Aaron Houghton, president and CEO of Preation, is CED's guest columnist. His article, The Startup Advantage: How to Turn Website Visitors into Prospects & Customers, is featured in the latest issue of Entrelinks, CED's monthly newsletter featuring entrepreneurial resources, news and upcoming programs. Houghton has been an active CED member since 2004 and Preation was a demo participant at CED's TECH 2006 conference.
It used to be said that to go into business you really only needed three things: an office, a desk and a phone. Today, prospects researching the viability of potential vendors first expect to find a website and a phone number...an office and desk have become secondary details. This provides a unique opportunity for entrepreneurs to put their best foot forward on the web and gain a big advantage by doing it right from the start.
A website may be the greatest asset an entrepreneur or emerging business CEO has at his/her disposal. Websites are easy to maintain and allow a level of interaction not provided by most other marketing channels. They also allow nearly every activity to be tracked so that success online can be measured and improved with the right strategy. The best part is that it is not tricky or difficult; it just takes a good plan.
A website is of particular importance to startups in several ways:
• A frequently updated website supports the image of a company that is moving forward and is highly active.
• A high quality website allows a growing organization to compete on the same playing field as their more established competitors.
• Websites provide for a level of scale that growing businesses simply cannot provide for any other way. A website that received 1,000 visitors yesterday is likely well prepared to receive 10,000 visitors tomorrow, while if an entrepreneur can hold ten meetings on one day, he/she surely couldn't handle 100 meetings the following day.
• A website serves as a great way to answer commonly asked questions that likely consume much of your schedule already. Questions like "what is this new business model" and "how is this different than that other company." In the beginning it's not just prospective customers that ask these questions, they also come from partners, vendors, landlords, investors, and if you're lucky, the media too.
Start with a Goal
Small businesses have websites for many different reasons, and as they grow those needs change as their online audience changes. Some only use their website as a flexible digital brochure, but a website can and should do much more. Since websites allow online visitors to interact with content instead of just read it, deeper relationships can be formed and exceptional business results can be achieved. Learn the process for creating success online by reading the full article at www.preation.com