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Websites have become an essential marketing tool for any small business. However people can still be confused quite what they should aim to achieve from their site.
For small businesses this could be to build faith in a viewer's belief in your offerings, to gain some contact details, to start a sales dialogue or even to sell directly through the website.
Most of the noise surrounding the Internet boom was about companies coming from nowhere and selling millions in the first year. Now people view the uses of the Internet differently. For most small businesses it will in the first instance be an online brochure with company descriptions, contact details, references etc. The challenge is to get more from the viewers and push further towards a sale.
Your initial aim is to create a good impression of your business and try to open a sales dialogue with the viewer. The easiest way to start a lasting dialogue is to capture an email address for use in an email campaign. A simple mailing list box can achieve this. (This is easy with the Clever Websites Service). If you are selling directly through your site you want to close the sale in one viewing if possible but also make the viewer remember you whether they purchase or not.
You must make the ability to get in contact with you evident and what it is your company actually does. After that you want people to build 'trust' and interest in what you are doing. At this stage it is worth considering who is going to visit your site and more importantly who do you want to visit your site. Ideally you want to please both but you want people who will bring you business to be most impressed. Think about your language, look and access to the right information.
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