Establish other contact

Don't limit your contact with online prospects to online. Follow up with telephone calls, faxes, mail -- whatever is appropriate.

Also, publish your email address and your World Wide Web address in all your traditional marketing materials -- business cards, letterhead, print advertisements, television ads. Use your online marketing to complement your traditional marketing.

Don't make the mistake of relying solely on your online marketing to support your business. Experience in other areas will give you even more credibility, both online and off. You should strive to develop a marketing program that can be used online and off line, a program that is almost interchangeable.

Follow up with existing customers online

And don't forget to use Cyberspace to follow up with your existing customers. This can be an excellent marketing strategy. It allows you the opportunity to communicate quickly, easily, and inexpensively with your customer base. You can inform them of new products, new ways of using existing products. You keep your name in front of them, and continue to build and maintain a good relationship with them. Communicating online is unintrusive, and allows you the opportunity to perform these follow up activities without unduly imposing on your customers.

If you're in a business that involves a lot of information exchange between you and your customers, going online can greatly benefit everyone involved. Information is transmitted faster, more accurately, in more usable form than just about any other method -- fax, mail, telephone, or overnight letter. And transferring the information online is far less expensive than any other way.

NEXT

© 1995 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All rights reserved.