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Friday, 30 July 2010
Know your customer. Keep a database with information about your client such as: what they purchase, how often they purchase and the last time they purchased. If you have an online store this shouldn’t be too difficult to establish and maintain. These are important because if you know what they purchase you can send them information on similar or complementary items. Knowing how often they purchase will allow you to be more proactive in the timing that you send them information on similar products. Finally, knowing the last time they purchased will help you determine if you’ve lost them as a customer. If they usually purchase every month but you haven’t heard from them in two, that’s a red flag that maybe you’re not meeting their needs anymore.
Over 70% of the U.S. population regularly uses the Internet. Investment in a website serves to effectively enlarge your potential customer base, ultimately allowing you to reach new markets and increasing your profits.
A website can serve as a central location for current and potential customers to get information about your hours of operation, the cost of your products/services, any current specials you are running, your updated inventory, and any other information you want immediately accessible.
Using your website, you can make changes in your hours, specials, prices, etc., available to the public immediately rather than having to wait (or pay) for new printed materials. These changes are free and instantaneous.
You can showcase examples of your work and customer testimonials on your website and even set up an e-commerce function to allow customers to purchase and pay for your products and services directly online.
Visitors to your website can leave anonymous feedback that you can use to improve your business and make it even more profitable in the future.
You can use your website to create a personable, approachable front page for your business and build stronger relationships with customers through newsletters, forums, and blogs, even if they do not live in your area. Keeping loyal and repeat customers is less expensive than attracting new ones.
Having a dynamic and interesting website is one of the best ways to stay ahead of your competition. If even one of your competitors has a website, and in this day and age, most of them probably do, then they are continuously drawing potential customers away from you and into their own open arms if you do not make the most of your online presence.
A website, especially an e-commerce website, allows you to be in business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Potential customers can reach out to you anytime.
Advertising online is more cost-effective than advertising in print once you take into consideration the number of people you are reaching daily and the reduced papers costs. Also, internet marketing is green!
Whether you know it or not, your business is already online. Basic contact information is available for your business through multiple information-gathering websites. Don’t you want to have control over how Web users get information about your business?