Why do organizations need a website?

• Low Cost Advertising
  - When compared to the costs associated with traditional advertising methods such as direct mail, newspaper or magazine ads, or radio and television, the cost of a web site is nominal.
• Build a Member Database
  - With a web site, you can build a member database to save contact and demographic information about people who visit your web site. This can enable you to gain a better understanding of who your online visitors are, and create complimentary marketing strategies (direct mailings, etc.) customized to their interests. This is also a great way to keep in touch with members.
• Public Relations
  - Make information about your organization available to millions of people or just a select group through password protected areas of your web site.
• Universal "Findability"
  - Thanks to search engines, someone looking for the services or information you offer can find you in a matter of seconds, no matter where they are. With a well-designed web site and a few good marketing techniques, you can broaden your member base to anyone with Internet access.
• Give Your Members Printable Information They Can Use
  - A visitor to your web site can download and print anything that appears on their screen. You can take advantage of this by displaying: a map to your place of organization, application forms that can be filled out which require a signature (which can then be mailed or faxed to you), meeting literature, diagnostic flowcharts, dimensional drawings, etc.
• Immediate Feedback
  - A web site is a great way to get immediate feedback from your members, through member surveys, contact forms, and e-mail addresses for your contact personnel. This type of feedback can allow you to provide great customer service based on what your members really want!
• Your Clients Expect It
  - With over 400 million users worldwide, the Internet is getting more and more publicity every year. As public awareness increases, the public will expect even small organizations to have web sites.
• 24 x 7 Availability
  - The time of day is now irrelevant. With a web site your information becomes available to anyone with Internet access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• Host a Discussion Board for Your Members
  - The interactivity of the Intranet also offers great opportunities for user networking. Hosting a discussion board where visitors can post and reply to comments and questions can be a great way to generate interest in your web site and your organization.
• Education / Distance Learning
  - If your organization offers educational services, consider putting your entire course online. Materials can be place in a password protected area so it can be accessed only after tuition has been paid, and the online setting provides a great way for students and teachers to interact.
• To Heighten Public Interest
  - You won't get Newsweek magazine to write up your organization opening, but you might get them to write up your Web Page address if it is something new and interesting. Even if Newsweek would write about your organization opening, you wouldn't benefit from someone in a distant city reading about it, unless of course, they were coming to your town sometime soon. With Web page information, anybody anywhere who can access the Web and hears about you is a potential visitor to your Web site.
• To Release Time Sensitive Materials
  - What if your materials need to be released no earlier than midnight? The quarterly earnings statement, the grand prize winner, the press kit for the much anticipated film, the merger news? Well, you sent out the materials to the press with "The-do-not-release-before-such-and-such-time" statement and hope for the best. Now the information can be made available at midnight or any time you specify, with all related materials such as photographs, bios, etc. released at exactly the same time. Imagine the anticipation of "All materials will be made available on our Web site at 12:01 AM". The scoop goes to those that wait for the information to be posted, not the one who releases your information early.
• To make pictures, sound and film files available
  - A picture is worth a thousand words, but you don't have the space for a thousand words? The WWW allows you to add sound, pictures and short movie files to your company's info if that will serve your potential members. No brochure will do that.
• To Answer Frequently Asked questions
  - Whoever answers the phones in your organization can tell you, their time is usually spent answering the same questions over and over again. These are the questions members and potential members want to know the answer to before they deal with you. Post them on a WWW page and you will have removed another barrier and freed up some time for that harried phone operator.
• To Make Changing Information Available Quickly
  - Sometimes, information changes before it gets off the press. Now you have a pile of expensive, worthless paper. Electronic publishing changes with your needs. No paper, no ink, no printers bill. You can even attach your web page to a database which customizes the page's output to a database you can change as many times in a day as you need. No printed piece can match that flexibility.
• Good for the Environment
  - In a world where our diminishing natural resources are an ever-mounting concern, the Internet is becoming a constant and "recyclable" resource. Every business that uses the Internet for marketing, advertising and commerce helps alleviate the need for printed information and advertising, in turn conserving the energy and resources it takes to print those materials.