Using Your Website To Improve Business Relationships
The following contains research notes and commentary for an upcoming tutorial "Developing Business-to-Business Websites for Cultivating Relationships and Sales" and includes original pages of reference in bibliography format. While various sources are referenced they both as samples and context -- but not necessarily identified as such.
A website is more than a glossy brochure or sales literature. Think of your website as one of the many ways your prospective customers want to receive information about your products. It's a communications channel that supports multiple mediums of materials.
A website is a hard working part of your relationship management strategy. In many industries it's how your prospects learn about your company, it can be a cost effective way to support customers needs, and you website can serve as a data collection tool.
Use your website to deliver additional value to existing customers (which includes content that assists in generating results, directory assistance related, frequently asked questions, and industry related news.) Depending on design and business objectives, websites can delivery niche specific information not available elsewhere (or partner with larger networks to reach a greater audience.)
Ask yourself: "How are my competitors are using the web to build relationships?", "How could they use it?", "What answers are my customers having trouble buying?", "How can I be useful to both my customers and those of my competitors?", and "How can my website solve common problems in the industry as it pertains to our offering?"
Translate offline communications agreements with new on-line channel. If advertising with a certain publication is profitable, test their on-line properties reaching the same audience. Test copy on-line, then later use it in print campaigns.
Business size doesn't matter much only for on-line engagement. You still have to be able to serve the customer, but you can build a relationship based on your knowledge over size. In the world of subcontractors, this means a small company can get specialist work on larger contracts where they may not have been considered in the past.
Work with other target organizations with stronger on-line strategies. Build your own strategy while working with select media and partners who already have a website serving your target audience. This gives you time to test methods and materials.
(Continued in "Notes and commentary on improving relationships with your website")
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