Expanding a Traditional Business to an Online Business
You may find yourself in the very pleasant circumstance of success in a traditional business. But now you feel compelled to expand and become competitive using the tools of the internet. There are several steps to complete before you make the leap to exposure on the internet so that you can insure your success in this new adventure.
The first step is registering a domain name. It is important that your domain name resemble the name of your traditional company so that your online customers will recognize your product or service. The goal that you want to achieve is to maintain the good will that you already have with your customers in your traditional business but to expand to potential new customers that you will find on using the internet tools. In doing so, you want to maintain your traditional business's good reputation along with the corporate logo and brand recognition.
In choosing your domain name, include your corporate identity but make the domain name easy to spell and to remember. Don't use a long domain name as you will lose your customers when they try to remember your business. The objective of your domain name is to make it easy for your customers to find you on line and to be able to relate your domain name with the product or service that you offer.
Your customers will find your domain name via four separate routes. You can print you domain name on your company"s advertisements such as letterheads, business cards, or catalogs, They may use the search engines such as Google or Yahoo to find your domain name. They may even use your products as a keyword to find you domain name. They will respond to online advertising that you promote. This form of advertising might include emails, banners ads, or blogs. You might even consider buying advertising on the search engines.
You can see how important your choice of a domain name is to promote your existing traditional company to expand your customer base using the tools of the internet.
Why do we use this expression? How did we come to say a person who suffers trials and tribulations "goes through fire and water"? In early times a method of proving one's innocence was to suffer trial by ordeal. One ordeal was by fire that required the person to walk blindfolded and barefoot through a bed of hot coals. Another oredeal was to have his hand plunged into a pot of boiling water.