Potential customers visiting your site have "little use for brochureware" or "advertisements that are thrown up like so many billboards," says U.S. News and World Report, (Nov. 13, 1995). It's a waste of the Web's potential if you rely solely on static materials that don't foster interaction.

Directness and immediacy are also key, supported by great graphics and a consistent brand or company image. Unlike other media, the Web enables you to interactively build trust and engage interest, especially with pages that are visually clean, simple and honest.

This trust, based on your Web "image," can ultimately lead customers to your product or services. And it builds credibility for your company. Best of all, the Web is a new medium that can be as easily leveraged by small businesses as by huge corporations.

What are the Payoffs?
Small businesses may want their Web page to yield tangible results, such as automated information dissemination, on-line fulfillment for literature requests, and other flavors of sales force or process automation.

Others are finding that Web results are just as likely to be intangible - a better image, better customer relations, faster feedback on market trends.

Easier Than Ever Before

Setting up a Web page is technically easier than ever before. There are many Microsoft Internet Products for do-it-yourself customers, and many independent Microsoft Solution Providers that will handle the whole process for you, if you prefer.

The Internet Explorer, available free with Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system, makes it easy to navigate the Web, so you can check out other sites before you design your own. We've also embedded free-add ons into Word with our Internet Assistant that make it easy to create your own great-looking Web page.

Or, try the downloadable Microsoft Word Viewer to read and print Word-based information on the Web, even if you don't have Microsoft Word.

You may decide to move to our Microsoft Internet Information Server for a complete Internet solution. It lets you host an external Web page, as well as leverage Web technology to manage and disperse information within your company - an "Intranet" that complements your overall Internet strategy. For step-by-step instructions on how to create your own Web pages see How To Build A Web Site Kit.