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The Internet - A Business Necessity

While this statement appears to be rather self-serving for a web site development firm to make, the truth is that the Internet is proving itself as a powerful marketing tool.

What is significant is that its application is being applied in virtually every sector of our economy.

Not just "selling a product."

In fact, the most dynamic growth of the Internet is in the business to business (B2B) sector, where making a direct sale is not necessarily the primary objective of the web site. Manufacturers, distributors and providers of business services are seeing the value of the Internet in terms of productivity, efficiency and cost savings in how they connect with their customers and suppliers.

Here are a few facts, based on research conducted by Cahners Business Information, that may help you see ways to re-visit the Internet, as a force in your company's overall marketing:

1) The major use of the Web among manufacturing professionals continues to grow -- as the preferred method for obtaining product information and evaluation.

2) Buyers and specifiers use the Internet to find information about potential new suppliers. Just as many, if not more, buyers and specifiers visit potential supplier web sites than they visit those of current suppliers. On average, they visit potential supplier web sites 3 times per week. Buyers and specifiers often visit the web sites of vendors with whom they are not currently doing business. Marketers should evaluate their company's web site to ensure that it contains both company information for potential customers, as well as product information required by both current and potential customers.

4) The majority of buyers and specifiers look for both web site addresses (87%) and
e-mail addresses (60%) when looking for more information about products advertised in trade magazines.

5) Ninety percent of buyers and specifiers have positive impressions of suppliers who already have their own web sites. Almost seven out of ten (69%) feel that these companies are more likely to be customer service-oriented and over half (55%) believe they are more likely to have contemporary, up-to-date products.

6) 92% of business-to-business marketing professionals find the Internet/World Wide Web a useful tool in marketing their company's products/services. Similarly, 84% expect their use of the Internet to increase.

7) The Internet/World Wide Web is a 74% element in a company's marketing arsenal. In just over two years, there has been a rapid increase in the number of firms who have their own site.
8) The past three years have seen a three-fold increase in the growth of business-to-business Internet web sites. The content flexibility, low cost per user, and widespread reach provided by the Internet makes it an important component of an overall marketing strategy.

9) The Internet continues to grow in importance as part of business-to business marketing professionals' marketing communications strategy. Eighty-four percent of respondents indicated they expect their use of this tool to increase in the future.

We've arrived at a point in the Information Age where the Internet as a business tool is a necessity for every company's overall sales and marketing program -- but what form that program takes is tailored to each company's own set of budget and marketing conditions.

One of the more attractive aspects of the Internet is that it can begin with a modest web site or e-mail tool, and then expand from there….seamlessly, as needs dictate.

Give us a call at 401-454-1487, and we can help you identify an Internet program that will support your own set of business goals -- within your budget and technology comfort level.

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