There is a "virtual Klondike" going on at the moment,
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with companies rushing to stake their claims in cyberspace. And for what? If you simply want a web site because your competitors have one then you might as well save yourself some money. If, on the other hand, you want a web site because you think it will be a vital business tool, regardless of what anyone else is doing, then that's a good start...
T,,,,., years ago, haulier David Furnell listened to a talk from a guy in the local Round Table. The subject was the Internet and Fume]] was immediately galvanised into doing something: his first site was a very small, simple affair but it was a start. Now, www. furnell.co.uk, the company web site, is registering 300 "hits" a month from browsers. Of course, not all of these will mean much— some will glance over the page
and move on—but if you catch the right people it can pay dividends. "It's proved its worth: we've had at least £15,000 of good work from that," Furnell says happily. "And it's stuff we want, too."
Fumell Transport did not spend a king's ransom. The first site cost about £500 and the current one around £2,500; it took some software, a template, some time and effort. Before, he says, publicity for the 12m-turnover company was a problem. But no longer. "There is tremendous potential to promote yourself.he says. Web sites' potential goes beyond that of a sales brochure, too. Transactions, billing and estimates are all possible over the Internet, "We'll be hoping to use e-commerce in the future," Purnell says. He is also considering links to other companies' web sites and vice versa—the third generation of the company's own Internet development.
Richard Pryce, a director at 11W Pryce & Son, is less ambitious at the moment. He started getting interested in 1996 and does all the work himself.
The firm's page of available loads and trucks has proved popular, he says. But has he seen extra business? "Some," he says. "And it certainly gives me a lot more contacts." Not bad for a man who is self-taught, and set the site up after buying a software package and renting the web space.
So much for the "DIY" method: such sites look OK and they don't cost much. So why bother entrusting your web site to a third party? For a start, it's more expensive. You're probably looking at £50 an hour minimum for a professional web designer, but set this against your own time— he may be able to do well in an hour what you could manage badly in a day. And consider that, if setting up a site to your complete satisfaction is so simple, why is there a f2om industry in the UK dedicated to doing it for you? Can 1,200 web design businesses be wrong?
The answer is, yes and no. As a rule of thumb, £2,000 will buy you a decent web site. That is only the beginning, however. Make sure you set aside about a third of your budget to pay for the maintenance of the site, unless you want a nasty shock when it comes to keeping the thing going. And, although the comparisons between web sites and sales brochures arc valid up to a point, there is a difference between the way people use information on the page and the way they want to use it on-line.
A designer should be able to produce something which both looks good and doesn't take too long to get around quickly—a slow web site equals commercial death; no-one has the time or inclination to wait while your images download. You also have to update it regularly or no-one is going to come back to it, however good the site.
it is true to say that "often" is never enough, but for a smallish haulier. putting new information on a site every four months is probably sufficient. The more dynamic the business, the more you need to refresh your site. Or, as Andrew Fawcett, vice-president of sales and marketing at web designer Infosis, puts it: "Try and create something people will come back to."
In the end it is as simple—and as diffic ult—as that.
• by Adam Hill