In these times of challenging economic conditions, businesses are being forced to find alternative means of communicating with stakeholders, especially customers. On the other hand, the subjects of Internet and websites are no longer painful ones as they were a few years ago. The distance between the consumer and the company is now being made shorter through websites, as more businesses in Zimbabwe are launching their businesses, products, and services on the “.CO.ZW” cyber landscape.
Reaching customers, knowing their concerns over products or services provided, and ensuring return business is are the core concerns of any company, and all Business Communication is channeled into various media in order to achieve this. Without struggling for recognition or dominance, the Internet has become the fastest growing and most effective delivery channel for all Business Communication in the World, and Zimbabwe has not been an exception. Marketing, Product Delivery, and Public Relations are the three most important functions that guarantee business success in the future. To facilitate the achievement of this purpose, websites are the easiest and most cost effective platform to deploy these strategies to ensure success.
For businesses to be effective in the communication – Marketing, Public Relations, Customer Relationship Management, and Product/Service delivery, websites have to be at the core of their strategies. A website has the ability to transform a company’s Marketing Strategies, as it is the fastest platform to deploy promotions and launch products. With a good website, revenues can surge and market share increase in a short space of time. At present it is very difficult to measure a brand’s market share in a short space of time using other media, other than websites. With a website, you are guaranteed enough statistics that help in market share analysis. A company is able to know how consumers behave, and how long they spend on the Internet, so as to formulate effective marketing communication strategies. Marketing on the Internet is often referred to as Online or Web Marketing. We have gone past this stage of ignorance, as the Internet or Website, is an integral part of the “4Ps” of Marketing.
The opportunity cost of not having a website puts a huge dent on effective business communication, resulting in loss of business, inability to acquire market intelligence, decrease in sales revenue, and eventually closure of business. There are reputable companies which are suffering from the pricing blitz only because they did not maximize on the potential of their brands on the internet.
Examples of Effective Business Communication through Websites in Zimbabwe, is in the Retail and Banking Industries. The year, 2007 has brought in some improvements on the “.CO.ZW” cyberspace, as a few companies are now offering Online Transactions from their websites. Several Chain Supermarkets and Hardware Stores now have online shopping facilities.
Effective Business Communication through Websites or Internet can also be achieved through online communities such as eGroups, which are consumer discussion groups, and Newsletters, published weekly or monthly. Examples of these include the Unleash Greatness, a newsletter published by Innov8 – The Motivation Company, and “Youth Encounter Online”, an eGroup for Youth Encounter Zimbabwe.
This article was published in the Financial Gazzette in Zimbabwe, on the 20th of September, 2007.
