge waste of time. For
this reason, it is always a good idea to look over those
business functions which are repetitive and see if your website
can serve to make your life easier. For example:

* Sending your email newsletters could easily be done using
your web server. Click a button and email your entire mailing
list. Easy.
* Auto-responders can take care of automatically emailing your
customers relevant information at regular intervals.
* Automatically compile sales statistics and email them to you
each morning (if you do web sales)
* Export sales transactions directly into your accounting
software to avoid typing them all in manually.

There are a number of ways a web server can be used to serve a
very real business function and actually do some of the work
for you.

A lot of this comes under the heading of programming. Design is
design, however making the site actually DO something means it
has to be programmed. So, if you are skilled in this area, you
can do it yourself. Or perhaps you can hire it out to somebody.
Before any of that, though, look over your entire business and
the website you have and see how it can be utilized to make
your business easier to manage or actually drive in business.
Unless your website is personal in nature, then it is through
the lens of business that your site needs to be evaluated.

About The Author: David Risley is Founder/CEO of PC Media
(http://www.pcmedian et.com). PC Media specializes in creating
web properties which achieve the aims of your business.
Offering design and development, with services in web
multimedia, video and e-commerce. Creator of Miraserver, a
powerful CMS.