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II.
Getting Started
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Before you can market online you need to have a Web site ready to communicate with visitors. If your site is ready to meet the needs of visitors, then skip to Section III, "Defining Online Marketing Goals." If you don't have a site at all -- or want to consider a site re-design or expansion -- continue with this section.
The first things you need to do are:
- Decide if your Web site will have its own domain name or be part of a larger site, such as an industry association or industry portal (most businesses opt for their own domain)
- Select a domain name (Web site address)
- Design and build the site
- Host the site on a computer always connected to the Internet
Note: there is an easy solution for small businesses wanting a Web presence without having to launch a full-blown site. Consider a Business Profile in conjunction with your telephone listing on SuperPages.com. See Section IV. |
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 A. Domain Name Registration
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Just as you need a street address if you want customers to visit your place of business, you need an address on the Web so that people can visit your Web site. The process of obtaining an address on the Web is called domain registration. The domain is the “www.nameofyourcompany.com” that users type in to access your site. Any of the online domain registration services can help you research or register it. To find domain registration services, you can search for "domain registration" on the main superpages.com page. Registrars allow you to check whether a name is already taken. If so, they may suggest similar alternatives.
Most people want a ".com" (usually called "dot-com") address because it is the most popular "Top Level Domain" extension. Common extensions include:
| .com |
Identifies a business (commercial). |
| .biz |
Also a business. |
| .us |
For use by U.S. citizens or entities. |
| .net |
Identifies a network provider. |
| .info |
Informational site. |
| .name |
Personal name site. Exclusively for individuals. |
| .org |
An organization, often a non-profit. |
| .edu |
Educational institutions. |
| .gov |
Governmental agencies. |
| .mil |
A military organization. |
Other extensions include .tv, .museum, .aero and .coop.
- Give customer 24-by-7 access to information about your business, products and services.
- Answer common customer questions.
- Communicate with employees.
- Publish content to demonstrate industry leadership.
- Support additional sales channels if your products or services are sold by others.
- Collect market research data.
However, the first reason most small businesses build a Web presence is because the Internet is an affordable way to compete for customers, whether in your neighborhood or globally.
Effective marketing is a key method to increase the number of customers, get your existing customers to buy more and increase both revenue and profit. A Web site does a lot to level the playing field between large and small businesses. A Web site can provide product or service details, contact information, ordering instructions and information about your business. There is no limit to the size of a Web site. A Web site can contain information in many formats because it is fairly easy to add photographs, audio, video, animated illustrations and maps. |
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B. Web Site Design
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In a retail store, your window display or store facade is the first thing a potential customer sees. As a professional service provider, first impressions might be your lobby or reception area.
On the Web, your site design determines how customers view your company. To get an idea of what you want, check out the Web. Look at a variety of Web sites, including your competitions’.
Are there certain sites that give you a good feeling about the company? That's how you want your customers to feel.
When planning a Web site, place yourself in the shoes of your customers or prospects. What content, images and navigation will serve their needs while leading them to become customers?
Your "home page" is often the first page visitors to your site will see. However, sometimes other pages will be indexed in search engines like Yahoo!, Google or MSN, resulting in visitors seeing one of the deeper pages on your site as their first experience with your company. That is why good navigation and copy that reads independently on every page are so important to creating a successful total user experience.
There are several options for building your site:
- Consider the self-service Web development and design templates available from some search engines and hosting services.
- Use a software program like Microsoft FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver to design and build your own site.
- Hire a Web designer or Web development company to help with the process. (Prices range from hundreds to thousands of dollars, depending on the size, complexity and functionality required).
- Use SuperPages Web Site design. For a small fee, SuperPages can build a fully functional site for your business, from a small MicroSite to a large, complex MegaSite. If you sell your products online as well, you can also easily create an online E-Store through SuperPages.com, scaled to fit your company’s size and catalog.
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C. Web Site Hosting
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Your Web site needs to be available 24 hours a day from anywhere in the world. You need instant technical support and the reliability to survive power failures, line outages, hackers and other problems. Really big companies have their own Information Technology departments, but small and medium-sized companies usually outsource their hosting to a firm that specializes in hosting. There are many options for hosting, including most of the domain registrars.
Hosting plans are prices based on the amount of bandwidth, traffic or site visitors you expect to have. More traffic requires larger bandwidth - a bigger pipeline to the Internet. Other considerations include e-commerce functionality, content management systems or other features, as well as the host's security system.
You can find hosting providers on www.superpages.com under a search for "hosting."
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