Despite popular belief - a website is NOT an online brochure. One of the biggest mistakes a business can make when creating an online presence, is designing a few static pages containing information previously printed on your brochures or flyers and updating it once or twice a year. And most importantly, having a website does not constitute a marketing strategy or a guarantee that your business will be visible. Having a website requires dedication, patience and hard work - unless you have the time, you might even consider outsourcing the development and maintenance to professionals.

So if not a glorified online brochure - what then is a website? Simply put, a website is a dynamic medium, updated daily or weekly, that provides and educates your customers with up-to-date information on your business, products and services. Adding interactivity to you website which allows for your customers to provide feedback, reviews, ratings, votes etc. builds the credibility of your business. It is a very affective way to implement a fast and safe communication gateway between you and your customers, saving them the time and money of having to use the phone or mail.

Today, creating an online presence is highly affordable with low startup costs and distribution. It saves you on time, money and energy usually incurred by the printing of brochures, flyers and pamphlets. A website's distribution is GLOBAL and potentially increases your business's visibility.

If you do not have a website, the chances are that your competition does. Many bookings, reservations and purchases are now being done online - if you do not adjust to the current trends and technology, you will lose potential (even current) customers. A website provides you with the opportunity to equally compete with larger competitors.

You can now build and maintain customer relationships; generate potential leads from referrals and implementing a websms system; and provide helpful information such as directions, downloadable audio directions or information and GPS coordinates etc. A website is a great tool for the retention of your current customers, having them coming back regularly.

A website is also the most inexpensive marketing tool, with global marketing capabilities that works for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Your marketing campaigns are completely trackable and can be monitored almost realtime, providing you with valuable information on Return on Investment. You are able to gather who-where-when-how information and even launch targeted marketing campaigns, all for less than a fraction of the costs involved for conventional advertising campaigns. Best of all, you have complete control over the amount you want to spend on online marketing campaigns.

If you are in the business of making money, having a website is no longer a luxury - it is a necessity.

Related Videos:
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