A Web site is more mission-critical for some businesses than others. Companies trying to reach customers in different locations (hotels or tourist attractions) or who have products that can be shipped to customers far away (flowers, handmade dolls, telephones, etc.) obviously need to have an online presence.

But local businesses (dry cleaners or shoe repair shops) also can benefit from a Web site that shows their location, lists their services or offers special promotions.

And woe to those who think they don’t need a compelling Web site because they serve other businesses rather than retail consumers. Many businesses search for new suppliers online, then order from them that way, too.

In short, if you want more customers, you should be online, regardless of your industry.

Are you looking for a domain name? Perform the Whois lookup here:

Your online marketing tool

For most small businesses, a Web site is rapidly becoming a basic requirement of a marketing plan. A site can help you reach one or more of the following goals:

· Help customers find you in the offline world – your office, your storefront, your phone number.

· Help persuade customers that you have the right service or product for them

· Help sell products online, even across different marketplaces, to retail customers or other businesses.

A simple site helps customers find you

The simplest possible Web presence is a one-page site that tells people how to find your business in the “real” world. It should include:

· A good Web Address that relates to your company name and business.

· Your business address, complete with directions and a good map.

· Your business phone number, along with fax numbers if relevant.

· Your hours of operation.

· A clear and enticing description of what your business offers to customers.

This simple Web presence is most appropriate for businesses that serve local customers (a dry cleaner, doctor’s office or plumber, for example) and that aren’t actively looking to expand their customer base (as with a fully booked dental practice).

For better marketing, create an expansive site

If you’re interested in active marketing for your business, you can expand your Web site to make it a more robust online marketing tool.

In this scenario, the Web site’s job is to convince customers to take that next step: Buy the product online, call you to place an order or set up an appointment, or drive to your office or storefront. Your site is essentially your online marketing brochure, one that’s more effective than a printed marketing piece. Web sites enable customers to dig deep into the information they care about, without overwhelming them with the stuff they don’t want or need to know. That’s hard to pull off in a paper brochure.

You can approach crafting the Web site as you would any other marketing brochure. Use color, graphics, photos and words to get across four key things about your business:

· What you provide for customers.

· What kind of customers you focus on and can serve best..

· How your business is unique from others who provide the same product or service, so customers can decide if your solution is the right on for them

· The personality or brand essence of your business – what your company stands for.

So yes, for good reasons

Unless you have all the customers you can handle, a Website can be a good marketing investment. Find a domain name that’s appropriate for your business and beef up your marketing arsenal with a compelling Website. Are you ready to started being successful online? The best way for you is to have a professionally build website.

Let us put it in the form of an analogy: Imagine this situation.

You are driving along a web design highway 55 and you pass a billboard for quality web design creation. The billboard indicates they specialize in creating quality websites at low costs. Underneath that, you spot their address as seventeen-thirty four Web Design Street, Cyber Studio, Sri Lanka, and the phone number is 562-285-6951. You also see their website address: www.cyberstudio.biz. As you continue to drive along you remember your old buddy John is looking to create a new website and you think he might not have heard of Cyber Studio. You decide to tell him about the web design company billboard you saw advertising Cyber Studio. Can you remember their phone number? How about their address? Now, what about their website address? We know you remember that! www.cyberstudio.biz! Website addresses tend to be much easier to remember than either phone numbers or addresses.

What just happened? Your website becomes a back-up to the other forms of advertising your business is doing, a sort of extension to your business card. If you did not have a web site/ web address you could have lost out on a valuable customer!

Is this a very compelling reason for you to put your business on the World Wide Web? We are sure you now feel the same about the value and importance of maintaining a presence on the web with your very own well designed website as we at Cyber Studio firmly believe.

The world has changed! It used to be look up the phone book to find the company number, now people will look up the website to get the contact details for a company!! It is happening in Sri Lanka faster than you think! So do browse the Cyber Studio portfolio, and then contact us from wherever you are. Cyber Studio boasts clients from around the world. Cyber Studio take great pride in providing a finished piece of art designed to perfection in the form of a web site every time all the time no matter what the website.

Other services offered by Cyber Studio are web site hosting, Graphic Designing, Design for print media (posters, banners, billboards, business cards, etc), Flash Presentations, Logo Designs, Customised Software Applications for your website or Stand Alone Applications.

-special thanks to www.completewebresource.com for contributing to this article