Five
e-Business Essentials
by Mike Banks Valentine
The success factors applying directly to ecommerce are
multi- faceted, but can be refined into five jewels for
e-business assuming you have a product or service that people
want/need.
1) Crystal clear communication of your benefits.
You must communicate to your visitor immediate, concise
benefits of doing business with you. If they are confused
by your web site and don't understand what it is you offer
them, they are gone in less than thirty seconds. Can you
make their life easier? Can you make them happier, more
productive or successful? Tell them on the first screen-full.
Quick, stop them before they click!
2) Build customer relations with newsletters, forums,
frequent buyer reward programs, special discounts or referral
rewards for existing clients/customers.
What can you offer them that makes your site one they care
about? Most web sites offer something for nothing"
in the form of content. That is content related to your
business.
That is why so many sites provide articles, advice, e-books,
software downloads and other related goodies. You will never
achieve online success if you offer no understandable perks.
3) Multiple forms of online, immediate payment
options.
Accept credit cards, check by fax or online checks, approval
methods in real-time while the customer is at your site
and ready to buy. The most common way to lose a buyer is
to make
them fill out and print a form to be mailed in. You must
accept payment online. They'll want it NOW, or not at all.
4) Effective online marketing and promotion.
This includes getting other complimentary sites to link
to your site and is a standard marketing task online. As
much as half of your web visitors may find you through links
at other web sites. This is definitely NOT through Free-For-All
(FFA) links pages, but "recommended" links from
other site owners at high traffic web sites.
5) Immediate response and follow-up to e-mail contact.
The immediacy of the web makes people expect quick responses
to all queries. If they can't find the answer at your FAQ
(Frequently Asked Questions) page, you must be prepared
to answer e-mail queries within 24 hours or less.
The above are far from complete, but each are very important
factors critical to e-business success.
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