Essential tools

Essential internet tools

1. Develop your website

Contact an Internet Service Provider (ISP) who will register a domain name for your business (for instance: www.mynewbusiness.com.au).

A listing of all Australian Internet Service Providers may be obtained from the Internet Industry Association. Phone: (02....

2. Produce appropriate electronic information for your website

Customers around the world will view your website, so it's important to produce appropriate business and product information.

Usually the saying "less is more" can also be applied to websites. You may offer downloadable product samples, information and other interactive online discussion services, but significant publications and products should be offered as a follow-up service.

3. Provide online ordering facilities

Many websites act simply as a corporate brochure for a company.

However effective websites for Queensland exporters should provide online ordering facilities. In this fashion overseas visitors to your site can directly place orders for your products and services.

4. Provide online payment facilities

As well as offering online ordering facilities, your website should also offer online payment facilities.

Not only will this mean that the company receives payment before the order is filled, it will be a boon to the business' cashflow as you are no longer waiting for payment.

5. Promote your web address

It's all very well to have an effective website with terrific corporate information, as well as online ordering and payment facilities, but if no-one knows the address this website will be a useless marketing tool.

Promoting the web address for your business will become essential:

• ensure the address is included in all appropriate search engines
• hyperlink your site to other web addresses (eg many industry associations provide links from their website to their members)
• print your web address on all stationery, advertisements, brochures, packaging, orders, invoices and anywhere else you promote your business.

Issues to consider when designing an effective business website include:

1. Speed

Slow sites will deter online users. Heavy graphics or wrong servers for site hosting can cause performance problems, however as more and more Internet users gain access to broadband this problem will decrease.

2. Navigation

More and more web pages are beginning to look the same as they start to adopt similar navigation tools to help the user move around the site. While this may not seem very creative it does set a standard to frequent online shoppers.

3. Content

More often than not, less is best. The follow-up material that you can post or email to your customers will bring them back to your site.

4. Interactivity

Ask your customers for their input. Also offer facilities to enable your customers to order goods, check their account balances, view inventory, check order status and update their contact information.

5. Suppliers